Finding Out from Adults
In some of the stories told by children, readers can learn how authors found out about family histories and experiences. The examples here relate to histories of migration to Australia from Bhutan and Nepal, Vietnam and South Sudan. Children found about their families stories in different ways. In the first two examples children asked for information. The third example shows how family information was shared between adults and children as part of two publishing projects.
Asking parents
Here are some stories showing children asking parents for information about family migration and refugee histories. The first is from the book The Remarkable Threads of Life and it is by Asis Magar who was born in a refugee camp in Nepal. Asis explained asking their father about leaving his country, Bhutan.
He told me, ‘We fled because our government tortured us, threatening to kill us if we didn’t leave the country. One night in a rush, we packed what we could - some beaten rice, pickles and a few pieces of clothing. We didn’t know where we were heading for, or where we were going to settle. After a long journey we came to Maidaar River bank. On the journey my older daughter died because of illness. Then a few weeks later we were settled in a refugee camp.’
In another example, a child whose story is in the book Kids’ Own Journeys describes learning about how their mum came to live in Australia. The author explains that ‘I knew they left by boat, but nothing else’.
The child had been to their mum’s work, ‘I was bored and watching TV. When we were driving home I asked her, “How did you get to Australia?” She told me.’
The author recounted the details of the extended family’s escape from Vietnam in 1978: how they left at night time, under the pretence of fishing, how they were spotted by soldiers and how some family members were left behind. The family were eventually found by the crew of an English ship, which picked up the family and took them to Singapore. After waiting for six months they came to Australia and met with other family members who had already arrived in Australia.
The author conveyed the emotional elements of this exchange, their mum ‘got sadder when she told the story’, but that ‘For me, if I was there I’d be scared’. This significant family story telling moment which can be shared in published form, is interwoven into somewhat mundane daily life, driving home after spending a boring day at a parent’s workplace. The author in the final sentence describes the situation: ‘After she finished her story I turned the radio back on … and we kept driving home.’
Parents’ stories & children’s responses
A series of books published by Kids’ Own tells the stories of adults and children from a South Sudanese refugee background who have now made their home in Australia. These are particularly significant sources that tell stories of family, culture, war, migration and resettlement.
The stories and artwork by children of South Sudanese heritage is published in the book Donkeys can’t fly on planes. The stories were first collected when the children and their families moved to Traralgon, in Gippsland, in the mid-2000s where the children attended Liddiard Road Primary School. Following the publication of this book, parents and adults in the community wanted to tell their stories too. Through artist-led bookmaking workshops, adults’ stories and children’s response to them were published in In My Kingdom (2014) and All the Way Home (2015). The subtitle for both of these books is South Sudanese parents’ stories for their children in Australia.
Many of the parents were young children during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005) and their stories describe customs and childhoods before the civil war. They also convey the impact of the war, displacement from homes, living with conflict, loss of family members, long journeys taken in seeking safety, as well as life in refugee camps and the processes involved in coming to Australia.
In one of the stories, ‘The Water Carrier’ (In My Kingdom), Elizabeth Ayen Ruk tells of having to collect water on her own. Elizabeth was 8 years old and travelled 15 to 20 km with a 10 litre container that was too heavy for her to carry when it was full. This story also recounts the way Elizabeth, whose parents had died, was treated by the family members she was living with. A response from Elizabeth’s eldest child, Angeth Malual, is also included in the book: ‘This is my mum’s story. I didn’t know this story before I read it. I didn’t know her cousin treated her so bad.’ Through the process of creating this book family stories were shared. All of the stories in the book contain responses from children in written and illustrated forms.
These book making projects has proved significant in prompting family conversations and sharing of knowledge. In reflecting on these books in a 2018 interview, Adier Maluk said that she ‘hadn’t even heard’ some of the stores in In My Kingdom and All the Way Home. ‘It opened up a discussion. Me and my mum and dad sat down and I asked “did this really happen?” And they said “yes”, and explained it in more detail.’ Adier felt that in facilitating these conversations she had ‘more connections with our parents, and it gave us more connection with our culture’. One of the adult authors, Abraham Lueth Malual says in In My Kingdom that sharing family stories and experiences was important because, ‘we want them to know where they have come from. These are the stories we want our children to know.’