In 2025, we're celebrating 50 years of Vietnamese migration to Yarra.
Artist statement
I vividly recall going to Victoria Street throughout my childhood, accompanying my parents on their weekly shop to the market. Sometimes my dad and I would wait in the car: him reading the latest issue of Tivi Tuần-san, me munching on a bánh mì, catching glimpses of mum hurrying by, her arms laden with shopping. Other times I'd trail along behind her as she wove her way through the crowd. Though it was a tiring errand, my mum enjoyed her trips to Richmond. She very carefully selected the freshest produce, and relished getting lost down aisles of kitchenware and knick-knacks. She often struck up conversations with other shoppers or vendors, learning the best bargains and chatting about their families. As a child, I had the impression my mum somehow knew everyone on Victoria Street—before realising that it was in the nature of Vietnamese people to strike up conversation with strangers as if they’re family.
Victoria Street was always bustling, a flurry of activity, colour, sights and smells. My mum would often tell me it reminded her of Vietnam. Ever since arriving on Australian soil as a refugee, she lamented how quiet and empty the streets were in suburban Melbourne compared to home in Cần Thơ.
Going to Richmond was a seminal experience for me as a young Vietnamese-Australian. It was a time where I was surrounded by people who looked and sounded like me, who spoke my language. It was a time where my mum seemed most vibrant. I took these trips for granted as a child, and I look back at them so fondly now.
This artwork concept features five versions of my mum: her current self, herself in the 2000s, 90s and 80s, and her high school self. Each of these versions of my mother represents the five decades since the Vietnamese migration. The youngest version of my mother is her teenage self, the one who was still growing up in Vietnam, wearing her áo dài to school, not knowing she would one day have to leave her home and set up life in a new country. I wanted to capture the bold hues and shapes of Victoria Street: the brightly coloured plastic crates overflowing with produce, the street shop signage, and the flapping awnings protecting the goods from sun and wind. I also wanted to capture the lively atmosphere that I remember of Victoria Street. Finally, I wanted to capture the sense of warmth and community.
Though my mum's earliest years in Australia were filled with immense hardship, she and my father persevered, and gradually built a life here for me and my sister—a journey shared by many members of the Vietnamese diaspora in Victoria. I am forever grateful for my parents' courage and sacrifice, without which I would not be here, having the opportunity to make this very artwork.