Watch This Powerful Performance About Asylum Seekers By Australia’s Newest Politician

Yesterday Queensland Greens member Jonathan Sri was elected to Brisbane City Council, the first in the party to ever win a seat on the council. Given he was elected less than 24 hours ago you’d be forgiven for having never heard of him, but he’s a pretty compelling dude.

Sri has worked as a cross-cultural mediation facilitator in remote Aboriginal communities, and as a live-in carer for refugee children who came to Australia without their parents. Aside from being a community development worker, Sri is also a writer and musician, who feels just as awkward getting his picture taken as you do.

Sri’s passion for developing better health services and social support for refugees released in Australia after being detained in detention centres, is one of the reasons why he’s been so popular. It’s also the topic of his performance piece ‘Teardrops and Candle Flames’, a spoken-word video that was uploaded to Sri’s Facebook last year, but has been making the rounds today due to his successful election.

It’s easy to see why the video continues to be well-liked—it’s incredibly rare that we hear someone in politics speak so candidly. “It’s a strange sadness that our nation can feel such fear for something so benign,” he says, asking that people blame their prejudice against refugees on “the greedy end of town” and admitting that he himself is, “sick of writing letters to cold men who will not listen”. It’ll be interesting to see how Sri’s career in Queensland politics will unfold.