ACU’s Human Library project is bringing people together

ACU’s Human Library project allows students to “borrow” someone with an interesting life story and learn from them.

Australian Catholic University student Charlotte Haubold is a "human book", with her "borrower", Brisbane campus chaplain Fr Harry Chan. Picture: Damien Stannard.

Charlotte Haubold’s formative years were spent on the move, as her Australian mother worked as a teacher in various places here, in her father’s homeland of the US, in South Korea and Vietnam.

So the Australian Catholic University student felt eminently qualified to volunteer as an interesting “book” in the ACU’s Human Library project launched on Tuesday. During the one-day event, visitors can “borrow” a human book for 20 minutes, hear their story and ask questions, before “returning” them.

“I’ve been a dual citizen of Australia and America my whole life,” reflects Ms Haubold, a nursing and paramedicine student, prior to her first stint as a book.

“When I was younger, living in Australia, I had a thick American accent and no one really would believe me when I’d say I was from Australia. I was always looked on as a foreigner, even though this is where I was born.

“Then when I’d go to America, which I also consider my home country, I’d have an Australian ­accent and was never seen as someone from America. I have felt accepted, but never felt at home.

“I would hope that anyone at ACU who is an international student or who has been through similar things to me can relate to my story and find their own ‘home’.”

The librarian at ACU’s Banyo campus in Brisbane, Kelly Dann, mustered a diverse group of 19 people to be “borrowed”, including an army veteran, a domestic violence survivor (booked out early), a Paralympian and even a federal parliamentarian – Anika Wells.

“Our conversation about it started after the Christchurch mosque shooting, talking about why there’s so much prejudice and so many misunderstandings in this world,” Ms Dann says.

“We thought this is one way that we could get people from different backgrounds to talk with each other.

“We were looking for people who represent groups of society from all walks of life, who might have been misunderstood or stereotyped by stigma and prejudice.”

The Human Library dates to 2000 and was founded in Copenhagen with the goal of bringing ­diverse people face to face as a means of challenging stereotypes and promoting inclusion. Its slogan is “Unjudge someone”.

Ms Haubold was an enthusiastic starter in ACU’s project partly because she experienced a Human Library when she was at high school in Songdo, in South Korea, when her mother was teaching there.

She “borrowed” the librarian, an American who had adopted two Korean children in the US and then brought them back to their own country to live.

“The challenges her kids faced, coming back to Korea, living in Korea, looking Korean, but not speaking Korean”, struck the then 15-year-old. “I remember thinking the Human Library was so amazing. I would love to have been a human book there. They were such inspiring, positive topics of conversation. So when I saw the opportunity come up here in Brisbane, I thought, give that to me.

“I’m going to discuss how I tried to overcome my challenges through immersing myself in the culture. The message I’d like ­people to get from speaking to me is that, at the end of the day, you decide where your home is.”

Ms Haubold, who started her degree on ACU’s Ballarat campus, solved her dilemma about belonging only last year, when she decided to come and live in Brisbane with her partner and study there. The educational challenges and disruption, the making and leaving of friends, were behind her.

“I think it was part of growing up and moving out of home, making my own choices about where I want to live,” she says.

For now, she calls Brisbane home. “I really love it, but we’ll see what my future holds – as I’m getting older, maybe I’m becoming more like my Mum and thinking it could be fun to live overseas.”