Since 1975, there have been dozens if not hundreds of films made about the Vietnam War. The Deer Hunter. Platoon. Born On The Fourth Of July. Full Metal Jacket. The list goes on and on. So many stories – one war.
But there have been no stories about what happened to the Vietnamese people. Afterwards. The refugees. The millions who fled the country. The journey made on little creaky river boats. We have read the articles. Seen the images on the news. But we have not been on the journey.
It’s time to go on this journey. Witness the horrors. Experience the beauty. Go into the mind of a refugee and see for ourselves what they saw. Feel what they felt.
Every event in this film really happened.
It’s a work of fiction but it’s based on fact.
This is my story.
My family’s story.
My community’s story.
But ultimately, this is our story.
- Khoa Do
ON TIME
“Proponents Of Terror Australis At Sea In A Leaky Moat”
“Two More Boat People Out Of Hospital”
“Two More Boats Intercepted In Australia”
“Men Involved In Asylum-Seeker Boat Named”
“Another Refugee Boat Intercepted”
“Indonesia ‘Trying To Stop Boat People”
“Rudd Escalates Action Over Asylum Seekers”
“Another Asylum Boat Stopped By Navy”
These headlines do not come from 1975.
Nor do they come from 1980, or even 1990.
These headlines all appeared in the
Sydney Morning Herald in just one week -
in April, 2009.
This story continues to happen today.
People are still fleeing by boat in their
quest for freedom and for a better life abroad.
This story is as timely as ever.
THE ORIGINAL JOURNEY
Over the past forty centuries of Vietnamese history, there had not been anything like it. However bad the situation was, the Vietnamese people have always stayed home. The call of the country for them is incredibly strong, and the Vietnamese have never been famous for travelling, especially across the ocean. Mythologically, the Vietnamese believe they are the descendants of a fairy and a dragon – one residing in the mountain, and the other in the sea. For forty years, Vietnam was continually at war, yet there was never any exodus out of the country.
But in 1975, life became impossible for many following the fall of Saigon. Despite their immense fear of the sea, the exodus began. They left in rickety, leaky, old fishing boats. Over 1.5 million people fled.
The risks were extreme – facing storms, piracy, a lack of food and water, engine failure, and the threat of being towed back out to sea.
In a survey of only two Thai refugee camps in 1981, 77 percent of all boats that had arrived that year had been attacked by pirates – causing the rape of 590 females and the deaths of another 355 persons through such means as shooting, stabbing and drowning by throwing the victims overboard. During this time, Thailand and Malaysia adopted a “pushback” policy, where boats were pushed back from the shores or towed back out to sea. A “shot on sight” policy was also introduced for anyone who resisted.
Yet, the Vietnamese people still fled. They became known around the world as boat people and today, there are “Vietnamese boat people” in all walks of Australian life.
Ever since the first boat, the Kien Giang, arrived in Darwin in April 1976, theirs is a story that has become entwined into the historical fabric of Australian society. The story of the boat people is a story that needs to be told.