Boat People

Personal stories from the Vietnam Exodus edited by Carina Hoang

BOAT PEOPLE
Personal stories from the Vietnam exodus
Edited by Carina Hoang

This important book brings together a collection of survival tales from the largest mass migration of human beings in modern history.

Told as first-person narratives, they illustrate the perilous nature of the sea journeys undertaken by some 1.5 million people in the 1970s and 1980s to escape the bitter aftermath of a protracted civil war.

These refugees invariably set sail in small wooden river craft that were unsuitable for the vast and unpredictable expanses of the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, where nearly half a million were to perish.

Most who reached other countries went directly into refugee camps, with little more than their dignity to sustain them. Others faced months of struggle on uninhabited islands before help came from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Many died without advancing their dream of finding freedom and, over time, a substantial number of their grave sites became lost under encroaching jungle.

The book includes extracts from diaries, letters, and other testimony of former UNHCR officers located in Canada, Indonesia, the US and Australia. Among them is 84-year-old Talbot Bashall, who served as Controller of the Refugee Control Centre in Hong Kong. After so many years, these privileged perspectives on the exodus can finally be shared.

Carina Hoang has also assembled a powerful collection of photographic images, most of which are published for the first time. They are vital to the book’s first objective, which is to preserve the historical record for the education of future generations of the global boat-people diaspora.

The book’s other goal is to tell how the survivors of the exodus have been, on the whole, able to make valuable contributions to the societies that accepted them.

These are stories of heartache and determination, loss and salvation, tragedy and triumph; but the over-arching theme is undoubtedly the power of hope.

“Although many stories about boat people have been documented, Boat People will offer possibly the broadest account of the historic exodus, to enhance general understanding of what we, the boat people, went through. It will be especially beneficial for our children; they need to know about this significant part of their heritage, and to appreciate the sacrifices made by their forebears.” Carina Hoang – 2010