The Vietnamese adoptees have been represented as part of a larger exhibition about Australian Vietnamese heritage. It brings positive images of the Vietnamese modern identity/culture and allows younger generations to get in touch with Vietnamese Australian cultural heritage.
Viet POP Exhibition, “Emergence Of Vietnamese Youth In Australia”, Liverpool Museum. Curators: Thao Nguyen and Cuong Phu Le.
Curators Thao and Cuong offered an invaluable opportunity for adopted Vietnamese Australians to be documented alongside the hybrid expressions of 2nd generation of Vietnamese youth. See Excerpt and whole Review of exhibition by Djon Mundine below:
“Aboriginal art is really my expertise. I don’t normally write on subjects such as this but I happened to stumble on a small exhibition, VietPOP, in outer southwestern Sydney, that inspired and positively moved me. Aboriginal art is art made by Aborigines but what was this? Simple affirmations, autobiography of powerful human experiences and vitality, yet from one of the most denigrated youth communities in Australia. Think Vietnamese, think drugs and violent crime. The refugee story, the story of a group of people who have really struggled to become Australian is rarely talked about or given a voice…In 1975 there were only around 900. Of these more than half were babies waiting for adoption. The first refugees arriving in Sydney in 1975 after the unification of Vietnam, were 283 orphaned children who were adopted by families throughout the country. This experience is revealed in newspaper clippings, photographs and other memorabilia in the artwork of Indigo Williams who as a baby was adopted into a very white Australian family.
Djon Mundine