Memories of Vietnamese-Australians whom I had contact with during my time growing up in Sunshine (West) are fond; studious peers throughout my schooling, hard-working retailers and labourers, and a visible and audible culture through language, religion, food and festivals, vibrant and rich in colour. I had some knowledge of their journey to the west of Melbourne as the ‘boat people’ though many did arrive by plane.
It has not been until recent years that I have come to understand the trauma, and more recently, the division between migrants from the north and south of Vietnam, all thanks to a new migrant, who wasn’t even part of the exodus of people seeking refuge in Australia back in 1976. In fact, he had not yet been born.
Phương Nguyên Lê, moved to Sunshine West in 2022, aged 20 (to study photography).
At first, he felt he did not belong. The move here was far from what he anticipated as he delved into Vietnamese culture in the diaspora, living with a well-established Vietnamese resident, working in a local Vietnamese restaurant and deciding to capture through his visual storytelling, the experience of Vietnamese migrants, both young and old, the latter holding onto what once was in their homeland before the war took it all away.
Phương achieved this by fostering a personal and intimate connection with residents who invited him into their homes and businesses, making every effort to be attentive to their stories. He aims his lens with sensitivity so that the subjects are no longer the ‘forgotten ones’ abandoned by American forces and disconnected from their homeland through displacement.
It has become quite obvious to Phương, nearly 40 years after the takeover of South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese communist government, the ongoing division between people of the Vietnamese community in the western suburbs. Phương’s dialect was frowned upon and while the ‘yellow’ flag of South Vietnam is a reminder of national pride for some, it causes discontent among others. Phương hopes Vietnamese residents from opposing points of the compass will one day reconcile their political and cultural differences.
As one of the latest recipients of the Objectifs Documentary Award, Emerging Category from the Centre for Photography and Film based in Singapore, Phương showcased his solo photographic exhibition and book, titled Sunshine, in Singapore. Phuong has also taken his visual storytelling to a gallery in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam, where it’s been well-received.
Two million people fled Vietnam’s communist regime. Some made it to safety, many did not. But a single photographer has taken Sunshine’s Vietnamese migrant story back to where it all began.
@phoung.io – Sunshine is available from Tall Poppy Press
