Discovery HSC English: Australia: Migrant Stories

Maria's exploration of the tapestry embroidered from five generations of women and men in her family, from the turn of the twentieth century to its final years, from the poor villages of Italy to the cities of Australia, and back to a nineties Italy that is both alien and home.

A pioneering work on the nature and construction of Chinese - Australian identity. Author's close examination of self-portraits by more that 20 Chinese Australians shows that they resist any facile generalisation about a unified Chinese identity.

Sometimes, people came to Australia simply because the queues were shorter, and perhaps they were beguiled by the idea of a place with sunny weather. Many chose Australia for one reason only - it was safe...
This collection of stories derives from the highly successful SBS Television series Tales from a Suitcase, already in its second season. Each person's tale reveals the migrant experience in raw and moving detail.

Traces the author's parents' lives from a poor village in central Vietnam through relative affluence in Saigon, to their harrowing experiences after the American withdrawal and the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Duy Long Nguyen (Longy) came to Australia as a Vietnamese boat person with vivid memories of the smell of napalm. Determined to find his way in his new country, he battled racism and struggled for acceptance. He found himself working as a bodyguard and straddling both sides of the law. After surviving a shoot-out in Sydney's Chinatown, Longy helped uncover corruption in the NSW police. Turning his back on violence, he realised he had a very special gift, taught to him by indigenous tribes in the jungles of Vietnam: he was able to heal people.

One evening, five-year-old Saroo left his poor village home in India to watch his older brother work at the next town's train station. His life was about to be utterly transformed. Lost and alone on an unfamiliar train, he found himself taken across the country and deposited in a strange city, unable to explain who he was or where he was from. He'd arrived in Calcutta. After weeks of defying the odds on the city's notoriously dangerous streets, Saroo was taken in by a government agency and, after failed attempts to find his family, was miraculously adopted by an Australian couple, the Brierleys, and taken to start a new life in Hobart. As an adult, though, he never forgot his Indian roots and kept trying to work out where he came from. With the advent of Google Earth, his long inquiry began to bear fruit: as the technology improved, he was, against all the odds, able to find what he thought was his home neighbourhood of Ganesh Talai and go in search of his family.

Dr Munjed Al Muderis grew up in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's reign. He went to school with Saddam's sons, then started his medical training at Basra University just as the Iran. Iraq War began. One day, as he was working as a trainee surgeon at the Saddam Hussein Medical Centre, he and his colleagues were ordered to remove the tops of the ears of army deserters. He could not bring himself to act in defiance of the medical code of conduct and cause intentional harm, so he had no choice but to flee Baghdad that same day. In Kuala Lumpur he paid people smugglers to get him to Australia, where he was incarcerated in a detention centre and known only as '982'. After nine months of being repeatedly brutalised for standing up for himself and other detainees, Munjed was finally freed. But he had to start his medical training again, from scratch. Now, 15 years later, Munjed is at the forefront of orthopaedic medicine as he pioneers a new form of prosthesis that, ironically, transforms the lives of soldiers mutilated in the Iraq War. 'Walking Free' is the extraordinary story of a clever young man, born into one of Iraq's ruling families, who was forced to flee the country of his birth and forge a new and extraordinary life in Australia.

The true story of a poor Chinese peasant boy who, plucked unsuspectingly at age 10 from millions of others across the land to be trained as a ballet dancer, turned the situation to his advantage to become one of the world's greatest ballet stars. Li tells his story with simplicity and charm, with humour and compassion, and at times with great drama. After seven lonely years of gruelling training at the Peking Dance Academy, Li was selected, at age 18, to perform at the Houston Ballet's summer school, which led to a dramatic defection, assisted by his friends and contacts, including George and Barbara Bush.

Moving from Poland and Germany to Jerusalem and Melbourne, Baker travels across the silence of fifty years. Through the gates of Auschwitz, and into a dark bunker where a little girl hides in fear. As he returns to the scenes of his parents captivity, he struggles to unveil the mystery of their survival.

From the chaos and the fear of post-war Saigon, and the terror of pirates on the open ocean, to the triumph and tragedy of new life, Only the Heart is the story of Toan and Linh, and a family that endures the nightmare, in search of the dream.

In Tasmania in the winter of 1954, when Sonja Buloh was three years old and her father was drinking too much, Sonja's mother walked into a blizzard, never to return. Some thirty-five years later, when Sonja visits Tasmania and her drunkard father, the shadows of the past begin to intrude ever more forcefully into the present changing their lives forever.

Adelaide, 1977. It is the year Elvis died but for twelve-year-old Jake Taylor that doesn't really mean much. His world revolves around school; Rose Avenue, the street where he and his mum, Harry, live; and the courthouse where Harry is a barrister. His best friend, Robbie Duncan, lives only a few houses away and for them the Christmas holidays are for cricket, tennis and swimming at the pool or the beach. But then Rory Macbeath moves into the red brick house at the end of the avenue and everything starts to change. Rory and his family have emigrated to Australia from Glasgow and he and Robbie hit it off instantly. Jake has his doubts. But after long days and nights of swimming, fishing and daring each other into trouble, Jake comes to know Rory has talents and courage beyond anyone he has ever known. Like Harry, Rory Macbeath stands up to bullies. Harry does it in the courtroom. Rory does it closer to home. After a fishing trip with Robbie's dad, Mr Duncan brings Rory and the boys back to his house for dinner. But Rory disappears and everyone on Rose Avenue is about to discover why. For Jake and Rory nothing will ever be the same.

The story of Paul and his Italian grandfather, Nonno and the very special bond they share. Paul, while still coming to terms with his father's death, is faced with the realisation that his Grandfather is slipping slowly into the grips of dementia. He knows that his mother is struggling to look after Nonno but Paul is determined to keep his grandfather from being sent away to a home for the aged. This is a novel about trust and hope and the impact special place secrets have in all our lives. It is a novel about the mark older people can make on young lives, and the stories they have that are inspirational to those who are willing to hear them.

David is first-generation Italian Australian fighting the shadows cast by his Italian upbringing. This summer he is befriended by streetwise Nathan, bringing change, but also tragedy.

Josephine Alibrandi is 17, and in her final year of school. Dealing with her mum and the ways of her Nonna are daunting enough as she prepares for her exams. But Josie is about to discover real life gets in the way of her carefully-made plans. She suddenly has to deal with having her father around for the first time in her life, falling in love and uncovering her family's secret background. Despite all the turmoil, this is the year Josie discovers that emancipation doesn't mean escaping from your past. Sometimes you need to face up to who you are in order to set yourself free.

Jamal and Bibi have a dream, to lead Australia to soccer glory in the next World Cup. But first they must face landmines, pirates, storms and assassins. Can Jamal and his family survive their incredible journey and get to Australia? Sometimes to save the people you love, you have to go overboard.

After a perilous and terrifying escape from war-torn Afghanistan, Gulnessa and her family find themselves in Australia, a place they know nothing about. They are exhausted and traumatised, but so full of hope. At last, somewhere safe to call home. But their struggle isn't over yet. They are confined in a detention centre for asylum seekers, and forced to prove their refugee status. As days drag into weeks and months, Gulnessa is determined to stay strong. She must keep her family together, and fight for her friend Abdul - with whom she has secretly fallen in love. She cannot give up hope for a second chance at life, and the opportunity to build a future in a new land.

Dhurgham As-Samarra'I is a twelve-year-old boy, the youngest child in a middle-class Baghdadi family. He finds himself at the Great Mosque in Damascus in Syria, not knowing what has happened to his parents and sister who fled Baghdad with him. The only thing he knows is that he was told that if the family became separated they were to meet at the Mosque. Alone, he waits and waits. This is the story of what befalls Dhurgham after he realises his family won't be turning up; it is the story of his journey into adulthood, his journey through bitterness to forgiveness, and his journey from Iraq to Syria, to Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and beyond. He is caught in a nightmare of red-tape and confinement until his hope turns into anger and his past must be faced and resolved. What do you do when you belong nowhere, with no family, no homeland, and no hope for the future? Who do you become?