Summary

Framed pen and ink drawing by Trieu Nhan Vinh of a scene of refugees at Belfield refugee camp in Malaysia, 1979.

This is one of two drawings that were created by Trieu Nhan Vinh, a Vietnamese refugee artist who was in transit to Australia via Kuala Lumpur and purchased from him by Stephen Carter, an Australian working for the Department of Immigration from 1965-1996. Stephen was based in Malaysia and Thailand after the Vietnam War, attached to the Indochinese Refugee Taskforce during 1978-79. Stephen spent six weeks in Thailand and 14 months in Malaysia interviewing Vietnamese refugees on Pulau Tengah and Pulau Bidong islands, in Kuantan city (Malaysia) and Tanjong Pinang (Indonesia).

Stephen has a letter from Trieu dated 5 May 1979, requesting a payment of $50 (and a receipt for 60 Malaysian dollars). He had the drawings framed while in Kuala Lumpur. Stephen features in a well-known photograph from the Department of Immigration & Ethnic Affairs Annual Review, showing him interviewing refugees, 1979.

Physical Description

A line drawing in black ink on white paper showing a group of three adults and six children sitting together on the ground next to a corner of a single-story building with a tiled roof and timber, vertical board-clad walls. The building has an open window and a number of striped, shade awnings hung from it. The people are huddled on mats amongst various items of luggage and most are eating or drinking. One person is standing while hanging washing on a line and another on the left of the group is walking away with a bucket. There is some text in the lower left corner of the drawing. The drawing is mounted on top of a backing sheet of woven narrow plant fibre strips left in their natural oat colour. The mounted drawing is fixed under a sheet of clear glass with a hardboard backing sheet, and set in a gloss black-finished, half-round section timber frame with steel pins in the rear rebate. The rear edges are sealed with glued strips of brown paper. A clear plastic-covered copper hanging wire is fixed to steel eyelets at each side of the back of the frame.

Significance

These items add to the Museum's growing collection representing two sides of the asylum experience - the refugees and the government officials. These parallel and intersecting experiences have both personal and bureaucratic elements to them, linked by place, and world events, with craft and gifts of appreciation providing tangible points of connection and memory.

The experiences of migration officials are frequently untold and unrepresented by material culture, as are material manifestations of refugee narratives. This collection enables the telling of both stories, with primacy given in this instance to the immigration process worker as custodian of the objects. The overall collection is also a symbol of a particular period in Australian migration history when support for refugee programs had both bipartisan and public support.

The theme of refugee, internee and detainee craft recurs across time and place and provides a tangible connection between very different human experiences, the trauma, economy, creativity and the tedium of which has been consistently alleviated through artistic practice.

The Migration collection is developing a strong collection relating to the personal experiences of Australian migration officials across time. In terms of the post Vietnam War period, this material from Stephen Carter enhances such collections as Jenny Roberts Indo-China Refugee Worker Collection of camp craft and photographs; the Lachlan Kennedy immigration processing worker boat models and photographs; and the Tim Baker Kuantan refugee arrivals photographs.

The collection also connect themes of refugee and internee experiences across time through the Esma Banner World War II Displaced Person processing worker collection and the Tyldesley Displaced Persons photographic collection; while material relating to Dept of Immigration post-WWII migration ocean liner welfare officers Margaret Woods and Noreen Leen expands the different kinds of employment was undertaken by Australians during this period of mass migration.

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