Summary

Digitised copy of a colour photographic print of Vietnamese refugees being interviewed by Australian Immigration Officer, Stephen Carter, during the monsoon at Tanjung Pinang, Riau Archipelago, Indonesia, 1978-79.

This is a digital scan of one of 27 photographs taken by Stephen Carter, an Australian Government Immigation Officer, when working 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).

Physical Description

Digitised copy of a colour photographic print of two men; on the left a European with brown hair and a beard in a white tee-shirt. the other man obscured, seated at a table with a red cloth covering, opposite two Vietnamse men seated and huddled under a hand-held, black umbrella. A man with his back to the photographer is huddled in a dark blue jacket in the foreground. In the backround there is a small crowd of 24 or so Vietnamese people standing and watching on. Beyond them there is a fenced area and a single man walking in the rain.

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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