Cassie Truong

Story

The year has started off rough so Dean and Cassie are trying to bribe people with food to fundraise for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) so that we remember that there’s always good in the world.

More seriously - most of us have come to Australia as uninvited settlers, some of us by way of being Asylum Seekers, some of us; children of Asylum Seekers.

Cassie’s dad arrived in Australia with his two aunts as a teen who, at the age of 10 had fled Vietnam with the little money the family could put together.

Cassie’s dad, Austin; raised her and her siblings with stories about waiting on some island with fish bones that glowed, sleeping on the sand - often with all the little rodents that our cosy houses kept out - not knowing when rations would come and when they would leave. Austin raised Cassie and her siblings to always give thanks to the Australia that gave him refuge, and a place to find love and family when home was not safe.

Cassie’s father unfortunately passed away a few years ago from lung cancer during Covid, but we hold small feasts in various ways to raise money to a cause that Austin would have been proud of.

We live on in his memory, and we remember all that can be good in this world, and how lucky we are to not sleep in fear of being bitten by small mammals, become ill from injuries and infections, and more importantly that we are alive.

Dean and Cassie acknowledge the Boon Wurrung lands where small treats and small feasts in their small home are prepared for this fundraiser. They also acknowledge the waters, lands, and sky who help provide and nurture us all. As Chinese descendants, they commit themselves to walking in an ally-ship alongside First Nations People. They acknowledge the bloody history that the uninvited Chinese settlers shared with First Nations People during the White Australia movement and how important it is that sovereignty was never ceded.