Summary

Digital colour image entitled 'Pojniam siab-tawv, lub Zejzog Ntaus-thawj' ('Strong Women Strong Community'), taken in Dunnstown, Victoria by Austin Virathone in March 2022. It depicts five women from the Victorian Hmong community across generations wearing traditional Hmong clothing.

The women were attending the first Victoria-wide Hmong community gathering in Dunnstown after the 2020-2021 Covid pandemic lockdowns. The women depicted, from left to right, are: Ms. Ko Vang (age 65), Ms. Zoua Thao (age 59), Ms. Alee Lee (age 62), Ms. Pat Vang (age 60), and Ms. Mao Xiong (age 55).

This image was a finalist in the Victorian Multicultural Commission 'Capturing Culture' photographic competition and displayed with other finalists and winners at Immigration Museum from June to August 2022.

The photographer Austin Vamleej Virathone is a Hmong-Australian multimedia artist, based in Melbourne. He describes himself as self-taught in graphic design and photography, and is passionate about capturing and celebrating his community through film, photography and design. Austin is also the Legal Counsel and Creative Design Lead for the Hmong Australia Festival Inc., an organisation dedicated to keeping the Hmong identity alive in Australia.

Description of Content

Group of five women wearing colourful regional clothing in a rural setting.

Physical Description

Colour digital image

Significance

This photograph and associated stories enhances the Museum's collection of textiles relating to the Victorian Hmong community. It contributes to addressing some cultural absences in the Migration & Cultural Diversity collection, particularly in terms of contempoary community activities and cross generations.

On 6 June 2022, an installation entitled Capturing Culture was launched at Immigration Museum. The installation, extended till August 2022, consists of 25 framed photographs (standard black frames, approx. A3 size) shortlisted by the Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC) from their 2022 Capturing Culture Photographic Competition. From these 25 photographs, four were judged by VMC the winning entries across four categories: 1.Faces; 2.Daily Life; 3.Resilience; 4.Days of Significance and Cultural Celebration; one was given the Minister's Award; and one voted Peoples' Choice (announced 23/7).

As outlined in VMC's project objectives: 'Capturing Culture' recognises the resilience and lived experiences of multicultural communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and creates a visual record of a unique time in Victoria's history. It captures the vibrancy, significance and connectedness of multicultural communities that existed before the pandemic, and which will prevail long afterwards.

This photograph is one of a selection of digital photographs being acquired by the Museum for the heritage collection. The photographers and the subject matter represent a diversity of cultures, genders, sexualities, ages and locations. Some are single or group portraits focusing on ethnicity or faith; others more abstracted; some embedded in locality including regional landscape, domestic, public urban spaces; others more heightened studio portraiture. All have an artist statement and a short artist biography.

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