Ask No Questions

Ask No Questions is a refrain that I heard my parents say whenever I questioned their decisions.   It is a record of my family’s migration from Poland to Australia during the Cold War in the late 1950s. It is told from my 12-year-old-self’s perspective, delving into the heartache I felt in leaving her mother country. I felt violated, as my life was ruptured. I often wonder if I still miss Poland because it wasn’t my decision to leave. And would I feel similarly, if Australia was suddenly a place I could not come back to.   Laced with pathos and humour, the book’s language is restrained and sparing, matching the caution, alertness and fear my parents felt whilst living in Communist Poland, under its surveillance regime and widespread anti-Semitism. In my father’s words his decision to go to the other side of the world was ‘to be as far away from Moscow as possible’. This sadly is topical today when we watch Moscow rain its will and destruction on Ukraine.   Although there are compelling reasons why people emigrate, the transition is rarely easy. You gain something and you lose something in the process but the gain and the loss don’t necessarily cancel each other out. In leaving your country you leave behind the things which formed your identity. Once you’re in a new land it is this identity which is vulnerable as the usual reference points are not there.  Just as for the Australians, migrants are foreigners so too for the migrants it is the Australians who are foreign.   Aside from the actual story, the theme has universal implications. It applies to all migrants and refugees from anywhere, at any time. More broadly, it also embraces all people who are or have felt ‘othered’.  The book has pathos but also humour making it easier to carry the message across.   Ask No Questions is particularly suitable to the teaching of History and English as it fits in well with the Intercultural Capabilities of the Victorian Curriculum prescription for the Year 10 students.