Brighter Future In Palmerston North For Former Refugees

From 1979 until the early 1990s, there were about 40-50 families from Cambodia settled in Palmerston North. Most adults - especially women - didn’t speak, or had very little understanding of the English language.  They often said to me, “Here, we are mute and dumb.”  As a former Cambodian refugee myself, I knew what they meant.  

It was in autumn 1981, when my family of eight arrived in New Zealand after more than two years of living in Thai refugee camps.  For as long as I could remember, I had to struggle to survive wars, famines, diseases, and forced labour.  New Zealand has given me new hopes and opportunities for a better future for myself, and my future generations.   

My family first lived in an upstairs state house unit in Stokes Valley for three years, during which I received my first formal education at Naenae College at age sixteen.  I struggled academically and socially, due to language and cultural barriers, and left school without a School Certificate.  While working as a kitchen hand at Silverstream hospital to help pay towards a family home mortgage, I continued studying English through the Correspondence School.  My dream was to become a nurse.  My teacher suggested that I should do a one year course in Health and Science at Parumoana Community Polytechnic (now called Whitireia Polytechnic); a Polytechnic newly built in Porirua in 1986. I still remember the night Helen Clark (a Labour Party MP and former Prime Minister for 3 terms) handed me a certificate and shook my hand.  That was special!

The following year, I studied nursing at Manawatu Polytechnic (UCOL).  I had found some medical terminologies hard to pronounce, and needed help.  Luckily, there was an ESL Home Tutor Scheme at the Polytechnic.  May Needham - the coordinator - found me a home tutor who would read aloud a list of words for me to record on my Walkman.  After that, I trained to become a home tutor, and then a committee member.  Soon, different organisations asked me to interpret for them: the Public Health Nurse, hospital, Justice Department, Social Welfare, Kiwi sponsors, and the Cambodian people. 

In 1989, it was arranged for me to marry a local Cambodian-Chinese.  Most Cambodian adults in Palmerston North attended our wedding, if not all.  While waiting for a Nursing position to come up, I worked as a teacher aide at Queen Elizabeth College, assisting Cambodian students with their English.  I enjoyed my work so much, that I didn’t bother looking for a nursing job.  Besides, I was pregnant.  A month after our daughter was born, we bought a house in Highbury - an ex-state house.  

In the 90s, the Highbury shopping centre was a vibrant place with a community feel to it.  It was cleaner then, with more shoppers.  We had our own Plunket room, doctor’s clinic (Dr. Goddard), chemist, green-grocer, video store, Four Square store, post-bank, Methodist second-hand shop, fish and chip shop, a bakery, and a dairy.  All the facilities and shops I needed were there.  

Sadly, my husband was made redundant several months later.   We knocked on factory doors to look for work, but nothing came up.  The winter of 1991 was the coldest, darkest and gloomiest I have ever experienced.  Our house was damp, freezing cold, and our daughter had croup.  Looking back on the positive side, my husband took care of our childcare problem.  Soon I was pregnant with another child.  

Somehow we managed to pay the mortgage, by sticking to our old principles of reduce, reuse, recycle, repair and recreate - growing and making things ourselves.  Also, I was fortunate to get part-time and casual work from the QEC Night School (teaching Chinese cooking), as well as contract work at Manawatu Polytechnic, Teacher’s College, Massey University, and the Palmerston North Health Board, working as a Cervical Smear Screening Programme promoter.  Most of my work involved cross-cultural communication between former Cambodian refugees and the mainstream service providers.   Subsequently, I had an idea on how I could empower my people through education, so I applied for funding from the Community Funding Agency.  They gave me the money I had asked for, and the Refugee and Migrant Service in Wellington managed the money for me.

My programme was published in April 1994 in “Many Voices”, a journal of New Settlers and Multicultural Education issues.  This can be found in the New Zealand National Library Archive.

I had tremendous support from the school principals at Terrace End and Awapuni schools, who gave us a room and access to their resources.   I held my bilingual classes there.  We had guest speakers from both Government and non-Government organisations to talk about their services.  We learned about all that New Zealand had to offer – education, health, law and order, social wefare, managing social problems, budgeting, tax, current issues like the election (MMP), and the share market (Central Power was issuing their customers free shares, followed by Powerco, as the government continued to privatise their assets).  I taught simple useful words and phrases; like how to phone the school about absenteeism, filling out forms and permission slips, and how the computers work, etc.

At Kelvin Grove community centre, I worked with Public Health nurses in a Care and Development Group they had set up to provide services and help to pre-schoolers and parents once a week.  I was their facilitator and interpreter. 

The programme turned out to be a family affair; my husband was our driver, baby-sitter and tea person.  It took up more of our time than I anticipated.  My home became a drop-in centre, with people dropping in day and night to have their official letters read to them, phone calls made on their behalf, or for someone to listen to their problems. Not only the Cambodian adults with limited English, but also Cambodian tertiary students - mainly from Wellington and Auckland - liked to drop in for a chat, meal, get-together, or overnight stay.  Sometimes, they told us about their past or dark secrets.  My husband and I went above and beyond the call of duty to support and empower them to settle successfully in New Zealand society.

I saw shy women begin to talk, open up, and share their experiences with one another.  Their self-esteem and confidence improved over time, and they became more independent.  Some found work - a number of eatery businesses in Palmerston North are owned by former Cambodian refugees.  Look for the signs: Angkor, Angkor Wat, Olympic, and Phnom Penh.

The programme finished in 1995, as there were fewer participants.  Some moved to Hamilton, Auckland, and Australia to find employment and to be closer to their family and friends.  

I quickly found work at the Masonic Rest Home, but resigned soon after when my husband started work at Howard Engineering.  I was very happy being a full-time mother to our son and daughter.  Furthermore, if we wanted our children to grow up knowing their lineage, their identity, and to be able to speak Khmer, then we would have to take care of them ourselves.  

Despite growing up in Highbury and attending low decile schools, our children were high achievers.  Both received scholarships from Massey University, Central Energy Trust, as well as becoming Awatapu College top scholars.  Our daughter now works as a medical scientist, and our son as a biotechnology engineer. 

I was lucky that New Zealand gave me a new life.  I had this need to be good and do everything right.  Because of this belief, I feel I have achieved and fulfilled all my dreams easier and faster in a democratic country, where people still have equal opportunity provided, they work hard.