ONCE UPON a TIME in CABRAMATTA the Untold Story of How the Vietnamese Community Overcame the Odds and Found Their Place in Multicultural Australia

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ISBN: 978-1-74295-136-2 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au ONCE UPON A TIME IN CABRAMATTA The untold story of how the Vietnamese community overcame the odds and found their place in multicultural Australia

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 2 Introduction

nce Upon A Time in Cabramatta is a three-part documentary program chronicling the largely untold and unknown story of the Vietnamese people in Australia. It shows how the Viet- Onamese community in Cabramatta overcame the odds and found their place in multicultural Australia.

The story begins with the 1979 landmark decision of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser to open Australia’s doors to thousands of refugees fleeing Vietnam at the end of the war. It is a moment in history that finally buries the infamous White Australia Policy and transforms a nation.

The years that follow are as dramatic as they are turbulent. In this one small Sydney suburb, Cabramatta, the 1980s and 1990s see the emergence of street gangs, a heroin epidemic and the first political assassination in Australia’s history. The Vietnamese people are vilified and demonised. Cabramatta seems to represent all that is wrong with Asian immigration. The universal support for multiculturalism is a distant memory.

But as the century draws to a close there is a remarkable turnaround. The Vietnamese people finally find their voice and claim their rightful, democratic place in their adopted home. Cabramatta is a community transformed, Australia, a continent changed forever.

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 3 Curriculum Guidelines

This documentary series would be suitable for students in secondary schools studying the impact of migration on Australian society and the complex process of re-settlement. At its heart is an examination of the reality of ‘multiculturalism’ as a lived experience. It would be a valuable resource in SOSE/HSIE and History for students studying contemporary society and migration to Australia.

Once Upon A Time in Cabramatta is difficult period of life in Cabramatta Pre-viewing questions an important series in presenting the from the late 1970s. historical and social roots of multi- 1. How many students in your class culturalism in Australia. It should help While Once Upon A Time in Cabramat- group come from non-English students understand the complexity ta is about the Vietnamese experience speaking backgrounds? of the Asian-Australian experience, to of those who came to Australia after look beyond the many media ste- the Vietnam War from the late 1970s, 2. How many people do you know reotypes and listen to the voices and it clearly has resonance today as new in your social, sporting and work experiences of people who have come groups of people attempt to come to worlds whose parents were not to Australia from a number of different Australia to escape war-torn home- born in Australia? cultures. lands. How people come and how they are assisted when they arrive are 3. Have you eaten Vietnamese food? It would also be a valuable resource questions that are as important in the for students of English and/or Asian twenty-first century as they were for 4. Share your knowledge of the Studies who may already have some earlier migrants; immigration policy Vietnam War and Australian knowledge of growing up Asian in remains one of the most important and involvement in that war. Australia through texts such as Alice fraught issues in Australia. What did we Pung’s Unpolished Gem and Brian get right and what did we get wrong in 5. Have you visited Vietnam? Describe Caswell and David Phu An Chiem’s political, social, economic and hu- the country, the people and how Only the Heart. Both these powerful manitarian terms in the past? Are there they live. texts, like this documentary series, ex- lessons to be learned from the nature plore the migrant experience from the of the Vietnamese experience? 6. What is the most practised religion perspectives of those on the inside. in Vietnam? Every journey is different. Some background to the Vietnam War and a map of the region is provided 7. Name any characters of Asian For students of Media and Film Stud- in this guide for students who may background appearing on ies, the series provides an excellent not be familiar with the details of this Australian television dramas. example of an approach to construct- conflict and Australia’s involvement in (Don’t include racial stereotypes ing history through personal narra- that long-running war. sometimes portrayed in comedies tives, archival film and the voices of such as Jen in Angry Boys.) many people, both Vietnamese and As Episode 1 sets up many of the Australian, who lived through the often situations and stories that are further 8. Why do you think the parents of explored in Episodes 2 and 3, an migrants tend to be especially am- understanding of the issues raised in bitious for their children to achieve Episode 1 will make it easier for the very high standards in education? students to understand the nature of the community and family tensions 9. What would be some of the and their resolution as they are pre- difficulties for you in having to move sented in episodes 2 and 3. The pre- to settle in a non-English speaking viewing questions are better suited to country with few possessions and middle school students or students very little money? in schools where there may be fewer students from non-English speaking 10. How can being part of a harmoni- backgrounds. ous multicultural community enrich our lives by encouraging us to expand our personal horizons?

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 4 The Filmmakers

Key Crew Bringing recent history to visual life is a complex and rich field for documentary makers.

A documentary series such as Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta has a very large number of people working on it, from researchers to advisors to editors, graphic artists and time-lapse, aerial, still and many other technical image makers. The people listed in this crew list are just a fraction of those involved in the project.

Executive producers SUE CLOTHIER and CRAIG GRAHAM

Series writer and producer JACOB HICKEY

Series director BERNADINE LIM

Director of photography JUSTIN HANRAHAN

Narrator TARA MORICE

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 5 Background

A map of the region at the end defeat the Japanese. After the victory neighbouring Cambodia and Laos in of this guide shows the location over the Japanese, the Vietnamese an attempt to disrupt supply routes. and size of Vietnam in relation to expected to gain their independence, Australian soldiers were in South Australia. It may give students but the French remained as colonial Vietnam as advisers from 1962. In 1965 some sense of the perilous journeys masters. Many Vietnamese troops Prime Minister Menzies, in an attempt many people made, and still make, now turned to fighting the French. to tie the United States to defence of to reach Australia by boat. Some- Australia against any threat from Indo- times they are at sea for up to three In 1954 the French were defeated in nesia, announced that Australia would weeks with little food and water. the north at Dien Bien Phu, but in the send combat troops. This included A very brief account of the back- south, Vietnamese leaders did not conscripted soldiers, National Service- ground to the conflict in Vietnam want to be part of the pro-Communist men, after 1966. These were chosen and Australian involvement in that system being set up by the north. The by a ballot of all twenty-year-old males, war is provided below. country was divided along the sev- though only a small proportion of all enteenth parallel of latitude, with the eligible men were called up. The Vietnam War arose out of more south being supported by the United than a century of foreign occupation of States, and the north by Russia and Most Australian Army operational units Vietnam. It was a war for Vietnamese China. The north began to send troops served in South Vietnam during the independence, but also a civil war into the south, supported by southern- war. They served mainly in the Phuoc between two competing philosophies. ers sympathetic to their cause. Tuy province of Vietnam – at the Nui Dat base and at the logistics base at Vietnam has always been subject to The main reason for the United States’ Vung Tau. Many officers and warrant threats and invasion from its large involvement was a fear that com- officers served with distinction in South neighbours – particularly China. In munism would spread throughout Vietnamese Army units as part of the the eighteenth century, a new threat Asia. China had become commu- Australian Army Training Team Vietnam emerged – the French invaded the nist in 1949, and the Korean War of (AATTV). The normal tour of duty was area (called Annam at the time) and the 1950s had seemed to show the one year with complete unit replace- established control. They used the spreading power and influence and ment where appropriate, otherwise the land as their colony, and created a threat of communism. The Australian unit remained in situ and only the per- strong French influence, though one government shared this view, and was sonnel changed. The Royal Australian which did not suppress Vietnamese ready to support the United States in Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force desires for independence. South Vietnam. were also involved in the Vietnam War.

In the Second World War the Japa- The United States began sending more From mid 1966 the main task of the nese invaded and Vietnamese nation- and more troops to South Vietnam Australians was to secure Phuoc Tuy alists fought beside French troops to and extending bombing raids into province in which they were based.

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 6 This involved fighting the North an important factor in choosing where Vietnam Regular Army soldiers based to live. There is today a large Chinese there, as well as the local Viet Cong community in the Eastern suburbs of guerrillas, and denying them food, Melbourne, including Glen Waverley. supplies and safe places. There was For an excellent account of why immi- also a significant commitment to im- grants settle where they do, you could proving infrastructure in the province, read this paper about multiculturalism with many Australian soldiers being and settlement in Australia at .

In 1967 the Australian commitment So, why did so many Vietnamese reached its peak at about 8,300 per- people choose to live in Cabramatta sonnel in Vietnam at the one time. In and the surrounding suburbs of 1970 withdrawals began, and by the western Sydney? end of 1972, the troops had virtually all been withdrawn, with security of Cabramatta is a south western suburb the province being handed over to of Sydney, about thirty kilometres the South Vietnamese Army. In 1975, from the city centre. It is part of the after the withdrawal of United States’ local government area of the City of support, the North Vietnamese and the Fairfield. Vietnamese people also set- Viet Cong guerrillas took Saigon, and tled in surrounding suburbs including ended the war with the reunification of Canley Vale, Bankstown and Fairfield. Vietnam under Communist rule. About 57,000 Australians served at some One of the reasons for the presence of time in Vietnam, with about 520 (dif- large numbers of Vietnamese Austral- ferent numbers are given by different ians in the Fairfield local government authorities, depending on the criteria area is that most arrivals were initially applied) dying as a result of the war.1 Hien Le says, ‘No-one wants to be a housed in hostels in the area, the refugee … you are a person without biggest of which was the Cabramatta As this series shows, when the war knowing your destiny … you don’t Migrant Hostel. Cabramatta has a ended, with the North Vietnamese have control of your life’. But, like history as a migrant ‘transition zone’, victorious, many Vietnamese began many asylum seekers, family security and has hosted a succession of leaving their homeland, first by boat and aspirations for their children are post-World War Two arrivals, includ- and later, arriving on planes chartered paramount. In Son Nguyen’s words, ing British, German, Greek, Italian and by the Australian government to offer ‘We wanted our children to come here Yugoslav migrants. By 1989, 10,000 of a safer, more orderly exit and arrival for a better life than in Vietnam’. Australia’s 100,000 Vietnamese-born process. As we see in this episode, lived in the Cabramatta area. many boats arrived in Malaysia and All over the world, it is not unusual for Bidong Island, a staging point for migrants from particular backgrounds The Vietnamese, like their predeces- those fleeing Vietnam. Why did they to settle in areas where they are close sors, were channelled into Cabramatta make for Australia? to their fellow countrymen and friends in the resettlement process. Many of and family. For instance, when one those who had initially settled else- Reading some of the brief biogra- of the first waves of mostly European where in Australia, including some phies (in this guide) of some of the migrants came to Australia after who had been placed with sponsors in Vietnamese people who came to World War Two, Italians and Greeks regional areas, undertook a secondary Australia when the war ended, as well tended to settle in the inner Melbourne migration to the Fairfield area to join as listening to their stories, will provide suburbs of Carlton and Fitzroy and a the nascent community. In addition to some information about why they felt relatively large population of Lebanese the attraction of having Vietnamese compelled to escape their country. Australians live in Lakemba in Sydney. neighbours, groceries and restaurants, These choices were often related to the area was appealing in that land employment opportunities, as they still and houses were relatively cheap are for many people making choices and it was close to work in western about where to live. Equally, being Sydney’s manufacturing sector, where close to friends and fellow countrymen most Vietnamese refugee and migrant who speak your language and under- arrivals found their first jobs.2 stand your ideals and aspirations is

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 7 Brief bios of people appearing in Episode 1

Chau Hoang Thanh Hoang Tony Hoang Angie Hong (Episodes 1, 2 and 3) (Episodes 1 and 3) (Episodes 1, 2 and 3) (Episode 1) 1979 – Chau and her family escape 1980 – Thanh’s parents arrive in 1980 – Tony’s parents arrive in 1971 – Angie arrives in Australia via Vietnam. Australia. Australia. the Colombo Plan. 1980 – Chau and her family move to 1981 – Thanh is born in Bondi, 1982 – Tony is born in Bondi, Sydney. 1977 – Angie is a Vietnamese Australia. Sydney. interpreter for the Department of 1987 – The Hoang family moves to Immigration. 1987 – The Hoang family moves to 1987 – Thanh’s family moves to Canley Vale (next to Cabramatta). Canley Vale (next to Cabramatta). Canley Vale (next to Cabramatta). 1993 – Angie opens the Thanh Binh 1995 – Tony gets involved in gangs. restaurant in Cabramatta. Chau Tho Hoang is a Vietnamese Thanh Hoang, daughter of Chau 1996 – Tony is arrested. refugee who escaped Vietnam with Hoang, was born 1981 in Bondi. Angie Hong is a Vietnamese refugee her husband and seven children Thanh took on the primary role 1997 –Tony moves out of home. and former restaurant owner. Angie in perilous circumstances in 1979. of translator for the family as her 2004 - Tony finds redemption and came to Australia in 1971 under The freedom that Chau worked parents did not speak English. turns his life around. the Colombo Plan as a student so hard to obtain for her family Thanh witnessed Tony, her brother, (study scholarship) and was in Tony is the oldest son in the Hoang in Australia came at a high price: rise in the drug world as he tried Australia when Saigon fell. She Family. Tony believes years of her family suffered from a cultural to earn money and respect. Thanh worked as a Vietnamese interpreter childhood domestic violence and an and generational discord and feels that even though her family for the Department of Immigration estranged relationship with his father were exposed to dangerous drugs struggled after settling in Australia, in the early 1990s. In 1993, Angie led to his involvement in the gangs and criminality on the streets of the opportunities they’ve had would opened the Thanh Binh Vietnamese and addiction to heroin. Tony served Cabramatta. Regardless of this never have been offered to them in restaurant in Cabramatta and jail time for crimes he committed Chau does not regret becoming an Vietnam. through her restaurant witnessed during his teenage years. At his Australian and, thirty years on, her the highs and lows of Cabramatta lowest point, Tony begged God for a family is repairing their relationships. and its people, from its darkest days sign and the next day was handed a as the heroin capital of Australia to flyer that read, ‘If you are looking for its celebration as the food bowl of a sign from God, here it is’. From that Sydney’s south-west. moment on, Tony’s life turned around. He now has a wife and three children and spends most of his time giving back to the community.

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 8 Joe Le David Giang Hien Le Andrew Nguyen (Episode 1) (Episode 1) (Episodes 1, 2 and 3) (Episode 1) 1983 – Joe Le is born in a Malaysian 1980 – David arrives in Australia as 1975 – 1980 Hien Le spends five 1975 – Andrew is arrested and sent Refugee camp. a refugee with his father and two years in a Communist re-education to jail by the communist regime. brothers. camp in Vietnam. 1983 – Joe Le’s family arrives in 1978 – Andrew and his family escape Australia. 1980 – David moves to Sydney. 1980 – Hien Le arrives in Australia as to a Malaysian Refugee camp. a refugee. 1992 – Joe’s family structure 1981 – The first issue of the Sunrise 1979 – Andrew and his family arrive fractures. Daily is printed. Hien Le arrived in Australia as a in Australia. refugee from Vietnam in 1980. 1998 – Joe moves out of home and David Giang is the managing editor 1981 – Andrew is the victim of a Prior to his escape from Vietnam gets involved in drugs. of Australia’s leading Vietnamese violent home invasion. he served in the South Vietnamese newspaper, the Sunrise Daily. He 1999 – Joe gets arrested. government as a police officer and 1991 – Andrew runs for Fairfield arrived in Australia in 1980 as a was injured during the Vietnam War. council as an independent. 2004 – Joe is released from prison. refugee with his father and two Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, 1995 – Andrew joins the Liberal Joe was born in a Malaysian refugee brothers. His father was a journalist he spent five years in a Communist Party. camp in 1983 and came to Australia in South Vietnam and when he re-education camp. Hien has with his mother. Joe’s mother arrived in Australia established In 1975, Andrew was captured by the observed the many events that have re-married during her resettlement. the Sunrise Daily as a monthly communist regime and spent three shaped Cabramatta and the way the Joe’s family structure started to newspaper. David later took over years in prison. After his release, he Vietnamese community has evolved fall apart when he was nine years the paper. As a journalist and editor, and his family escaped to Malaysia. and how it has been perceived by old and his two older stepbrothers David has met with and interviewed They arrived in Australia in 1979. wider Australia. Hien’s long term moved out and became involved with all of the leaders in the Cabramatta goal is to help build a vibrant, Andrew Nguyen was a local the notorious 5T gang. Joe left home community, including John Newman cohesive and resourceful Vietnamese councillor for Cabramatta from 1991 at age fifteen because of family and Phuong Ngo. community within Australia’s to 1995 and from 2004 to 2008. violence and moved in with gang multicultural society. Currently, Hien He was also the Board Director of members. He tried selling drugs as a is the Vice-President (Planning) of the the South Western Sydney Area way to make money and developed Vietnamese Community Association Health Board and Chairman of the a serious heroin smoking habit. In in Australia – NSW Chapter (VCA/ Multicultural Health Committee 1999, Joe was arrested and spent NSW). Hien is also a Senior from 1990 to 1996, and the Board time in prison for armed robbery. In Investigation/Conciliation Officer for Director of the Community Health and 2004 he turned his life around. Joe the Australian Human Rights and Tuberculosis Association from 1992 has been accepted at North Sydney Equal Opportunity Commission. to 1996. TAFE where he will attend a sound design course.

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 9 Andrew Jakubowicz Scott Cook Alan Leek (Episodes 1, 2 and 3) (Episode 1) (Episodes 1 and 2) Dr Andrew Jakubowicz is Professor Detective Superintendent Scott Cook 1991–1994 Alan Leek serves as of Sociology at the University of is Commander of the Asian Crime Commander of Cabramatta LAC. Technology, Sydney. He has an Squad, NSW Police Force. Scott 2000 – Alan retires from the police Honours degree in Government from began his career in Cabramatta in force. Sydney University and a PhD from 1989 at the age of nineteen. Scott the University of NSW. Since the early experienced first-hand the difficulties 2001 – Alan makes a submission to 1970s, he has been involved in Asian of policing a traumatised migrant the Inquiry into Police Resources. research and race relations and the community. In 1994, Scott was Alan Leek was Commander of development of materialist theories transferred to Task Force Oak, which Cabramatta LAC from 1991 to 1994. of cultural diversity. As an academic was responsible for investigating During his time in Cabramatta, Alan at the top of his field, Andrew has Asian Organised Crime. As the would make a point of engaging with unique insights into the context of violence in Cabramatta escalated, the community as much as possible. the arrival and settlement of the Scott was asked to complete a risk He never wore a gun and believes Vietnamese in Australia. assessment of crime in southwest that there is no such thing as Asian Sydney. His report became known Crime; rather, crime is crime that as the Cook Report and was one of belongs to no race or religion. In the catalysts for positive change in 1994, Alan’s term as Commander of Cabramatta, along with Strike Force Cabramatta LAC ended. He returned Portville – the investigation credited in 2001 to give critical evidence at with stopping the escalating violence. the Parliamentary Inquiry into Police Resources.

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 10 Episode 1

Synopsis

As thousands of refugees pour into the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, the first Vietnamese community in Australia is born. But it’s not long before problems arise. The family structure, so important in Vietnamese culture, has been obliterated by the war. The security of this life gone, young refugees find a sense of belonging through criminal gangs. A lost generation is born onto the streets of Cabramatta.

Australia is simply not ready to cope with this huge influx of refugees and the problems that arrive with them. And as the cracks begin to show on the streets there is a fracturing of political support for multiculturalism at a national level. The future of Cabramatta and the Vietnamese community in Australia appears precarious.

Keeping a Viewing Log This viewing log (Table 2) could be downloaded and printed for students. Different points and even episodes could be allocated to groups or individuals.

As you watch this series, make notes on the style and approach of the filmmakers to telling the story of each episode using the pointers in the

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 left-hand column. 11 Student Activity 1: Watching the Series

Note: not all the viewing note questions on this sheet will be equally relevant to each of the three episodes.

Episode number ____ (1, 2 or 3)

What are some of the images shown and questions posed in the opening pre-title sequences of this documentary? How do they set up the story?

How do the filmmakers utilise the medium of film to tell this story?

What are some of the ways stories such as this one about people in contemporary society can be effectively told on film rather than entirely through words? How do faces matter, particularly as they change and mature over time?

Identify the major focus of the episode.

The use of interview subjects (both Vietnamese Australians and others) who describe and account for their experiences.

The range of images and layering of stills used to convey something of the period and place.

Images, accounts and/or observations you found most striking.

Information that was new or surprising.

The timeframe, e.g. year or years referred to in the episode.

Significant events and dates.

Important contributors to bringing the story to life.

Understanding the refugee experience

There are four sets of questions broadly following the narrative development of the episode. Teachers may like to allocate a set of questions to different groups of students who can then share their responses in discussion.

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 12 Student Activity 2: Why did they come?

SET 1 program and fly refugees into 1978–1983 Australia?

Coming to a new country • In what ways and why was the Australian community quite unpre- Part of me wants to let this out so we pared for such large numbers of can tell this story. But at the same Vietnamese arriving in Australia? time these stories, they’re water under the bridge. So for me to bring this SET 2 1983–1989

Multiculturalism {noun} Families under pressure – the preservation of different cultures or cultural identities My parents were never around – Joe Le within a unified society • How does the arrival of thousands of Vietnamese radically re-write the up again it’s like, right, what are you previously understood notion of doing? – Tony Hoang ‘multiculturalism’?

• List some of the reasons • How well prepared and resourced Vietnamese people left their were state governments to put in homeland in such numbers when place effective programs to help the war ended in 1975 and North these new arrivals to cope in such and South Vietnam were united a different society? under a communist government? • What were some of the factors that • What roles would at least some of Tony and Thanh Hoang and Joe Le these people fleeing their home- describe that led to some children land have played during the war of the first wave of Vietnamese mi- The announcement was made between the south and the north? grants joining what were described but there was never any sort of as ‘criminal gangs’? • What are some of the things consequential commentary like people feared and often • How did parental aspirations – ‘and therefore the following experienced that caused them for their children to have a good things are likely to happen in to take such extreme action; e.g. education conflict with the realities what were re-education camps in of family life experienced by their your neighbourhood. And there- post war Vietnam? children? fore we expect you to reach out to them. And it’s going to be a • What were the strongest common • Explain the difference in the values aspirations of the adults in settling of family life for children of Viet- bit difficult because you won’t in Australia? namese refugees and families who understand what they’re saying’. had been here for generations? None of these conversations • What were they leaving behind? • How did the adults and the chil- took place. In what ways was Prime Minister dren respond to these differing val- • – Andrew Jakubowicz, Fraser’s 1979 decision to open ues and expectations about what it sociologist Australia’s doors to Vietnamese means to be part of a ‘family’? people fleeing their homeland such an important, bold and even • How do the activities of some revolutionary decision? members of minority groups, such as refugees, lead to the whole • Why did the government decide group becoming ‘demonised’ to set up an orderly departures in society? Provide some other

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 13 examples of groups who have left home and joined street gangs? become stereotyped and vilified as a result of the behaviour of some • More than ten years on from members. Liberal prime minister, Malcolm Fraser’s decision to scrap the • Explain how the widely publicised ‘White Australia Policy’, what did views of Queensland politician 1988 opposition leader John How- Pauline Hanson, of historian Geof- ard say about ‘multiculturalism’ as frey Blainey and of John New- a government policy? man, the state Labor member for Fairfield were taken up by some • ‘Forming ghettos and taking people in the community? Australian jobs’. Why are the state- ments of politicians likely to be • In what ways do economic so influential and inflammatory in recessions and tight employment debates about society that focus conditions make life tougher for on racial differences? many people, but especially for recent arrivals? • Why was the election of Phuong Ngo as a local government coun- • Why would it have been so difficult cillor seen as so important to the for Vietnamese families to access Vietnamese in the Fairfield area? support services available to people undergoing family difficulties, • Why is police officer Scott alcohol and drug problems? What Cook’s description of his work in skills do government organisations Cabramatta an important element and individuals such as lawyers, in telling the story of life on the social workers and interpreters streets in the 1990s? Recession, racism, the traumas need to be able to provide services to Vietnamese and other recent • Alan Leek, who was Commander of the past and the isolation of arrivals to Australia? of Cabramatta Local Area Com- the present are all taking their mand from 1991–1994, does not toll. The head of the family, in • What does Andrew Jakubowicz, believe there is any such thing as the sociologist from the University specifically Asian crime. Why does particular, is struggling to find of Technology in Sydney, suggest he think the Vietnamese were so his place in a completely alien is important in ‘socially engineer- fearful of police and mistrusted culture. ing’ multiculturalism so that the ar- them? rival of numbers of different people into a society is better managed? SET 4 – Narrator of The 1990s and early 2000s Once Upon A Time In Cabramatta SET 3 1987 and into the 1990s Crime and Politics

Australian family life and Cabramatta is now a symbol for those • What was state member and Vietnamese family life are really who long for old White Australia. Labor politician John Newman’s – Narrator background? very different. Vietnamese children listen to their parents • What were some of the criminal • and do as they are told. activities that became more common in the Cabramatta area that Vietnamese children live in so alarmed residents, police and What can you Australia for a while, they begin government and attracted a lot of to adapt to the Australian way. media attention? be shot for? – Chau Hoang • What clue does the meaning of the (Question put to police 5T gang (translated by Joe Le) – ‘missing true love or missing love by Vietnamese) from the family’ – provide to suggest why some young Vietnamese

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 14 Neither Chau Hoang nor her husband could speak English and their son Tony could not speak Vietnamese … the relationship was lost in translation.

– Narrator

What did he say about members of the Vietnamese gangs he believed posed a threat to Australian society and particularly to the stability of communities such as Cabramatta?

• How do Joe Le and Tony Hoang’s stories put a human face on this problem of young Vietnamese boys becoming part of the ‘gang- drug culture’ that was part of their life in Cabramatta at this time?

• How does the beating to death of a high school student in a restaurant illustrate the disturbing nexus between drugs, gangs, violence and a wall of community silence?

• What sort of call-outs did experienced paramedic John Ellems regularly attend in Cabramatta? Are these typical of many ambu- lance call-outs in large cities or were they statistically more common in the Fairfield region?

• What difficulties would police and paramedics have faced in policing the streets of Cabramatta in the early 1990s? For an interactive • What violent events and simmering social problems flagged in Episode timeline of the 1 are likely to be central to the Cabramatta story and exploration of Cabramatta and its people in Episode 2 of this series? many online extras go to: sbs.com.au/onceuponatime Map of South East Asia and part of surrounding and click on various dates to provide an understanding of the Vietnamese region experience both in Australia • Identify Vietnam and the surround- and in Vietnam. ing countries that were damaged in the Vietnam War, especially by massive American bombing raids

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 15 Map of South East Asia and part of surrounding region

http://www.world-maps.co.uk/continent-map-of-south-east-asia.htm and intercepting • Note the position of Vietnam in boats carrying • theIdentify region Vietnam and its and distance the surrounding from countriesasylum that seekers? • Why might Malaysia have become a staging point for Australiawere damaged in the Vietnam War, especially by asylum seekers hoping to get to Australia? massive American bombing raids. • What does the map reveal about • Identify Christmas Island in the the inherent dangers• Whatof attempting does this map reveal about the difficulties for • IndianNote the Ocean position of Vietnam in the region journeysand its across the seaAustralian in small Customs and naval boats in patrolling and distance from Australia. wooden boats? intercepting boats carrying asylum seekers? • Why might Malaysia have become • aIdentify staging Christmas point for Islandasylum in seekers the Indian Ocean. • What does the map reveal about the inherent dangers hoping to get to Australia? of attempting journeys across the sea in small wooden boats?

Endnotes• What does this map reveal about 1 http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/vietnam/overview.htmlthe difficulties for Australian Cus- 2 http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/vietnamesetoms and Naval boats in patrolling

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 16 Episode 2

Synopsis

The first political assassination in the history of Aus- tralia leaves the Vietnamese people of Cabramatta demonised and vilified – the community and the ideals of multiculturalism itself are in tatters.

At 9.30pm on Monday, 4 September 1994, police are called to a house in Cabramatta following reports of gunshots. They discover the body of John Newman, the state MP for Cabramatta, lying in the driveway of his home. He has been shot dead. The Vietnamese, already vilified for propping up a criminal culture, are now deemed guilty of committing Australia’s first political assassination.

Newman’s killing plays into a wider concern that is brewing in Australia, particularly in conservative politics, that Asians are a threat to the social cohesion of a nation. The police hit back with highly orches- trated campaigns to rid Cabramatta’s streets of drugs and crime. There is limited success. The only real hope is that the community, so vilified and fractured, will somehow find its own way to overcome its problems.

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 17 People appearing in Episode 2

Many of the participants from Episode 1 also appear in this episode. (See the earlier pages of this guide for their profiles). Additional individuals include the following:

1995 – Lam arrives with his family in Nick Kaldas Deborah Wallace Son Nguyen Australia and settles in Cabramatta. (Episode 2) (Episodes 2 and 3) (Episodes 2 and 3) 1996 – Lam begins experimenting with drugs in school. Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas Detective Superintendent Deborah 1976–1982 – Son lives in a commu- has spent thirty years with the NSW Wallace is Commander of the Middle nist re-education camp in Vietnam. Between the ages of twelve and Police Force. His distinguished career Eastern Organised Crime Squad, seventeen, Lam Nguyen grew up with 1990–1995 – Son and his family live his family in a Thai refugee camp. includes time in the armed robbery, NSW Police Force. Deb joined the in refugee camps in Thailand. Life in the refugee camps was harsh, drugs, counter-terrorism and un- Cabramatta Local Area Command as 1995 – Son Nguyen’s family and Lam learned how to survive dercover divisions, as well as being a Detective in 1991. Deb’s job was to arrives in Australia and settles in through the trading of small goods commander of the Homicide Squad engage newly arrived Vietnamese mi- Cabramatta. with other refugees. At the age of and later the Gangs Squad. Nick led grants and break down the walls of thirteen Lam was caught and put in 1996 – Son’s son Lam begins the investigation into the assassina- silence that existed within the com- community prison. experimenting with drugs. tion of NSW politician John Newman munity. Deb left Cabramatta in 1997 In 1995, Lam’s family migrated to Prior to his escape from Vietnam, Son in 1994 and subsequent conviction and returned in 2000 as a consultant Australia. In 1996 Lam became was an officer in the South Vietnam- of Phuong Ngo for that murder. He to deal with the escalating drug involved in heavy heroin use. Lam ese army, a musician, a writer and a was deployed to Iraq in 2004 by the crisis, before being appointed Crime was charged with possession of poet. After the fall of Saigon, he was Australian Federal Government as the Manager in April 2001. It was while drugs and spent a year in prison. Lam imprisoned for six years in a com- Deputy Chief Police Advisor helping to in this position that Deb became a struggled to beat his heroin addiction munist re-education camp. In search through home detoxification. rebuild the Iraqi police. In late 2007, participant in The Cabramatta Project, of a better life, Son’s family escaped Nick was appointed Deputy Commis- a coordinating body responsible Vietnam by boat and spent five years With the help of his parents, Lam has sioner, Specialist Operations, before for the implementation of the NSW in refugee camps in Thailand before turned his life around. He is married taking a one-year leave of absence Government’s response to the 2001 arriving in Australia in 1995. with children and is currently working in the family business. in 2009 to lead the investigation into Parliamentary Inquiry into Policing in Son and his family settled in the assassination of former Lebanese Cabramatta. Deb helped implement Cabramatta and for the next ten Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri for the the drug house legislation and have years struggled with language bar- UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon. In drug legislation passed. riers, post-traumatic stress, poverty August 2011 Nick was appointed and a generational culture clash. Deputy Commissioner, Field Op- When his only son Lam became erations, responsible for more than involved with drugs and gangs, Son’s 13,000 police officers across NSW. Lisa Maher dream of a better life became a nightmare. Son struggled for eleven (Episode 2) years to keep his family together and now works to raise awareness of Prof. Lisa Maher is Program Head of drug addiction in the community. the Faculty of Medicine and Senior Research Fellow, National Centre Lam Nguyen in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical (Episodes 2 and 3) Research at the University of NSW. Lisa has worked in Cabramatta since 1990–1995 – Lam Nguyen grows up 1995 and during that time she has with his family in the refugee camps run data and video studies on heroin in Thailand. use documenting the trends and patterns of drug use in the area.

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 18 Student Activity 1

Use the viewing log on page 12 of this guide to record responses to what you see and hear in Episode 2.

Student Activity 2

Serious social problems had developed in the Cabramatta region in the 1980s and this episode documents those problems that included drug-dealing and drug-taking and the often violent behaviour that accompanies these activities. Many of the people involved in this sub-culture were young Vietnamese.

One of the most important aspects of the story shown in this episode is how Vietnamese-born and Australian-born people realised that only by working together as a community could they address the problems that were damaging the community in Cabramatta and destroying the ideal of multiculturalism – social harmony between different nationalities.

Episode 2 Look around you … all these little slanty-eyed people buzzing around. How did it all go so discontent and fear? – Man on the street badly wrong? • How can we accurately gauge the level of hostility within much of the There are four sets of questions Australian community to recently We are in danger of being broadly following the narrative arrived immigrants? swamped by Asians. They development of the episode. form ghettos and do not Teachers may like to allocate a set • What does Tony Hoang say was of questions to different groups of his main reason for becoming a assimilate. students who can then share their drug dealer when he was only thir- – MP Pauline Hanson in her maiden responses in discussion. teen and still at school? What were speech to the Federal Parliament in some of his aspirations? 1996. Hanson won the Queensland SET 1 seat of Oxley in 1996, securing 1990s • How does Vietnamese social 54 per cent of the two-party worker Vincent Doan account for preferred vote in what had been ‘Cabramatta is a tattoo … a tattoo that the numbers of young Vietnam- a traditional Labor stronghold. I can’t get rid of and that’s it’. – Joe Le ese becoming part of the gang and drug culture on the streets of • Negative and often angry Cabramatta? There’s one thing that they comments about recent Asian do fear, deportation back arrivals to Australia are re-iterated • What do questions asked about in the early part of this episode. MP John Newman’s assassination to the jungles of Vietnam. Allied with Liberal leader Howard’s and responses from police and expressed reservations about politicians suggest as the probable – John Newman in 1998 in ‘multiculturalism’, how would such motive for this crime? NSW State Parliament widely publicised comments have added fuel to the fire of simmering • What was Newman’s openly

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 19 I wasn’t able to adapt. Our lives were … we were adrift. We weren’t

expressed stance against the vio- even sure how to live lence and crime in Cabramatta? anymore.

• ‘The Asian population … that’s – Son Nguyen, a recent what gets focused on’. Is this refugee from Vietnam response almost inevitable in the circumstances? Is it fair or justified? • How well does Keating’s rhetoric of national idealism fit with what • While the police have a suspect, is happening on the ground in why is it so difficult to bring a places like Cabramatta? charge against this person? • What are some of the conse- • Describe Phuong Ngo’s role in the quences of ‘the code of silence’ Cabramatta community. on the streets of Cabramatta for the police enquiries into crime? • How does police officer Nick Kaldas describe the two sides of • Outline some of the main dif- streets of Cabramatta, talk about Ngo’s activities? ficulties facing Son Nguyen and the horror of twenty-four people his family in starting a new life in dying annually on his patch from • Describe how Son Nguyen’s Australia? heroin overdoses? hopes for a new life in Australia are dashed. • How does Son’s Nguyen’s only • What could and should have been son, Lam, respond to this new done by the authorities to better • Why are so many of the visuals in world in Cabramatta? manage this situation? What would this episode centred on the train have been some of the constraints station? • What were Tony Hoang’s strongest and limitations on the effectiveness memories of how he felt when he of policing? SET 2 was arrested at the train station for selling heroin? SET 3 ‘We count the creation of this rich, pluralistic and peaceful society as one • What was distinctive about Tri ‘The lack of services for those that of the most successful multicultural Minh Tran’s code of conduct for need them most not only victimises societies in the world and one of our members of the 5T gang? a community but reduces the idea of great national achievements.’ multiculturalism to a distant dream.’ – Paul Keating, Prime Minister • Who sold drugs and who used – Narrator in 1994 at the Global Cultural them under this code? Diversity conference • How is Tri Minh Tran’s life seen • Is this practice hypocritical on the as ‘a dark map of the first part of people engaged in the drug generation’? How old was he trade or is it just common sense? when he was murdered?

• How does Alan Leek, a police • Who delivered the eulogy at Tran’s officer involved in policing the funeral in 1995?

Cabramatta is not a good look. It’s riddled with economic problems, unemployment. There’s rampant crime. Levels of personal security are extremely poor and whatever multiculturalism is claiming, on the streets of Cabramatta at that time, for many people it’s a meaningless concept. – Andrew Jakubowicz

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 20 I saw them as a way to make money. All I saw about these customers was the money they had. That’s the only thing that interested me. I didn’t care why they were buying the stuff that I was selling. I just wanted that money and so that’s what happened. I didn’t care much for them. – Tony Hoang

• What other networks for alternative related problems during ‘Operation activities need to be put in place in Hammer’? communities such as Cabramatta? • Having escaped bombs and • How did the election of new MP bullets in Vietnam, what are Chau Reba Meagher raise expectations Hoang and her family now facing about a new and different in Australia? approach to addressing the • Were the police getting any closer problems in Cabramatta? SET 4 to making an arrest for the 1993 Newman assassination which hap- ‘A generation of children brought here pened more than two years before for a better life are being lost to the Tran’s murder? What continued to streets of a so-called multicultural hamper their enquiries? Cabramatta became country that doesn’t know how to help a test case of what them’. – Narrator • After Tran’s death, how did the happens when a 5T gang members start behaving • In 1996, a new Federal differently, particularly in relation to suburb and its Government was elected under drugs? people are ignored John Howard. What does Andrew Jakubowicz suggest about • In what ways does the story told [by governments]. this government’s attitude to by Chau Hoang and her son Tony multiculturalism as a positive personalise the dimensions of – Andrew Jakubowicz social model? the problem for families whose children were using drugs and • ‘They have their own culture and almost inevitably becoming part of religion and do not assimilate.’ a criminal world? • What does the name of the police – Pauline Hanson, 1996 operation ‘Operation Hammer’ How did the election of Pauline • Would the de-criminalising of suggest about the nature of this Hanson at this election tend to drugs as well as the provision of operation to stop the dealing and entrench such attitudes? safe injecting rooms, detox centres crime at the source? and other support programs have Why is that word ‘they’ so damag- helped police, families and users • Describe two of the measures ing as a way of characterising a deal with the drug and crime prob- police put into action to gain some whole race of people? lems in Cabramatta differently? For control over the criminal activities? instance, if selling heroin had not been a viable economic option for • How effective were these Tony Hoang and other young Viet- measures in addressing the roots namese, would he have become of the problem? What were the involved in crime? monthly arrest numbers for drug-

The law enforcements can’t help these people … can’t even stop them either. You could lock them up but you can’t lock them up forever. When they get out they’re going to do exactly the same if we will not do something for them. It should be something more comprehensive than that.

– Vincent Doan

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 21 Assimilation – integration into a new society. Benchmarks used by sociologists to assess the degree of assimilation of immigrants: socioeconomic status, geographical distribution, second language acquisition and intermarriage.

If the community couldn’t fix ‘They [Vietnamese the problem, what could we as guage and need to work two jobs parents] are ashamed to pay for rent and food? individuals do? of themselves because: – Son Nguyen • Does Lisa Maher, who was study- 1. As a parent they have the ing patterns of drug use in the obligation to bring up their Cabramatta area, fully endorse the children and they have failed way resources are used by govern- to do so. • What does an expectation that ments to deal with the problems new arrivals to Australia will ‘as- epitomised by the ‘junkie express’, 2. They lose face to other people similate’ suggest they should be of the dealers and the users? in the community, and able to do? What does successful 3. They feel bad because for all assimilation into a different culture • How do the stories told by Son the Vietnamese people who and society require of both the Nguyen and Lisa Maher about a came to Australia, we think that host community and the recent lost generation suggest something we have an obligation to do arrivals? of the magnitude and horror of something for this community what happened to many Vietnam- as well.’ – Vincent Doan • Today, what are the countries of ese people who came to Australia? origin of most migrants who come to Australia to re-settle? This episode ends with Thang Ngo, who currently works for SBS • How many non-Asian background television, offering his perspective on The biggest thing that every refugee students in Australian schools why many Vietnamese came to settle says is, ‘I came to Australia in search learn an Asian language such as in Australia. Thang became a Fairfield of freedom. Vietnamese, Indonesian or Manda- councillor in 1999 and had great rin? success in bringing Cabramatta’s If you want freedom and democracy social issues to the attention of the you also have to express yourself, • Does the installation of CCTV mainstream media. make yourself heard and be treated cameras meet with community the same as everyone else. You didn’t support in Cabramatta? How can ‘When we left our country, my family come for freedom to be a second- this technology assist authorities? and I left, not for economic reasons, class Australian. You came to be an but because we were seeking a bet- Australian just like anybody else.’ • How difficult is it to be a parent ter future for our children … not for and a role model to your children if us because we were already old. We Read the following responses from you don’t speak the same lan- wanted a better future for our children the makers of Once Upon a Time in than they’d have in Vietnam. Cabramatta about their intentions and hopes in making this series about the

There were certainly members of the community who said to us that you will never get him [Phuong Ngo]. We think he’s done it [the murder of John Newman] but you will never get enough evidence or get enough people to come forward to supply you with the truth, with the information that would ultimately convict him. There was a feeling that if they did talk to us Phuong Ngo would know about it and there would be recriminations against them. – Nick Kaldas, senior police officer

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 22 Student Activity 3: From the Filmmakers

Vietnamese people in Cabramatta.

We knew Cabramatta had a rich and intriguing history – it was home to Australia’s only political assassination, it fostered the emergence of the culture of Vietnamese street gangs, the suburb had been labelled ‘the Smack Capital of Australia’, and then there was the independent parliamentary commission into police resourcing. Now it is the undisputed food bowl of Sydney’s south-west.

This string of high profile events and its evolution towards a multicultural epicentre begged the questions:

What was the real story behind the headlines? Why and how did this hap- a test-case of national importance. Its understood. pen? growth through migration coincided with the abolition of the white Australia The production team included key As we began to research and develop Policy in 1973 and the dream of multi- people who were descendants from the series, Cabramatta came to light in culturalism was born here. If we were refugee families and grew up in the an entirely unexpected way. ever going to put the ghosts of the area. We had both academics and lo- white Australia Policy to bed and make cal social commentators who actively The documentary wasn’t about the multiculturalism meaningful, it would took part in the research and back- headlines; rather, what emerged was happen in Cabramatta. ground work for the film. a story about a group of war torn refugees who had risked everything The title ‘Once Upon A Time in In the early decades from the late to begin a new life in Australia. These Cabramatta’ reflects the depth and 1970s the Vietnamese people were of- otherwise ordinary people faced a importance of ten vilified and demonised. Cabramat- series of challenging cultural and ta seemed to represent all that was social events that would ultimately be Cabramatta to Australia’s migrant his- wrong with Asian immigration. What’s the making or breaking of them as a tory - once upon a time, not so long more, the community exists against a people. ago, political backdrop that was fractured, the universal support for multicultural- The more we researched the more we Cabramatta was not the thriving food ism a distant memory. realised Cabramatta was much more bowl it is today. It was not always a than a suburb; it was a living treasure, multi-cultural success story but a sub- But as the century draws to a close urb on the verge of self-destruction. there is a remarkable turnaround. The Vietnamese people find their voice Documentaries offer a rare and – speaking up to claim their rightful, privileged opportunity to tell complex democratic place in their adopted human stories to a wider public. They home. Cabramatta is a community crystallise both the heart-warming and transformed; Australia, a continent heart-breaking nature of life and it’s changed forever. always a wonderful experience to be privy to a special part of someone’s life Our hope is that the viewer will gain a journey. greater understanding and apprecia- tion of how and why the Vietnamese One of the biggest challenges of this people finally were able to claim their documentary is ensuring a wider rightful, democratic place in multicul- perspective and understanding of tural Australia. This is a story of hope Cabramatta’s story than is generally and courage, told in the hope that the

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 23 lessons learned in Cabramatta can be applied to other communities trying to define their place in Australia today. We hope the audience will see this series as a touchstone for the wider multicultural conversation that is happening in Australia today.

• What light do you think this episode throws on how recent arrivals need to be assisted if they and their children are to integrate harmoniously into Australian society?

• Make a list of some of the things you think need to be done differently to prevent the problems experienced by the first wave of Vietnamese migrants being repeated with other new arrivals?

• What did you learn about the difficulties of leaving some of your past traumas and experiences behind when you flee your homeland to find sanctuary in another country?

• What did you learn about the social problems that invariably accompany the selling and using of illegal drugs such as heroin?

• What is shown to be valuable in Vietnamese society that we can learn from?

• How do you think the filmmakers were able to persuade so many Vietnamese people to talk so openly and honestly about painful and often shameful aspects of their lives? For an interactive timeline of the • Why is the question —‘What was Cabramatta story and it really like for you and your family?’— so important to under- many online extras go to: standing this story as much more than a set of figures and failures? sbs.com.au/onceuponatime

Text of Andrew Jakubowicz article and click on various dates to provide about the Vietnamese migrant experi- an understanding of the Vietnamese ence in Australia. experience both in Australia and in Vietnam. http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/ society-and-culture/from-war-to- tough-new-frontier-the-

vietnamese-path-to-cohesion-20120106-1polu.html

Text of 2007 ABC Four Corners program about crime and drugs in Cabramatta.

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s72739.htm

An article from the Australian newspaper by Sally Neighbour about the reality of so-called ‘ethnic crime’.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/migrant-groups-going-gang-busters/ story-e6frg6z6-1226017998892

Watch a 7 minute YouTube video about the ‘Com for Unity’ programs in Blacktown, run by local police, designed to address the problems of boredom, alienation and fighting amongst a group of more recent young arrivals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VlhQeDYft0

Synopsis

As a new millennium beckons, the streets of Cabra- matta remain in the dark ages, infested by drugs and crime but slowly the Vietnamese community, so quiet for so long, finds its voice.

The 8.04 ‘junkie express’ pulls into Cabramatta train station. By lunchtime at least one thousand users will have arrived. It’s like this every day. 100 dealers, many teenagers, buzz around the streets—self made entrepreneurs in a local black market economy of drugs and gangland crime. The police struggle to keep control. It’s 1999 and Cabramatta’s never had it so bad.

Asians and crime are indelibly linked in the minds of many. Political support for multiculturalism is now a distant memory. The only hope is that the community itself, so vilified and fractured, will somehow finds its own way to overcome its problems. Slowly but surely they do. A Parliamentary Inquiry is finally forced and for the first time the problems and needs of Cabra- matta are met head on. The Vietnamese, so quiet for so long, find their voice. Cabramatta becomes a community transformed. Australia, a continent changed forever.

Many of the participants from Episodes 1 and 2 also appear in this episode. (See the earlier pages of this guide for their profiles). Additional individuals include the following:

Thang Ngo Tim Priest Helen Sham-Ho Ross Treyvaud (Episode 3) (Episode 3) (Episode 3) (Episode 3) 1986 to 1988 – Helen works in 1978 – Ross works at the Stardust 1966 – Thang Ngo is born in Vietnam 1986 – Joins NSW Police Drug Squad Cabramatta as a Solicitor Hotel in Cabramatta 1988 to 1998 – Helen becomes a 1993 – Ross returns to Cabramatta 1977 – Thang and his family arrive in 1996 – Detective at Cabramatta LAC NSW Upper House Liberal member. to work at the Cabramatta Inn Australia as refugees (Drug Squad) 1998 to 2003 – Helen becomes 1998 – Ross starts ‘Cabramatta Against Crime’ with Thang Ngo 1999 – Thang becomes a Fairfield 2001 – Makes submissions to the a NSW Upper House Independent City Councillor Parliamentary Inquiry into Police member 2001 – Ross makes a submission to Resourcing in Cabramatta. Tim 2001 – Helen chairs the 2001 Inquiry the Parliamentary Inquiry into Police Thang was born in Vietnam in 1966 worked in the drug squad of the NSW into Police Resourcing in Cabramatta Resourcing in Cabramatta and arrived in Australia as a refugee Police Force (based in Cabramatta) in Helen Sham-Ho first worked in Ross worked at the Stardust Hotel in in July 1977. He was raised in Epping 1986. He was part of the team that Cabramatta as a solicitor in 1986. Cabramatta from 1978 to 1983 (as and completed his HSC at Penrith arrested one of the first Vietnamese She became a Liberal Party member Manager from 1980). After spending High School. Thang Ngo became a drug dealers in the area. He returned in 1988 but resigned in 1998 when the next 10 years in a pub in Fairfield councillor in 1999. Thang as a detective to Cabramatta in 1995 Prime Minister John Howard refused Sydney’s CBD he came back to work at the Cabramatta Inn in 1993. He had great success in bringing and worked there until 2001. Tim to denounce what she considered worked closely with the community Cabramatta’s social issues to the played a major role in the Parliamen- to be Pauline Hanson’s anti-Asian and the Chamber of Commerce and attention of the mainstream media. tary Inquiry into Police Resourcing in rhetoric. Helen subsequently became an Independent Member of the where possible the Cabramatta police Thang was instrumental in bringing Cabramatta. NSW Upper House. Her proudest and politicians of the area. He was about the Parliamentary Inquiry into achievement in politics was when a vocal member of the community Policing in Cabramatta and helped she chaired the Standing Committee agitating for change. He and Thang draft its Terms of Reference. Thang is Number 3 which ran the 2001 Inquiry Ngo formed ‘Cabramatta against currently ALC Strategy and Planning into Police Resourcing in Cabramatta. Crime’ and he played an important Manager at SBS. Helen retired from politics in 2003. role in the Parliamentary Inquiry with his submission to the committee.

Use the Viewing Log on page 12 of this guide to record responses to what you see and hear in Episode 3.

Student Activity 2 ‘It was absolutely unbelievable that crime could get to the level it did in this area and nobody seemed to care’. (Ross Treyvaud)

Serious social problems had developed in the Cabramatta region in the 1980s and beyond, manifested in drug use and drug dealing and the often violent behaviour that accompanies these activities. Many of the people involved in this sub-culture were young Vietnamese.

One of the most important aspects of the story shown in this final episode is how Vietnamese born and Australian born people from many walks of life realised that only by working together as a community with the help of police and politicians could they turn around the situation that had led to Cabramatta being dubbed as ‘Cabramatta became the ‘the heroin capital of Australia’. The Vietnamese people needed to show a new and different face of what multiculturalism could epitome of all that might be. As the new century began, changes were beginning and the be wrong with Asian image of Cabramatta began to change. This episode shows how migration to Australia....that some of those changes came about and the people behind them. anyone form Cabramatta suddenly became a criminal, a murderer, a drug fiend, prostitute.’ Episode 2 A community finally finds its voice Andrew Jakubowicz.

There are four sets of questions SET 1 broadly following the narrative development of the episode. Teachers may How bad could things get? • How did the arrest of Phuong like to allocate a set of questions to Ngo for the murder of John New- different groups of students who can ‘The heroin capital of Australia...and man entrench negative attitudes then share their responses in discus- Tony Hoang {after 6 months jail} goes towards the whole Vietnamese sion. back to making a living in a place that community? appears to have become an aban- doned hell’. Narrator. • Describe the conflicted feelings Tony Hoang’s mother felt about ‘People labelled Cabramatta as • What did the media and many her son’s choices and way of life. people in the Australian commu- a bad place from just the minority nity suggest that the charging of • What prompts publican and Presi- of the people that, like me, got Phuong Ngo with John Newman’s dent of the Cabramatta Chamber on drugs and did bad things murder signified about the Viet- of Commerce, Ross Treyvaud, namese community? into action to promote and effect and gave Cabramatta and our change? community a bad rap.’ • Is it reasonable to generalise about a whole community based on the • How did the fact that Cabramatta (Tony Hoang) crimes of a few individuals? What was a safe Labor seat possibly is the term often used for such delay the complex interventions – Son Nguyen generalising, particularly about an that were required? ethnic group?

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 28 • What was the result of the police • What are many people’s main ob- crackdown on the streets of Op- ‘The wall of silence...is jections to the setting up of such eration Puccini on how the dealers, a sign that the community places? including young Tony Hoang, don’t trust the wider conducted their trade? (Read a 2011 article about council political system’. support and State Government rejec- • What does Tony Hoang’s story re- tion of a proposal to set up a safe – Andrew Jakubowicz veal about the insidious attractions injecting room in Richmond in Victoria of the illegal drug trade for young at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011- men like Tony? ‘It’s four and a half years 05-18/baillieu-vetoes-injecting-room- since a detox centre was plan/2717488 • How did the ‘drug houses’ create promised’. further problems for the commu- • What was being used as defacto nity, the police and paramedics like – Narrator shooting- up place in Cabramatta? John Ellems? ‘All we’re doing is SET 3 SET 2 facilitating people ‘ The Vietnamese people finally have ‘Thang was able to represent his com- injecting drugs and not a new leader willing to fight on their munity and give his community a voice doing anything to help behalf and they also have an Aussie and stand up to the authorities and rehabilitate them.’ publican on their side — old and new say, ‘Listen...you can’t say all Vietnam- Australia joining forces in the battle.’ ese are silent because I’m not silent –Thang Ngo describing (Narrator) and I’m here to tell you exactly what’s the way people shoot going on’. (Ross Treyvaud) up in the area • What is the reality of Prime Minis- ter Howard’s call to ‘get tough on • What work experience and per- drugs’ in 1997? sonal qualities made Thang Ngo a strong advocate and role model • Did this call and the visits of ex- for young Vietnamese people who perts and politicians to the streets often felt powerless? How are the • When 20 hospital beds are opened of Cabramatta cause any real local roots of his political activities up to treat drug addicts, does this changes in Tony Hoang’s life? similar to those of Phuong Ngo, make a large dent in the problem? John Newman and Chris Bowen What is the problem with offer- • What are some of the crimes that (currently Federal Minister for Im- ing treatment programs that are are becoming increasingly com- migration)? Check Thang’s profile not necessarily appropriate or mon in Cabramatta? in the early part of this Episode 3 adequate to meet the needs of the guide. community? What are some of the problems Vincent Doan describes • How is his refusal to accept how in relation to these programs being bad things have become different able to assist the Vietnamese? to the fear of authority and silent passivity Thang saw in many oth- • What possible approach to helping ers? Vietnamese kids get off drugs per- manently does Vincent Doan think • What is the contrast described by might be worth trying? Thang Ngo between his life and that of many other young Vietnam- • How does then Mayor of Fairfield, ese he encounters on the streets Chris Bowen, respond to the call of Cabramatta? for safe injecting rooms in the Cabramatta area? • How does the Nguyen family’s struggle with their son Lam’s • What are some of the problems drug addiction demonstrate the that can be better managed in safe urgent need for a detox centre in injecting rooms in places where Cabramatta? Outline the Nguyen illegal drugs such as heroin are family’s own desperate attempts to being used on the streets? get Lam clean.

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 29 ‘ Somehow it {the Police Database} shows that Cabramatta is one of the safer suburbs in the entire state....of 80 patrols, Bankstown tops the list and Cabramatta is 51st.’

‘There are now something like 1500 addicts living in and around Cabramatta’. • What were some of the immediate amongst other things, that a short- list of recommendations that were age of heroin in 2001 helped clean implemented even before the final up Cabramatta. However, turning report of the Parliamentary Enquiry a community around is never the was officially released? result of a single factor. What do you think were the most crucial ini- • What is being measured by the • How is the conviction of Phuong tiatives in assisting the resurrection new Police Database? Why is Ngo who is found guilty of the of Cabramatta and its Vietnamese the result that shows Cabramatta murder of John Newman seen as population in effecting significant to be relatively crime-free quite an important moment in drawing a changes? unbelievable to those who live and line in the sands of history? work there? What are some of the • What lessons can be learned from crimes excluded from this index? • What do we see of Tony Hoang as this story about how we welcome he finally decides he’s had enough and help integrate new arrivals into • What does Ross Treyvaud decide of his drug world life? the Australian community? Create to do when he is offered drugs on a list of ‘could do better’ ideas the streets of Cabramatta? • What happened to Lam Nguyen from members of your class.

• How did the letter from the local and his extraordinary parents? • Who should be responsible for primary school students about ensuring that different ethnic syringes in their playground gal- • The final on-screen texts at groups are assisted in the process vanize Thang to enlist the help of the end of this series mention, of re-settlement? Helen Sham-Ho, Member of the NSW Legislative Council? ‘It’s so wrong, so ridiculous that a suburb where people • What action did Helen Sham-Ho live and work and you have this war zone in your back initiate at State Government level? yard. It’s just not right.’ SET 4 Helen Sham-Ho ‘The everyday people of Cabramatta are about to be given the chance to prove that in a true multicultural ‘First time the Cabramatta community had the eye of community, everyone has a voice.’ (Narrator) State Parliament. An Upper House enquiry looking into the problems of the area and specifically looking into the • How did the everyday people problems of policing. Not into the people and where they respond to the invitation of the Parliamentary inquiry to voice their went wrong. Looking into the police and what we can do concerns? to help them’. (Thang Ngo)

Using historical sources 5. Who should be responsible for • Statistical records about, for preserving written and visual mate- instance, crime figures. Official Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta rials that tell us about our past? records such as those collected in raises questions about the nature of a national census every 5 years by historical enquiry and the sources The period explored in these programs the Australian Bureau of Statistics available to filmmakers telling a story begins in the late 1970s when the war can be very useful to historians, about a place and people from our in Vietnam between the north and demographers and politicians. recent past. The medium of television south ended and thousands of Viet- certainly ensures a much broader au- namese fled their homeland. The se- • Public media records such as dience than is likely with many written ries incorporates a variety of resources newspaper articles and pho- accounts but like any history it is a to tell the story of the Vietnamese peo- tographs, television programs, representation of a place and time in ple in Australia, sometimes described films and newsreel footage. This the recent past. Here are some ques- as ‘the first boat people’, though most material provides visual evidence tions to consider: came by plane as do the majority of that creates a vivid account of how arrivals today. people lived, what they valued and 1. How can and do we know about what the media considered impor- what happened in the distant and • Many people from this turbulent tant at the time. more immediate past? period are able to describe what life was like for them when they left • What are some of the newspaper, 2. What constitutes historical evi- Vietnam and settled in Cabramat- television and filmed records of dence? ta. Such accounts are known as what happened during the past 35 eyewitness accounts or sometimes years in Cabramatta? 3. How can we represent what we anecdotal evidence. discover, whether in writing or in • How complete and accurate is the visual terms? • Make a list of the range of people media representation? appearing in this program to tell 4. In what ways does it matter that their stories about their family life, • Personal records including photo- we understand what life was like work and what happened to them. graphs and home movies. Such re- for people in earlier times? cords are important in conveying a

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 31 picture of attitudes and values and records from the past are never • Do the often conflicting public and showing us details about aspects complete and comprehensive. The personal stories encourage us of people’s lives such as housing, representation is also likely to be consider the degree of spin and dress and social life. framed within the historian’s own be- ‘political correctness’ to which we liefs and experience. Filmmakers and are often subjected by politicians • Economic figures which tell us historians alike must work with avail- and the media? about the complex relationship be- able materials to tell a story. We, as tween economic conditions such viewers, need to decide whether the • Why do the stories of everyday as recessions and/or booms and ways the stories are told are a fair and people matter in the construction how people lived and worked. reliable representation of the period of an historical account? and place depicted. How do we make • Changes in government policy and such judgements? If you look at the • Finally, do we want to keep people legislation e.g. the Government extensive Crew List for Once Upon a out of Australia, to treat them as Enquiry into policing in Cabramatta Time in Cabramatta that appears later interlopers, not ‘people like us’ in late 2000. in this guide, you will get some sense or do we want to embrace their of the range of researchers and expert skills and cultures and ensure that A range of evidence is essential for advisors who worked on this series. immigrants have adequate op- compiling a complex and detailed portunities to play their part in a picture of the intersection be- At the same time, filmmakers are democratic and open society? tween private and public life. This always conscious of the need for their is important for showing what life work to be not just informative, but Should recent arrivals continue was like for the everyday people, entertaining. Facts and figures need to to suffer as many Vietnamese their political representatives at the be melded with the stories of individu- did when they come to settle in local, state and national level and als in order to engage an audience. Australia or should we be assisting public authorities, represented in Individual stories need to be carefully recent arrivals to become pro- this series by police officers and developed over the series so that we ductive and happy members of a paramedics. don’t fully understand these very per- multicultural Australia? sonal stories until the final chapter. Historians and documentary filmmakers always have to decide what • How well do you think the series material to include and what to leave balances the personal and public out. Any representation of the past stories? is based on available evidence, as

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 32 Vietnamese food begins on SBS television on February Nam Le - author of The Boat, winner 23rd, 2012. of the 2008 Dylan Thomas Prize Many students may be familiar with Vietnamese food which is justly Many Vietnamese Australians have Tan Le - 1998 Young Australian of the famous for its variety, flavours, fresh- established successful careers in Year ness and value for money. Footscray, Australia in many areas from medicine Springvale and Richmond in Mel- to art, film and television, the law, Luke Nguyen, owner chef of The Red bourne are known for their Vietnam- politics, science and engineering. Lantern restaurant in Sydney ese restaurants. In Sydney you can Some of these people, apart from head to Cabramatta or Marrickville or those appearing in Once Upon a Time You may be able to add to this list any Surry Hills or Canley Vale and in other in Cabramatta, include: Vietnamese Australians you know of Australian cities you will find great who have achieved public acclaim for restaurants wherever Vietnamese have Anh Do - Comedian, actor, author of their work (or who should have). settled. There are fine Vietnamese The Happiest Refugee and brother restaurants in Tasmania, Darwin, Bris- of Khoa Do bane, Perth and Adelaide. For a range of Vietnamese recipes see: http:// Khoa Do - Young Australian of the For an interactive time- www.taste.com.au/recipes/collections/ Year in 2005, writer, director and line of the Cabramatta story vietnamese+recipes brother of Anh Do and many online extras go to: Luke Nguyen is Australia’s best-known Hieu Van Le - Lieutenant Governor Vietnamese cook. You can catch his of South Australia and Chairman sbs.com.au/onceuponatime programs on SBS television and check of the South Australian Multicul- out his books and recipes online. tural and Ethnic Affairs Commission and click on various dates to provide (SAMEAC). an understanding of the Vietnamese experi- His new program, Luke Nguyen’s ence both in Australia and in Vietnam. Greater Mekong, where he extends Hung Le - Comedian his culinary journey beyond Vietnam, You can also contribute your opinion about the series to an online forum at this site.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS STILLS PHOTOGRAPHY COLOURIST Service Sue Clothier Preston Clothier Trish Cahill Getty Images Craig Graham ITN Source SOUND RECORDIST SOUND DESIGNER NFSA Film Australia Collection SERIES WRITER & PRODUCER Chris McCallum Tony Murtugh (1) Nine Network Australia Jacob Hickey David White (2 & 3) DEVELOPMENT RESEARCHERS SBS News and Current Affairs SERIES DIRECTOR Katherine Anderson SOUND MIXER The Seven Network Bernadine Lim Elizabeth Kaydos Peter Purcell UNHCR Kristin Lee NARRATOR NARRATION RECORD THE PRODUCERS WISH TO Kristin Quayle-Graham Tara Morice Liesl Pieterse THANK ARCHIVE RESEARCHER LINE PRODUCER COMPLETION GUARANTY The Vietnamese community of Naomi J Hall Nicola Sullivan Provided through First Australian Cabramatta ASSISTANT EDITOR Completion Bond Company Pty. Ltd. The Hoang, Le and Nguyen families PICTURE EDITORS Liam Rodden Ambrose Dinh Sam Wilson (1 & 3) LEGAL ADVISOR Casula Powerhouse Nikki Stevens (2) TITLE DESIGN Robert Reeve Defence Housing Australia Adam Ludd POST PRODUCTION PRODUCER SBS LEGAL ADVISORS Fairfield City Council Tim Clark GRAPHIC DESIGNER Sally McCausland Rail Corp Luke Harris Lyn Kemmis ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Martien Coucke Stephanie Walsh ORIGINAL MUSIC PRODUCTION ACCOUNTANT Marilyn Gallo Christopher Elves (1 & 2) Bronwyn Speziale Katherine Hristoforidis PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR & Natalie Johnson ADDITIONAL RESEARCH MUSIC BY SERIES ADVISORS Prof. Lisa Maher Peta Ayers Dinesh Wicks and Adam Gock (3) Andrew Jakubowicz Mary-Ellen Mullane Hien Le ADDITIONAL DIRECTION POST PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Heather Oxenham Thang Ngo Shannon Jones David Gross Corrie Soeterboek ARCHIVE FOOTAGE AND STILL Liz Stevens DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY ONLINE EDITOR IMAGES COURTESY OF Justin Hanrahan Ben Blick-Hodge (1) RESEARCHER Australian Broadcasting Simon Ashby, David Gross (2 & 3) Maria Tran TIMELAPSE Corporation Library Sales In association with Screen NSW Tim Pass ONLINE FACILITY CriticalPast Slingshot Attachment Program Definition Films AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY Fairfax Photos SBS COMMISSIONG EDITOR Nathan Tomlinson The Fairfield Advance Newspaper Fairfield City Council Library John Godfrey

Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta official website http://www.sbs.com.au/onceuponatime/

The Vietnamese Community in Australia, NSW chapter http://www.vietnamese.org.au/

Fairfield City Council http://www.fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au/

Fairfield Library – The Way We Were project http://fairfieldcity.oralhistory.com.au/

The Refugee Council of Australia http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/

Amnesty International – Refugees and human rights http://www.amnesty.org.au/refugees/

Department of Immigration and Citizenship http://www.immi.gov.au/

Pulau Bidong – A Boat People Legacy http://www.pulaubidong.org/

Cabramatta Community Centre http://cabracc.org.au/

Open Family Australia http://www.openfamily.com.au

A 2008 essay by Alice Pung, author of Unpolished Gem and Her Father’s Daughter, writing about starting her life as an Asian immigrant to Australia in 1980 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/ features/alice-pung-on-new-australians/ story-e6frg8h6-1111117529999

Marguerite O’Hara 20/1/2012

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 35 This study guide was produced by ATOM. (© ATOM 2012) ISBN: 978-1-74295-136-2 [email protected] For more information on Screen Education magazine, or to download other study guides for assessment, visit . Join ATOM’s email broadcast list for invitations to free screenings, conferences, seminars, etc. Sign up now at . For hundreds of articles on Film as Text, Screen Literacy, Multiliteracy and Media Studies, visit .