Born: 1940, Vietnam
Died: NA
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: Bich-Cam Nguyen
This biography is republished from The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. Written by Nikki Henningham, The University of Melbourne. See below for full attribution.
Cam Nguyen has been a leading figure in ethnic community services in Australia for over thirty years. She was a founding member of the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association (AVWA), established in Melbourne in 1983. In 2014, she was still CEO of the association she had established in a collective with other women.
Born in Vietnam into a family that valued education and expected all children to achieve highly, regardless of gender, Nguyen claims that she ‘did not grow up feeling as though being a woman was a disadvantage’ (Speaking For Myself). She studied at Cambridge University where she read economics and was awarded a BA (Hons) and an MA. Three months after graduating, she married. Her husband, educated in France, joined the Vietnamese diplomatic service and in the early years of their marriage the Nguyen’s travelled extensively. His last diplomatic posting for South Vietnam was ambassador to Japan. Cam and her husband were in Tokyo in 1975 when Saigon fell. Unable to return to their homeland, they decided to make a clean break with Asia. Their preference was to avoid monocultural societies, which left them with three realistic options; the United States, Canada and Australia. The Nguyen’s did not want their children to be U.S. citizens, they thought Canada was ‘a bit cold’, so ‘Australia was it,’ said Cam. She also appreciated what she called Australia’s ‘low-key notion of nationhood’ (Speaking For Myself).
Arriving in Australia in 1976, Cam Nguyen became an Australian citizen in 1979. She felt the need to give back to the Australian community, which she had found so welcoming, and which, in her view, allowed migrants to settle and contribute, ‘without having to forget their roots’ (Speaking For Myself). Initially, she wanted be involved in a Koori support group, but soon realised she was far better equipped to help her own Vietnamese community. She had the social, cultural and linguistic tools to make a difference to newly-arrived Vietnamese refugees, many of whom had suffered significant trauma in their homeland. ‘The more I reflected on my skills and abilities and the challenges facing the Vietnamese community,’ she said, ‘the more convinced I was that it was my duty to take on a leadership role’ (Price). She was also particularly concerned about the challenges facing Vietnamese women as they settled in a new country. ‘Being a woman is a disadvantage, being a migrant woman is a double disadvantage, being a migrant woman from an Asian patriarchal society is a triple disadvantage,’ she claimed, five years after founding the AVWA. ‘That is why I wanted to start the association’ (Cam Nguyen Speaks).
On 15 January 1983, Cam Nguyen held a meeting with sixteen other women to found the AVWA. In the early days, the main purpose was to assist the settlement of the Vietnamese community in Victoria. Heeding the advice of an early mentor and patron, Dame Phyllis Frost, (‘don’t ever take no for answer’) Nguyen has overseen the growth and development of an association that started with a $200 grant for stationery into an organisation that in 2013 boasted a yearly income of $2.8 million, largely sourced from federal, state and local governments (Price). The word ‘welfare was dropped from the name in 2007 not because the organisation was no longer involved in providing welfare services but because the range of programs encompassed many other services including accredited training, employment assistance, sports, multimedia, including radio production and website management.
Cam Nguyen’s presence has been a source of stability throughout the life of the AVWA. She is proud of what the association has achieved, claiming it is ‘unique in the Vietnamese diaspora around the world’ (Price).
Work cited
Nikki Henningham, ‘Nguyen, Cam’, in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, Australian Women’s Archives Project, 2014, https://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0767b.htm, accessed 16 January 2022.
The following is republished with permission from the Victorian Honour Roll of Women.
Bich Cam Nguyen OAM was key in establishing the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Welfare Association and developing services for newly arrived migrants.
The range of services offered critical support such as welfare, training, housing, media, research, sports, recreation, rehabilitation and employment. Born in Vietnam in 1940, Cam arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1975 with her husband, Dr Nguyen Trieu Dan (previously Vietnam’s Ambassador to Japan), and their four children, aged two to 11.
Cam completed a B.A. (Hons) degree at Cambridge University in 1962 and then a M.A. in 1966. She was fluent in English and French but had no work experience, so initially she worked as a clerk and an interpreter. Later Cam started teaching French to children and English to adult migrants. She did a Diploma in Education and a Graduate Diploma in Educational Administration while teaching at the Adult Migrant Education Services (AMES), becoming principal at the AMES Centre in St Albans in 1986.
At AMES, Cam played a pivotal role in lobbying the Federal Government to construct a purpose built education centre for the very large and growing immigrant community in the St Albans area in 1990. In the summer of 1982 Cam’s concern for new arrivals from Vietnam led her to approach a number of Vietnamese professional women about forming a women’s association dedicated to the welfare, settlement and integration of the Vietnamese community in Victoria. The Australian Vietnamese Women’s Welfare Association (AVA) was formed in early 1983 with Cam as the founder and inaugural president, a position she held for 16 of the next 20 years.
From 1995 to 1998, Cam took on the full-time paid role as executive director of AVA during which time core staff were recruited and trained and the AVA experienced a quantum leap in the range of services provided. Cam succeeded in establishing the AVA as an excellent not for profit organisation with professional staff providing high quality services and in the process making it the largest Vietnamese community organisation in Victoria. Since 1998 she has again been honorary AVA president.
Thanks to her thorough understanding of both cultures, Cam has been able to act as a bridge between the Vietnamese and Australian communities. She has served on many committees including the Implementation Committee for the Establishment of the Independent & Multicultural Broadcasting Corporation (the precursor to SBS), the Victoria 150th Anniversary Committee, the Ethnic Communities Council and various committees and taskforces for the Victorian Ethnic Affairs Commission in the mid 1980s. In 1986 the National Returned Servicemen’s League (RSL) awarded Cam the Anzac of the Year for distinguished service to fellow Australians. In 2002, she was made Ambassador by the City of Yarra for services to residents.
Cam embodies the values of generosity and inclusiveness. She works not just for the Vietnamese community, but for all Australians, particularly new arrivals from across the globe. Her vision is for a caring and harmonious Australian society.