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Thao Nguyen

Biography:

Thao Nguyen arrived in Australia as a Vietnamese refugee with her family after being born in a Thai refugee camp. Thao has initiated a number of community and cultural development projects focusing on youth and ethnic communities. She is Youth Chair of the Ethnic Communities Council NSW and a member of the SBS National Community Advisory Committee. In 2004 she was selected to be the Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. In 2005 she was a member of the Australian Non-Government delegation to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva. Thao holds a Bachelor degree in Commerce from the University of Sydney. She is currently completing a law degree and coordinates a youth legal education theatre program at South West Sydney Legal Centre.

Aspirations for Australia:

My aspirations may just unravel as another collection of immutable ideals that were already carved out in 1788, in 1967, in 2001 that we are still working towards. But what I do know is that my aspirations are inextricably linked to my own deeply personal and painful experiences as a woman of lower socio-economic refugee background. I write these words in the aftermath of the Sydney race riots as well as in the wake of news of yet another beloved young person committing suicide.  

How many more young people need to die? The youth suicide rate in this country is still one of the highest in the world. Choosing death is a not phase. There is something chronically wrong with our society when a person decides that there is no more hope. My aspiration for this country is for us to be reinvigorated with hope. For a young person growing up today, we witness the acute pain of the suffering of Indigenous communities, we witness racism, wars that we choose to invest in, environmental destruction, detention of asylum seekers, drug addiction, domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse. It is against this saturated landscape, that we ask 'how can the flames of optimism be fanned for me as a young person in this society?' Most of us have clean water, shelter, clothing, food. Yet because these very privileges are available to many of us, it is not a legitimate expectation to be raped, to be abused or to be attacked for your race or religion.

I want an Australia of respect - for Indigenous peoples, for women, for young people, for diversity, for all those marginalised voices that have been crying for too long, the echoes of 'my country too'. I want an Australia that embraces the initiative of understanding as opposed to the passivity of tolerance. I want us to truly evolve into a future where norms include the humility and nobility to acknowledge when we are wrong, guided by the examples of our political leaders. A friend of mine reminded me of a scene in one of the X-Men movies, where persecuted mutants rise up against human oppressors. Mystique - a shape shifter - gets asked why she doesn't just change permanently to look like humans if she can, and she answers 'because we shouldn't have to'. Every single person yearns for freedom and one of the greatest freedoms of all is to be who you are within a framework that allows you to become what you dream. We cannot get there when we just have a culture of tolerance. We cannot get there if we refuse to right the wrongs of the past, continuing to forge a future based on dispossession, guilt and fabricated attempts at allowing the first peoples of this nation, access and capacity in decision-making processes.

How then do we engender cultural norms of hope and respect? I do not claim to know the complete answer. But I know that it involves struggle and a broad spectrum of solidarity. In my limited experience, I have understood that community engagement is undoubtedly arduous but therein is a key. We can wait for a rare occasion where there is resonance between political and business leaders, bureaucrats, non-government organisations and communities for movement in a social justice issue to solidify. Or at the same time as building linkages across society's stakeholders, we can also genuinely investment in community development and not just defer to authority for band-aid answers. Within communities across this nation, we find inspiring stories of individuals who struggle and strive to build a better life for themselves, for their families, for their community. Indeed this is the spirit of a nation. It is through espousing this reality that we will be able to salvage the hope that may not only save and deliver our young people but the generations to come.