On October 19, 2001, an unnamed fishing boat, now known as SIEV X, sank en route to Christmas Island. The unseaworthy vessel, measuring 19.5 metres by four metres, went down in international waters. A total of 353 men, women and children lost their lives. Forty-five survived. Seven eventually settled in Australia. It was the largest maritime disaster off Australian waters since World War II.

As the day approaches each year, I visit SIEV X survivor Faris Shohani in his one-bedroom flat in Carlton. Faris lost his wife, Leyla, and daughter, seven-year-old Zahra. They disappeared from his grasp into the ocean. The tragedy will haunt him for the rest of his days. He has come to dread the date, his distress heightened by a sense of isolation. It was different on October 19, 2006, when survivors attended a service in Canberra, held on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin, to inaugurate a SIEV X memorial. Designed by 300 schools and community groups across the country, the memorial includes 353 poles, each naming one victim. ''It was a sad day, but it was a good day,'' Faris says. ''Many people came. There was light in the dark.''

The SIEV X memorial in Canberra. Credit:Andrew Meares

October 19 should be a national day of commemoration for asylum seekers who have drowned en route to Australia and a day that our nation and its leaders pay tribute to countless Australians who have made the journey here in search of a better life.

Except for indigenous peoples, we are a land of boat people. Many times I have reiterated that in 1847 an American journalist travelling in Ireland noted that some people's lips were green from eating grass, triggered by the mass starvation that became known as the Great Famine. Out of a population of 8 million, an estimated 1 million died, while 1½ million emigrated.