Seeing the Human Face: Refugee and Asylum Seeker Narratives and an Ethics of Care in Recent Australian Picture Books

In this article, I survey eight Australian picture books that seek to redress a seeming absence of care in Australian politics in relation to refugees and asylum seekers: My Two Blankets (2014), Suri's Wall (2015), Ride, Ricardo, Ride! (2015), Mate and Me (2015), Teacup (2015), Flight (2015), Out (2016), and I'm Australian Too (2017). These books depict a healthy community founded upon an ethics of care, and/or a depleted community when care is absent. Although none of these books invokes structural change, all of them demonstrate how relational well-being forms a foundation for civic virtue.