Some stories stay with you long after you finish reading. Cat Thao Nguyen’s memoir We Are Here is one of them. It is the story of a family who lost almost everything and, through extraordinary courage and hope, built a new life in Australia.
Born in a refugee camp
Cat was born two months premature in Sikhiu refugee camp, on the Thai side of the Thai-Cambodian border, weighing about 1.6 kilograms. Her father, a former banker, had been sent to a re-education camp after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Her mother, a law student, was forced to work in the rice fields to keep her family alive.
In 1979, her parents made the agonising decision to leave Vietnam. They did not go by boat. They walked, crossing Cambodia on foot to reach Thailand, surviving dangers most of us can barely imagine and passing through several refugee camps along the way.
A new life in Western Sydney
Accepted by the Australian government, the family arrived at the Villawood migrant hostel and later settled around Bankstown. Life was hard. Cat’s parents worked long hours in factories and at sewing machines, while she translated letters and forms for them as a small child.
One day, after being bullied at work, her father told her: “I have a mouth to eat with but I don’t have a mouth to speak with. You are my voice.”
Turning hardship into purpose
That responsibility drove Cat to study hard and give back. She became involved in community work with young people and migrant communities, and in 2004 was selected as the Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations, the first person from a refugee background to hold the role. She went on to study law at the University of Sydney and was admitted as a lawyer.
Standing with her parents in the NSW Supreme Court on the day of her admission, she was overwhelmed by everything they had endured to get there. “We are here,” she writes.
What her story teaches us about resilience
- Hope is a practice. Her parents kept going, day after day, because they believed in a better future for their children.
- Connection to roots matters. Visiting Vietnam and learning her family history gave Cat a deeper sense of identity and belonging.
- Struggle can become purpose. She turned her family’s experience into a lifelong commitment to helping others.
We Are Here by Cat Thao Nguyen is published by Allen & Unwin. For more stories of courage and resilience, explore our Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing guide.
