Perth’s City of Vincent has unveiled a monument of appreciation to the people of Western Australia for resettling the Vietnamese people as they fled their country after the fall of Saigon in 1975.
The elegant stainless steel artwork by Perth artist Coral Lowry is the product of the partnership of the Vietnamese Community, the City of Vincent and art consultants from Artsource, Western Australia’s Government-supported peak membership body for visual artists.
Lowry was commissioned to create the artwork and worked closely with Dr Anh Nguyen, President of the Vietnamese Community of Australia WA Chapter, and the Vietnamese community in designing a monument that reflects the boat peoples’ story in a way that blends contemporary aesthetics with identifiably Vietnamese imagery.
Artsource CEO Gavin Buckley said the work was an example of art that was meaningful and socially engagind. He said the work Vietnamese Boat People Monument of Gratitude will be a symbol ‘of community and pride for current generations and beyond, whilst never forgetting the profound challenges and sacrifices faced by so many who went before’.
Gratitude rises five metres from an inscribed bronze base, culminating with a boat form balanced precariously on a stylised wave.
Dr Nguyen says, ‘The monument will stand against time as a testimony of our gratitude towards multicultural Australia for welcoming us to this great nation.’ Dr Nguyen said the the prominence of the work would help to raise awareness and pride amongst the younger generation of Vietnamese people in Perth, along with providing a historical landmark for refugees like himself and to honour those who died at sea.
This is not the first non-military monument commemorating Australia’s hand offered to Vietnamese refugees but it is the first to focus on gratitude through an art work rather than merely a monument to those who died.
In Footscray, Victoria, a monument stands to signify the international humanitarian crisis that arose from the Saigon’s fall and the thousands of Vietnamese who sought refuge in Australia. In Victoria’s Hepburn Shire, a self-declared Refugee Welcome Zone, a monument stands in honour of refugees and their contribution to the community. A memorial commemorating 26 years of Vietnamese migration to Australia in Bonnyrigg, New South Wales and a memorial in Kangaroo Point, Queensland remember the ‘boat people’ who lost their lives, rather than the refugees who made it to Australia and brought with them their unique language, culture and history.
The Vietnamese Boat People Monument of Gratitude stands apart from these other monuments in that its aesthetic and story of fruition has been developed and designed in conjunction with the Vietnamese community.
The monument’s wave leans, representing the vulnerability and danger faced by many on the open season and the work’s alignment on site in Northbridge, is roughly north-south, gesturing to Vietnam in the north and the southward journey taken by so many.
Labor’s Federal Member for Perth and former City of Vincent Mayor, Alannah MacTiernan strongly supported the work saying ‘I was very pleased to be able to bring Artsource and the Vietnamese Community together and they have established a fabulous collaboration. Everyone involved can be proud of the absolutely beautiful work of art.’
The City of Vincent has also worked with the Vietnamese Community to redesign the Wade Street Reserve with landscaping and seating that compliments the artwork.
While the monument reflects the struggles, sacrifices and gratitude of the Vietnamese community who form a strong and significant part of Australia’s culture, it stands in marked contrast to current more political work on the issue of refugees, such as Alex Seton’s installation on asylum seeker deaths at sea for next year’s Adelaide Bienale.
