Summary

Hans Hukom an Indonesian national, tries for many years to migrate to Australia during the 1960s.

Hans Hukom was born on 4 February in 1932 in Ambon, part of the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. He was of the Protestant faith, Dutch speaking and Dutch school educated. From 1955, he worked in bookeeping at Maclaine, Watson & Co, Surabaya, Java (English office) till 1966, when he moved to the Royal Greek Consulate, in Surabaya.

Hans wanted to migrate to Australia and he liaised for a number of years with the parents of his friend Richard (Dick) Winnett, to whom he appealed for assistance. Dick and Hans had met in Surabaya in 1964 while Dick was travelling through Bali and Java after an Asian Studies student group trip to Indoneisa and (then) Portuguese Timor organised by the Australian National University.

Despite all the efforts of Richard (senior) and Edith Winnett liaising with government and church agencies in Australia they were unsuccessful. At times the correspondence expresses Hans' frustration, willingness to undertake any work, and suspicion about the possible racist motivations behind the decisions to delay and finally decline his application in 1972. Hans was eventually able to re-settle in the Netherlands.

The Collection:

This collection of 40 documents and four photographs relates to the unsuccessful attempts by Hans Hukom, an Indonesian citizen, to migrate to Australia between 1968 and 1972. The correspondence, including letters and employment references, goes back and forwards between Hans in Jakarta and Richard and Edith Winnett in Gundagai New South Wales who were trying to assist him in his (ultimately failed) application. There is also correspondence between Richard (Dick) Winnett, Edith and Richard's son; the Department of Immigration and Richard Winnett; and between Richard Winnett and the Canberra and Goulburn Dioceses.

This collection and its associated story explores notions of absence in both the museum's collection and in the national migration narrative. Having the intent to migrate defines these experiences as Australian stories (like the stories of asylum seekers) but they are easily overlooked as such. Hans Hukom's documents provide an insight, at times frustrating and poignant, into one person's attempts to seek approval to immigrate, the vagaries of bureaucracy, and the likely influence of the White Australia policy in his ultimate lack of success, still officially in force at that time.

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