Some of the young people who participated in this project were born in Australia. Others came here as the infants or young children of migrants and refugees. A handful came alone. Some were scarred by the journey itself, most lost family members, and all have first-hand experience of the difficulties of resettlement. These histories of forced migration have also left their mark on the Australian born.

tram, 19 year-old vietnamese-australian
my natural parents were born in saigon, south vietnam
my father died before i was born
i have only memories of him
passed on to me
by my mother
although i did not know him personally
i feel his presence guiding me in life
i grew up with my mother, grandmother and brother
i escaped from vietnam with them when i was two years old since i have lived in australia for the majority of my life
and have adapted to the australian lifestyle and custom
i guess i would call myself a fair dinkum asian-australian but my ethnicity and identity is vietnamese
because i am very proud
of my vietnamese background and culture
which has been passed on to me
through my mother and grandmother

tu, 22 year-old vietnamese-australian
when i'm 15
they tell me i'm coming to australia
i feel bad because i don't want to leave my country
because i've just grown up
just finish school
start work in the restaurant
i'm saving for motorbike in vietnam
we eat good food, live in a good town
there's no need for me to come over here
i don't want to change my life
i got used to live in my country
already i don't want to leave that place
and start over again in a different place
i was angry
i want to run away
i had tears coming out
i don't want to leave my friends, my country
my brother and my sister come to pick me up
they take me around a lot at first
but at that time everything wrong to me
nothing can make me happy
i start to work straight away, on the weekend
just to try to save money so i can go back  [top]

melissa, 19 year-old vietnamese-australian
i was five years old when i came to australia
our family were refugee
my father got murdered on the way
i don't really know him
but i remember i had a dream
that he die
right at that time when he got killed
my mother, sister, brother and i
was kept prisoner in cambodia
the french got us out
in exchange for a 10 kilo bag of rice
then we stayed at the thai camp
from there we came to australia 

snoop, 17 year-old chinese-australian
it was just too hard to live in china
so they came to australia
to give me a better future and that
and they wanted to have more babies
because there you can only have one
they didn't want me to go through what they went through
cause it wasn't such a good life
it's hard for them because they have lived
30 or 40 years of their life in a totally different world
and then they have to learn the language, the culture, everything is different
so in some ways it's harder for them to adapt than the kids

stacey, 15 year-old vietnamese-australian
when people look at me they think there's nothing wrong because i'm always wearing a happy face
but deep inside i'm not and no-one knows
i know lots of young people has problems
but i have a lot ever since i came here
i came with my mum when i was two years old
my dad was meant to come with us
but we came over first

my mum has schizophrenia
when i was younger i was nearly taken away from her
cause when i went to school i had bruises and everything

she was kinda crazy
when she went out she'd talk to herself
and i'd be next to her
i'd get embarrassed
cause she's standing there swearing to who knows who
just swearing to the voices inside her head

like i'd not do nothing wrong but her head goes
"oh kill that girl cause that girl done something bad to you"
or something like that
but i didn't really do anything
it was always those voices in her head
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