Scattered across the world, the Boat People shaped unknown and alien places, into their new homes. Hear their stories of adjusting to their new surroundings.
"We'll take the other 4000."
In the spring of 1979, as desperate refugees fled persecution and chaos in Southeast Asia, Canada's capital city and its Mayor Marion Dewar bravely stepped up to the plate in an effort to resettle thousands of those displaced by conflict. Project 4000, as it came to be know, marked the beginning of large scale resettlement programs in Canada.
Listen as Brian Buckley, author of "The Gift of Freedom", describes a "luminous summer in Ottawa".
Read MoreSo when I arrived it was the 18th of January. About a week later that year it was Lunar New Year, and we had the customary celebrations. I was invited to perform, to sing. I wore a red traditional “ao dai” and sang the song “Xuan mien Nam.”
That New Year, the Vietnamese Students [Youth] Association also danced with me.
We all took the bus home together. When we got on the bus, your Grandfather told the people on the bus that he hadn’t seen his family for five years, and so they let us all sit together.
Read MoreI lived in a house with six other people. The first Tet (New Year) away from home, was a very sad, but we felt encouraged because we had each other. We were all very close...
Read MoreThis story is about me going back to school in Montreal. The University of Montreal had a program to recertify dentists who had arrived in Quebec from foreign countries...
Read More"When I got to Lethbridge, we were maybe seventy Vietnamese people in total, of all ages. We banded together as Lethbridge’s Vietnamese Community..."
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