The Vietnamese Australians: Heritage and Contributions

The Vietnamese Australians: Heritage and Contributions narrates the contributions to Australia, spanning five decades, through education and sport by Minh Hien and her three brothers, Tri Tri Tran, Tri Tue Tran and Tri Minh Tran, illustrated with colourful photos.

At the core of the book lies a heart-warming story of four siblings who arrived in Australia as refugees (boat people) and held together to achieve not just for themselves but ensured to contribute to the nation that welcomed them.

Minh Hien was a seventeen-year old refugee, in search of education, sat sail in a leaky boat. Upon arrival she enrolled in a college and soon was on her way to achieve an honours degree and continue to do a Masters in Engineering. That was not enough. Later she completed a Master of Commerce, a Master of Arts in Creative Writing, two Masters in Education and three other postgraduate qualifications. Apart from working full time, she spent a fair bit of her personal time to better the learning of her colleagues. She reached out to teach poor students in a remote part of her motherland who normally were ignored or side tracked.

The eldest-brother and the youngest brother introduced Vietnamese Martial Arts as a way of life to better the life of many who wished to improve their meditative and physical skills. They ensured Vietnamese Martial Arts is well recognised by winning championships in open competitions at National levels.

The second-elder brother after devoting time to Vietnamese Martial Arts, spent a great amount of time in organising tournaments for highly successful leaders of business communities in both Australia and in his motherland, many of them immigrants or refugees, to cooperate and hold dialogue for betterment of themselves, their businesses and also to participate in charities and social works through golf.

In the background, the book provides ample materials on Vietnamese culture and introduces leaders who achieved famous status such as Tran Hung Dao, who defeated mighty Mongol armies, is worshipped not only in Vietnam but also in Japan and known as one of the best generals of the century. The female general Bui Thi Xuan was one of the rare kinds of her gender who rose up for justice and left remarkable traits.

Also lighter topics of embroidery and dress are covered with a number of photographs of beautiful ao dai, the traditional costume for Vietnamese women, presented along with elucidation of their salient features.

It is released on the International Men's Day.