Adelaide and the Vietnamese Boat People
A story of welcome.
In 1972, I can remember in school at 15 years of age, feeling apprehensive about being called up to fight in Vietnam when I turned twenty. Five years seems a long time gap now, it didn’t then.
My friend’s brother was serving in the Australian Army in Vietnam, his parents would listen to the radio broadcasts each day in their kitchen for any news of casualties. Our neighbour’s son was serving over there as well, he had an extension to his time in Vietnam during which two of his friends were killed.
Australia had a ballot system to decide who would be conscripted to fight in the Vietnam War, it was done with numbered marbles representing each day of the year, and your birth date, drawn out of a barrel randomly by hand. The term became used, ‘his marble came up’.
Like many young people, I wasn’t very interested in politics, but I do remember when Gough Whitlam was elected to be the country’s Prime Minister in late 1972, and one of his first acts as Prime Minister was to end conscription. A great relief for me but not for the South Vietnamese.
As American and Australian forces pulled out of the country, the South Vietnamese army was defeated by North Vietnam and the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, was over run in April 1975.
More than 1.5 million people escaped by overcrowded and unseaworthy boats to neighbouring countries, these people became known as the Vietnamese Boat People. Facing open seas, the refugees suffered from hunger, dehydration and pirate attacks. Hundreds of thousands died. Later many were able to settle in western countries, including Australia.
In 1976 the first of the Vietnamese Boat People were able to reach Darwin Harbour in the north of Australia. Eventually over 80,000 Vietnamese settled in many parts of Australia including Adelaide.
The Vietnamese were welcomed, as Australia has received many different nationalities of migrants especially after WW11. In 1973 the racist White Australia Policy had finally been renounced and replaced by a policy of multiculturalism.
Australia Aboriginals have been here for 65,000 years, and indeed were boat people themselves, and everyone else is a migrant or children of migrants of many different nationalities, so welcoming another nationality of oppressed people wasn’t hard.
That is what being an Australian means, whether its English Australian, Italian Australian, Indian Australian or Chinese Australian, it doesn’t matter where you come from, you are an Australian. My hope is that it won’t be long and world national boundaries will end and just be a historical curiosity, then we will all be Global Citizens.
Involvement in the Vietnam War wasn’t popular but I can recall a feeling of remorse that we couldn’t win the war for the South Vietnamese, and providing a homeland for some was a welcome opportunity to help. I don’t know if that was the general feeling at the time but is my recollection.
I can remember the first Vietnamese restaurant opening on the west side of Adelaide Vietnam Restaurant | Adelaide’s iconic suburban eatery. It was a big under taking for the family concerned but a clear signal to the Adelaide community that the Vietnamese Boat People generally, were recovering from their ordeal and establishing themselves.
Another more recent sign that Vietnamese Australians were home was the appointment of boat person His Excellency Honourable Hieu Van Le AC, as Governor of South Australia in 2014.
We are very proud of him and the great work and support that he has provided to Adelaide and South Australia and its people.
His Excellency once wrote of South Australians, “We were strangers in a foreign land; we had no family, no friends, and yet the people welcomed us into their community with open arms.”
In 2021 to commemorate the Vietnamese Boat People a monument to them has been established, it is on Victoria Drive in the scenic park along the banks of the Torrens River, near Adelaide’s city centre.
The monument consists of two young children, in bronze, signifying family, a large granite sculptured boat with waves, the boy placing a lotus flower in the ocean at the start of their dangerous voyage. Lotus flowers signifying hope, rising above the water and travelling to the tall beacon, its light indicating home.
This emotionally moving artwork honours the sacrifices of one generation in order for the next to flourish.
The meaning of the Vietnamese Boat People Monument from their website:
“A large sculpted boat form, its surface reminiscent of an ocean provides the first staging for the narrative. Here the boy releases a lotus into this vast sea, symbolising the start of the long and hazardous journey bravely undertaken. Eight lotus flowers travel toward the horizon where a beacon stands tall — a guiding light, a new beginning, shelter, home.”
“The emancipation of the lotus is a powerful symbol — a metaphor for rising above adversity, commitment and optimism for the future, yet this action is suffused with remembrance, evoking reflection.” About VBPM | VBPM
Adelaide has become home to a thriving Vietnamese Australian community.
References:
National Museum Australia Vietnamese refugees boat arrival | National Museum of Australia (nma.gov.au)
Hieu Van Le Hieu Van Le — Wikipedia
Vietnamese Boat People Monument VBPM | Vietnamese Boat People Monument — Adelaide
