Blog 4: Home at Last

Looking back, I often think about and am haunted by my immigration experience at Darwin. But most haunting is my memory of the quiet little dark-haired girl in the white dress. Just before our group left the processing centre that day I spotted her again, walking down a dirt path. She stopped and we looked at each other without expression for a long moment. Just as she turned to walk away, a hesitant smile crossed her face as she raised her hand and waved. I think often of that quiet little girl and try to imagine what became of her. It pains my mind and heart that I can never learn her fate, because I never even knew her name. There are chapters in life that must be seen and felt by the heart to be truly absorbed and once fully understood have the power to fundamentally and forever change us. For me, that chapter was my journey of migration, full of burning hope and bitter despair.

But now I have begun a new chapter in my life, in Australia. It is the here that I experienced for the first time, the sparkling taste of Coca-Cola, the crisp pastry and succulent filling of an Aussie meat pie, and the atmosphere of true democracy that Vietnam does not possess. That meat pie may only be worth a few dollars, but it was priceless to me because it was a representation of a new life and a new beginning after so many years of yearning and suffering. 

I have included a cartoon, created in 2002 (Source D) which represents that even when I somehow got through all those years of heartache, I then had to start again facing all forms of injustice, repression and tyranny. A new job, a new home, a new start, a new life.


- Helen Huynh