Sequence 2: Hieu Van Le
Thoughts on cultural heritage
The nationality of my childhood was Vietnamese. My homeland is a culture that goes back 5000 years to the Hung dynasty, and I carry it in an invisible suitcase of all that made my childhood. Today, my homeland is also a spirit that goes back 40,000 years, and I see that in the landscape where I now live. My homeland is in the voice of reason and tolerance kept in articles of good faith – in things called the Magna Carta and common law, in an abstraction called ‘The Enlightenment’. (page 4)
My personal navigation to Australia has been a combination of dark circumstance, accident, fear, despair, but most of all, of hope. Like most other migrants and refugees, I arrived on this silver shell (Australia) with nothing but my invisible suitcase of cultural heritage and dreams. At another time, another place, a traveler, such as me might have been greeted with fear or hostility. But at that time, in this place, I was given the unfettered wish an opportunity to show gratitude. What greeted me was a remarkable generosity of spirit.
Source: Mr Hieu Van Le (AO), ‘Annual address on immigration and citizenship’, Canberra, June 16, 2011
Inquiry questions
- What do you think Hieu Van Le means by his ‘invisible suitcase of cultural heritage and dreams’?
- How does Mr Le see the Australia of the late 1970’s for refugees?
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