A voice of compassion

A kind-hearted Narrogin man with a message of compassion demonstrates on the town’s street every Thursday.

Brian Praed stands solo on the corner of Mackie Park holding signs with welcoming messages for refugees.

Mr Praed has been demonstrating every Thursday since November last year.

The lone activist said he was inspired to take action after seeing Denmark’s Dawn Barrington organise protests in her town.

“Dawn Barrington is a local singer-songwriter and she’s been doing a protest with other ladies on a corner for 112 weeks,” he said.

Mr Praed’s signs say “Narrogin welcomes refugees ... honk for compassion” and “Free refugees #gameover”.

Mr Praed said last week he received about 10 honks from cars passing by, showing their support for his actions.

“I just want to spread some awareness in the community, sometimes people do get out of their cars and come and talk to me to show their support,” he said.

“It’s great to get that community reaction.”

Mr Praed said the main reason he spent his Thursday afternoons standing in the sweltering sun was to bring a message of multiculturalism to Narrogin.

“Our friends in Katanning, they’re big on being multicultural, why can’t we do the same? So, I’ll see how Narrogin goes with this,” he said.

“I’ve been in Narrogin for five years now, we need different cultures in the town.”