HAI BĂN TAY TRẮNG was a proposal I developed closely with Gabriele Ulacco @shop.1 for the City of Yarra’s Vietnamese Community 50th Anniversary Commemorative Marker Commission. 

Although we did not ultimately win the commission, it is important to recognise the hard work of our team and the inspiration of our immigrant families throughout this process. It is equally important to acknowledge the supportive Arts Team and the cultural investment that the City of Yarra sought by bringing in members of the Vietnamese Community Project Consultative Group (CPCG). Additionally thank you to Loan Phạm for helping with language translations.

Looking beyond the boat person narrative (with less than a third of the 3 million Vietnamese fleeing overseas after war) or simply celebrating the achievements of the Australian-Vietnamese community, this project refocuses on the hardwork and worn out hands of my mother Thị Kim Dung. 

‘Hai Bằn Tay Trắng’ is a common saying by the Vietnamese diaspora. Literally translated it means ‘a pair of white hands,’ but culturally it implies that we come with nothing and will leave with nothing. 

Between a gnarled pair of hands reaching towards the sky and a rice paddy hen (Chim Quốc Quốc) taking flight, the artwork was initially conceived as a sculptural vessel to accommodate ceremonial incense burning events for the community - bringing together the Vietnamese interfaith practice of offering incense to commemorate those here and those still lost throughout our migration journeys. 

Honouring the diasporic condition as one that is intrinsically non-materialistic and anti-colonial, the work is a cosmological reminder that for Vietnamese refugees who came here with nothing, we too will ultimately have to leave this place with nothing. 

Etched into the memorial itself would have been the first co-written Acknowledgement of Country with Yanna Ngargna Advisory Group in both Wurundjeri and Vietnamese on a public memorial. 

I am profoundly proud of the work and effort of our team, and genuinely looking forward to seeing the significant impact that the winning artwork will have for helping the Vietnamese community feel seen, both in the City of Yarra and beyond.