Living treasure bears fruit

By Shaun Inguanzo
GREATER Dandenong’s Cambodian community has recently acquired a Living Treasure.
The City of Greater Dandenong council this month announced nine tireless community contributors from 28 nominations to be its 2005 inductees to the Living Treasures program.
Among those honoured was Springvale’s Thel Thong, a 65-year-old doctor in English language who migrated to Australia in 1975 after winning a study scholarship through the Australian Government.
Dr Thong, a Buddhist by faith, likens his life to that of fruit growing on a tree.
“I grew something and the tree gave me fruit, a living treasure, and I hope the fruit will be useful, that is eaten, as well as to propagate more trees.”
Dr Thong’s award is testament to his contributions to establishing the Cambodian community in Greater Dandenong with educational programs, a Buddhist temple, and preserving Cambodian culture for future generations to understand their roots.
Dr Thong arrived in Australia at the same time as the Federal Government had introduced multicultural policies to help cater for an influx of migrants from around the world.
He believes he was also saved from a genocidal Cambodian regime by the Government’s decision to accept him.
Even more fortunate, he said, was his family, who he had left behind in 1975, and who survived the regime.
“I was one of the luckiest few … my friend lost his whole family,” he said.
Dr Thong said his family came to Australia in 1980 while he was working as a staffer for the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees, in Bangkok.
In this role, Dr Thong was required to help Cambodian refugees with immigration paperwork and aid them in relations with host governments.
Over time, Dr Thong’s journey has seen him work hard to acquire his Phd in English, and teach it as a second language in various schools throughout Greater Dandenong.
Dr Thong is also well versed in his native tongue, Khmer, and French.
But it is Khmer he has dedicated more time to, helping to establish a Victorian Certificate of Education-accredited Khmer course through the Victorian School of Languages, which operates on weekends at Springvale Secondary College.
This program, he said, was established in 1986, before he moved on in 1987 to work as a Language Other Than English (LOTE) consultant for the south-eastern region of the Department of Education.
Dr Thong’s core role in establishing the Buddharangsi Temple in Springvale during the late 1980s has created a lasting legacy, which continues with him teaching primary school students basic Khmer today.
He said the preservation of language and culture was important to avoid an identity crisis.
“I experienced from the community here, especially the third generation, they ask what am I, and why am I here?
“This is the crisis of lost identity, in sociology; they can’t be part of the original culture because they do not speak the language of their parents,” he said.