Vietnamese Ministerial Consultative Committee Meeting

Mrs Cam Nguyen (A) with The Hon Brendan O'Connor MP (B), Federal Member for Gorton, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship at the Vietnamese Ministerial Consultative Committee Meeting at Parliament House, Canberra on March 14th 2013.

Cam Nguyen's keynote speech at the 6^th New and Emerging Communities Reception on Monday, March 18 2013

I feel honoured to be asked by the Victoria Police to give the keynote speech to this function for New and Emerging Communities. But what is a NEW community? How new is a NEW arrival? The Department of Immigration focuses the delivery of  its services on people who have been here for five years or less. However, this five-year limit is just an arbitrary administrative decision for restricting entitlement to  intensive government support . It is true that the first 5 years of settlement are probably the most difficult  but it usually takes much longer than 5 years  for new arrivals to FEEL settled. In the case of my husband and myself, in spite of the fact that we were both fluent in English, had lived in both France and England  for many years and acquired fully recognised tertiary qualifications from first class universities, our first few years  in Australia were tough, especially for my husband  and   it was not until we moved into our newly- built family home that we felt really settled. And that was  a full 7 years after we first arrived in Melbourne. If anyone of you, migrant or refugee  did better than us, congratulations! You must be very, very lucky, indeed!

The  Vietnamese refugee community in Australia is about 35 years old. I said about, because although the first refugee boat arrived on this shore in 1976, and a few hundred Vietnamese refugees including my family were admitted a year earlier,  substantial numbers  of us were admitted from only  1978 onwards, Vietnamese refugees being the first big non white group to  be allowed to settle in Australia after the revocation of the White Australia policy.

If  your community has come in the last 7 years, 35 years might sound a long period, 35 being  5 times 7. But compared to the 225 years since the beginning of British settlement with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, 35 is only 1/5 of 225: the Vietnamese community  is therefore relatively new. However when we  consider the length of Australian  Aboriginal settlement which is estimated  to be between 50,000 and 125,000 years, then all of us, non- Aborigines are newcomers.

In 1975 when South Vietnam was being overrun by communist troops from the North, I was in Japan where my husband had been representing the Republic of Vietnam as ambassador.  Our diplomatic colleagues from major Western countries were all concerned about  the fate of our family, they knew that going back to communist Vietnam was not an option for us  and offered to help should we want to emigrate. We could have chosen USA, U.K., France, Germany... In fact, the Canadian ambassador was very keen for us to go to Canada: since were bilingual in French and English, he said, we would make ideal Canadian citizens. But we chose Australia.

Why did we choose Australia? Why  did we not want to go to either France or UK where we had relatives and friends from our university years?  It was because we wanted our children to grow up in a country with not only  well established  democratic  traditions,  good administration and good opportunities, we also wanted them to live in a multicultural society. France and the UK were mainly mono-cultural countries and therefore we did not want our children to become French or British citizens . The concept of a  multicultural society appeared first in Canada before it was taken up in Australia. My husband and I , indeed, did go once to the Canadian embassy in Tokyo  but there, in the waiting room, I looked at a real estate magazine with photos of houses with snow up to the window sills. I showed the photos to my husband  and said: “ Do you see the 2 of us shovelling snow every morning before we could get the car out of the driveway? We’d better wait for our Australian visas”. Although Australia and Canada had a lot in common, Australia had the advantage of a milder climate with a lot of space, sheep and kangaroos which excited our children.

Within a year after arrival, our 2 school aged children were top of their classes, switching effortlessly from French into English while, after the first 18 months, my employment path was quite smooth, much smoother than that of  my husband, Dr Dan who finally had the satisfaction to work for the Police Academy in Glen Waverley  as lecturer in cross cultural awareness for 10 years before retiring.

After we moved into our newly built family home in Surrey Hills in 1982, I  felt I was ready to give back to the community. For a few days during the 1982  Xmas break, I thought hard about which disadvantaged group I should help. At first, I was thinking about the Aborigine  community as it was at one and the same time the original owner of the land and the community with the lowest socio-economic indicators. Unfortunately, I had not met or not known any Koori person or organisation and I was rather apprehensive about contacting an organisation sourced in the telephone directory. After a few days of reflection, my academic training as an economist led me to drop the idea of offering my service to the Koori community of which I knew nothing and nobody in favour of the Vietnamese community where I had the natural advantages of language, culture and connections.

Through my work with Adult Migrant Education Services, I had come to be fully aware of the great linguistic, cultural and social barriers facing Vietnamese refugees, many of whom suffered from traumas of harsh incarceration in Vietnam and danger fraught land or sea journeys in search of freedom. The more I reflected on my skills and abilities and the challenges facing the Vietnamese community - especially new arrivals -the more convinced  was I that it was my duty to take on a leadership role. At that time, there was a number of Vietnamese women professionals who had come to Australia on Colombo scholarships and then stayed on here, after the fall of Saigon. My background was different.  I was a private student in England:  first, at a boarding school, and then,  Cambridge University. Coming from a privileged background, I grew up with the strong belief that obligation goes hand in hand with privilege.  I  MUST do something concrete to help the vulnerable and disadvantaged, otherwise I would feel forever guilty.

After about a week mulling over the implications, I shared the idea of starting a women’s association  with my mother and my husband. Both advised me against the idea: firstly, because they were very worried it would add to my already extremely heavy workload as a full time senior staff of Adult Migrant Education Services and a housewife shopping, cooking and looking after a family of 7- and secondly, because at that time, in our community as in most communities,  there was a fair amount of division and, as a budding leader, I would undoubtedly be subject to criticism, jealousy and hostility. I carefully listened to those arguments which were sensible and understandable. However, I was convinced that I would have the strength to withstand the pressure and therefore, decided to go ahead and start the organisation. Fortunately, both  my mother and my husband rallied round and subsequently, gave me their unstinting emotional support.

I have served the AVWA as honorary president for a total of 17 years, as executive director for 5 years, from 1994 to 1999 and, as CEO for 9 years, since 2004. At the start, it took our group of  founding members nearly 5 months to discuss and finalise our objectives and constitution. Legislation about the governance of community organisations was not something we were familiar with and we needed time to discuss and reflect on our objectives as well as every word, every article, every  aspect of the constitution. We wanted to establish an organisation to help new arrivals from our home country but at the same time, we  thought of ourselves as Australians -  committed to running a fully Australian organisation - to Aussie standards - - implementing Aussie policies and procedures . Moreover, in spite of some division in our community and hostility to our independent women’s organisation, our  policy was never, never to make negative comments about any Vietnamese community  leaders or organisations.

The first couple of years were very hard. Scores of applications for funding  were submitted with  little success. As a community worker, you are a “perpetual beggar” , Dame Phyllis Frost, our patron and my mentor told me. “However, don’t ever take “no” for an answer” she  advised me. “You must deal with both sides of politics” was another piece of advice I found useful. The hours of  unpaid volunteer work    writing  applications and working for the community  were to fulfil my sense of obligation. Therefore, I was not too concerned about the negative results and just soldiered on patiently and steadfastly.

Our first grant was for $200 from the Council of Adult Education: we were thrilled as we used it to pay for some stationery! After one and a half year, we got a grant for $20,000 from the then equivalent of VMC. The grants were announced on TV: a grant to a Greek organisation was announced with a  flag of Greece, a grant to an Italian organisation was announced with an  Italian flag. When our grant was announced, what flag was shown? The red flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.  Practically all members of our refugee community were strongly anti communist, they were up in arms against our organisation accusing us of being communist until the TV station apologised and admitted that the slip was their fault and not our fault.  Although  some other hiccups were experienced along the way, our organisation enjoyed slow and steady  progress. Then in 1994, I decided to take leave without pay from AMES  to take on the role of executive director,  implementing instead of merely drafting policies and directives.  As a result,  increased funding was obtained,  additional staff were recruited and trained and a solid base of human and financial resources was developed for the organisation. After five years, I thought I could go back to my position as honorary president. Unfortunately, not only growth stalled, but also,  I was told by an important funding body that AVWA must have a chief executive officer distinct from the board  rather than a hands- on president trying to run the organisation with  a group of managers and coordinators. Since it was easier to ask one of the board members to assume the position of president than to search and find a CEO, I have been CEO since 2004.

What do we do? AVWA is offering a range of services for both genders and all ages, comprising home care and planned activities for the aged and frail, tutoring and support for children and youth, training, employment, rehabilitation, sports, multimedia etc.. We run from playgroups, to groups for men, the disabled and senior citizens. We have 72 paid staff and 30 volunteers, operating mainly from our two  offices in Richmond and Footscray with a number of workers providing services from other locations ranging from Springvale to Thomastown and Sunshine. Our current annual income is over 2.8 million. Members of my extended family who now live in the USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany and Austria assured me that nowhere in the worldwide Vietnamese diaspora, is there such an organisation as AVWA offering such a wide range of services.

On March 1^st, the 30^th anniversary of our organisation was celebrated at Fitzroy T.H. with the participation of 200 guests and about 40 VIPs including Ministers and MPs,  Mayors and  Councillors, Presidents and CEOs of various NGOs and funding bodies. I feel honoured to have been able to contribute to the foundation of a  multicultural and ethnically diverse Australia and to forge close links with Victoria Police and especially, its multicultural and community liaison services. I have been a member of PACMAC for the last four  years. I absolutely  think my husband and I were right to have chosen to bring our family to Australia. A woman colleague of mine told me one morning that  the night before, a possum got into her bedroom and after trying in vain to get it out, she had to call the police. The answer on the phone was “ Yes, Madam. We’ll be there in 1 minutes.”  In what country could a woman ask the police to get a possum out of her bedroom  – and in 15 minutes?

Thank you very much for your attention.

Cam Nguyen

The Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser's Message at the 30th Anniversary Celebration of the Australian Vietnamese Women's Association

Badminton Victoria - 30th Birthday

Đặc San Phụ Nữ Việt Tết Quý Tỵ 2013

Phụ Nữ Việt is published annually 6000 copies are distributed during the Lunar New Year celebrations around The Melbourne Metropolitan area and free copies are available at both our offices.

Please come to visit the AVWA stall at St Albans Lunar New Year (January 13th), Footscray Lunar New Year (January 20th), Sandown Park Lunar New Year (January 26th) and Richmond Lunar New Year (January 27th).

6000 Đặc San Phụ Nữ Việt xuất bản hàng năm vào dịp Tết Âm Lịch và được phát hành miễn phí tại các Hội Chợ Tết Melbourne và hai Văn Phòng Richmond và Footscray.

Kính Mời Quý Đồng Hương Ghé Thăm Gian Hàng Hội Phụ Nữ Việt Úc tại Hội Chợ Tết St Albans (13/01/2013), Hội Chợ Tết Footscray (20/01/2013), Hội Chợ Tết Sandown Park (26/01/2013) và Hội Chợ Tết Richmond (27/01/2013).

Ban Điều Hành, Ban Giám Đốc cùng Toàn Thể Hội Viên, Cảm Tình Viên, Nhân Viên và Thiện Nguyện Viên Hội Phụ Nữ Việt Úc Kính Chúc Quý Đồng Hương và Gia Quyến Một Năm Mới Dồi Dào Sức Khỏe, Vạn Sự Như Ý, Hạnh Phúc An Khang và Thịnh Vượng.