Australian SBS Radio/Television Interviews Michael Nguyen SVD Living Black: A Vietnamese Priest on a Mission to Northern Territory 26 July 2017 – 4:23PM
In
December 2009, a Vietnamese priest of refugee background left Melbourne for the
little town of Alice Springs to live among local Aboriginal communities.
Looking back at his four years spent there, Reverend Michael Nguyen told SBS
Vietnamese that it was his refugee background and his community's own
experience of loss that helped him better empathise with Indigenous
Australia
What do
Vietnamese refugees and Indigenous Australians have in common? Reverend Michael
Nguyen knows the answer.
Having lived
with the Indigenous community in Alice Springs, Northern Territory for over
four years, the Vietnamese priest of refugee background has, he tells SBS
Vietnamese, “breathed into my lungs the clean
desert air, met the desert inhabitants, and shared with them the joy as well as
the sadness.”
Coming to this
little desert town with a head full of doubts - as well as misconceptions about
the Aboriginal culture, the mission has totally converted him into a more
mature and compassionate man, who is tolerant towards different cultures.
"The thing
that makes me happy ever since I moved to Alice Springs is that both my
physical and spiritual life have blossomed and made great strides," says
Nguyen.
Reverend Michael
Nguyen is a member of the Christian missionary church, the Society of the
Divine Word. He received his missionary training with the Society in Chicago in
the United States.
Ordained to
priesthood in 2002, Nguyen then engaged in various religious missions in the
United States and Australia, before moving to Alice Springs towards the end of
December 2009. Since then, he has taken regular trips with his fellow Divine
Word Missionaries into the Aboriginal villages in the remote areas of the Red
Centre.
He was impressed
by the scale and breadth of all that Aboriginal culture encompasses -
especially their religion, or spirituality, the Dream Time, and their social
structure.
"According
to archaeological records, the Aboriginal people have been present on this
continent over 40,000 years. As you know, the Vietnamese civilization is only
about 4,000 years [old]," said Nguyen. "This number of 40,000 speaks
of the impressive length of the Aboriginal culture in Australia."
As a
former Vietnamese refugee, Nguyen felt that the Indigenous people, just like
himself, had lost many things.
According to Nguyen,
the common view that Aboriginal Australians do not want to abandon their
nomadic lifestyle is both "accurate and paradoxically
inaccurate."
"It is
accurate for that statement is observed by you who live in the urban city. But
if we look at the matter from the Aboriginal perspectives, I am certain that
this will be viewed with different outlooks; for example, 'Why should I - an
Aboriginal man - abandon my happy nomadic life?'”
Nguyen recalled
sitting among the Indigenous people next to the bonfire during dark, cold
nights, and watching the Milky Way stretch out before their eyes "like a
shiny river sparkling with millions of diamonds across the desert sky."
"It was
cold, actually freezing, and yet because we sat next to one another, the
Indigenous and I no longer felt cold; the heat of human love and the fire kept
each individual inhabitant of the desert during the winter feeling warm,"
said Nguyen.
In
general, Nguyen observed that Vietnamese people did not have many opportunities
to work with the Aboriginal community, thus they, like many other ethnic groups
in Australia, had certain biases towards the traditional custodians of the
land.
Nguyen said that
he loved the Aboriginal people he worked with because of their "unique
characteristics", such as "quiescence and gentleness".
As a former
Vietnamese refugee, Nguyen felt that the Indigenous people, just like himself,
had lost many things. And he admitted that he needed the Aboriginal people more
than they needed him, because they gave him a chance to experience his own
"missionary vocation."
"Each time
I come back from a pastoral trip, I feel that I am happier than [before],
because through the Aboriginal people, my missionary life has been profoundly
enriched and become deeply meaningful," says Nguyen.
Besides the
Aboriginal community, Nguyen was also engaged with the Vietnamese community in
Alice Springs, which was made up of around ten families.
"I often
meet up with them for Vietnamese food – spring rolls, pho, chicken soup, duck
soup, pork intestine soup... No matter if it’s Western New Year, Tet, or
Christmas, we often get together for food," says Nguyen.
In general,
Nguyen observed that Vietnamese people did not have many opportunities to work
with the Aboriginal community, thus they, like many other ethnic groups in
Australia, had certain biases towards the traditional custodians of the land.
However, he says
that more they lived with the Aboriginal people, the more they were enriched
with knowledge about the Aboriginal culture. In the end, these migrants too,
all deeply respected "their unique Aboriginal neighbours."
In the context
of NAIDOC Week, Nguyen believed one of many priceless lessons we could learn
from the Aboriginal Australians was, "the Earth does not belong only to
human species, but rather to all forms of life."
"For four
years to be in the desert, honestly I did nothing except to dwell and journey
along with the Aboriginal Australians," says Nguyen.
"I walked
with them, I laughed out loud with them, and of course, I also burst into tears
with them. If they felt joyful, I shared their joy. If they became sad, I
shared their sadness. The Aboriginal people and I became one.
"There was
a time I had envisaged my wet tomb among the many greenery tombs of the
Aboriginal Australians. These were all that I contributed and envisaged in the
desert. No more no less!"
________________________________
About Reverend Michael Nguyen
Reverend Michael
Nguyen SVD is a member of the Society of Divine Word. He received his
missionary training with the Society in Chicago, IL. Currently he is working
for Australia Province.
He was born in
Saigon. As a teenager, he saw one of the first Viet Cong tanks rolling on the
road of Saigon on April 30, 1975. In 1982, with the other 62 human lives, he
fled Vietnam in searching for freedom. The tiny fishing boat landed on Malaysia
after being drifted along the ocean for 4 days. In 1984, he was resettled in
San Jose, CA. In 1989 he earned a BS degree in Electrical Engineer in San Jose
State University, CA. In 2002, he earned an MA in Bible Studies in Catholic
Theological Union in Chicago, IL. That year, he was also ordained to priesthood
in Chicago.
In 2006, he
received his assignment to teach the Scriptures in Yarra Theological Union, Box
Hill. In 2009, he left Melbourne for the assignment in Alice Springs, NT.
In 2016, he left
Australia for the Philippines. He is currently a PhD candidate in Missiology of
Divine Word Institute of Mission Studies (DWIMS) in Tagaytay, Philippines.
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