Supporting First-Generation Migrants with WA Senior Australian of the Year
“I have never felt so Australian.”
This is according to Theresa Kwok, on the months following the 2023 WA Australian of the Year Awards last November, when she was named the WA Senior Australian of the Year.
Since then, she has experienced the whirlwind that is the national ceremony in Canberra; been interviewed by the Australian High Commission of Hong Kong; and celebrated Chinese New Year with some 300 guests. Long lost school and university friends have reached out, and strangers have wanted to share their own migrant stories with her.
During this time, she has continued to represent and support migrants around WA, in her role as CEO of Chung Wah Community Care.
“I try my best to help other fellow migrants – those who come in the later part of their life – to make Australia their home. We are now looking after about 1,000 seniors and 98% speak no English at all. If you are older and the majority of your life is not in the same culture or language, it is very shocking. Non-English-speaking people have challenges that we take for granted – hiring a car or reading a letter.”
Chung Wah encourages clients to feel part of the community by sharing experiences. They are introduced to Australian culture, history and places, which couldn’t happen without the help of approximately 150 volunteers, from translators to cooks. Theresa also explains how high school students learning Mandarin have morning tea with seniors who only speak Mandarin and no English, because “we can all help towards a richer fabric.”
The association is so supportive of migrants and the idea of sharing and learning from one another, that it also has Spanish clients, who attended the Chinese New Year Longevity Lunch, bringing paella, which many other attendees had never tasted before.
While Theresa has been with Chung Wah and working with some clients for 30 years, her support of migrants goes back to her own start in Australia.
“I arrived in Perth in 1986 with my husband and my young son. At the beginning, it’s not easy. I was trained as a social worker in Hong Kong, and so when I first arrived I said ‘I want to help people in Australia.’ I soon realised that I had to give myself time to adapt and adjust myself before anything else. It was very shocking and I was homesick – you’re uprooting yourself completely from your friends, from what you know.”
Theresa recalls speaking to her then-two-year-old son in Cantonese on public transport, and being asked by a fellow passenger why she doesn’t speak to him in English. An experience that many other migrants may be familiar with, it didn’t deter Theresa, who still endeavours to speak to her adult son and daughter in Cantonese.
“They are both working professionals and, of course, their English is better now – sometimes the way they talk, I have difficulty understanding! They tell me they feel truly Australian and as second-generation migrants, they haven’t had the experiences I did. It’s more positive.”
She speaks promisingly about how second-generation migrants and so forth are embracing the opportunities that Australia gives to them, from working to volunteering and even awards recognition. At the 2023 Australian of the Year Awards in Canberra, she was able to spend time with not only fellow migrants, but people who have a history dating back thousands of years, who are all contributing to Australian society.
“I felt very touched and humble. I had an opportunity to meet so many people who have done fantastic things for the country in their own ways. I feel like I have to do more. Those few days – the togetherness, we were one.”
Nominations for the Australian of the Year Awards are open all year round. Nominate someone like Theresa at www.australianoftheyear.org.au