Nwe Ni Tun was a 17-year-old student in southern Burma during the 1988 student-lead pro-democracy uprising that was crushed by the Burmese military. Thousands of university students were killed. Following the crackdown, Nwe Ni, like many others, became a refugee and fled her homeland.
"When I went to Thay Baw Bow border, and I saw the children, the refugee children. I saw that they did not have school, they lived in the jungle, and they did not have enough food, they were malnourished," said the 36-year-old who now lives in Melbourne.
Nwe Ni joined the Thay Baw Bow Camp on the Burma side of the Thai-Burma border and quickly became part of the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), basically, a barefoot resistance student army. There, she spent most of her time helping in the camp's medical clinic. Though the camp was eventually over-run, Nwe Ni and her fellow students maintained this camp as best they could. However Malaria constantly overtook the young students, there was little medication and not much food.
"We were there until 1990, then our camp was invaded by the Burmese military. So we had to run."
The Moei River forms the natural borderline between Burma and Thailand. With no likely alternative, Nwe Ni crossed the Moei, leaving her homeland and family behind.
"We joined the refugee camp there. During my time there, I was teaching the children, because ABSDF established a school, so I became a volunteer for the children. It was very heart touching," she said.
The Burmese communities in Australia are well established, regularly involving themselves in local activities and festivities, while at the same time, maintaining their own culture as much as they can. Respectfully, the parents wish their children to have a knowledge and understanding of their homeland and cultural roots; therefore Burmese language and culture classes for the children are often self-run within the communities here. Nwe Ni initiated one of these schools in Melbourne.
Continuous lobbying to the Australian government and other national and international bodies, and the latest staging of human rights protests, show that our Burmese-Australian citizens are determined to restore democracy and human rights to Burma, and dearly want to put an end to the ongoing turmoil and instability there, due to which, migrant arrivals from Burma are expected to continue.
"If you live in the city, you never get this sought of experience. There was no meat in their lunch; they had no materials for their learning; they didn't have enough clothes, you know they might have had a top, but pants they might not."
Nwe Ni moved to another area along the border to teach migrant worker children who were not allowed to go to school in Thailand. One year later she had her only child, and change was upon her again.
"Then finally when I had my son, I was really passionate to do something for the country. I realised if I want to help people, I need an education too... So envisioning a future of a democratic Burma, I knew they needed more educated people."
With their baby son, Nwe Ni and her husband left for Bankok in 1992, where she began to study English. Three years later, she was granted a scholarship by the Australian Government to complete a degree in accounting. She then moved to Melbourne.
There are approximately 14,000 Burmese living in Australia. Half of them reside in Western Australia, 3500 in NSW, and 1700 in Victoria. Most were living in refugee camps before arriving here, and many of them, especially the newly arrived, were living in one or more of the nine major camps along the Tai-Burma border for over a decade.
For the past 12 years, Nwe Ni has been a strong voice for the people of Burma especially last September when a second uprising lead by Buddhist Monks was brutally suppressed by the Burmese military.
"As long as the military is in Burma, we're not going back," she said of herself and her fellow Burmese activists. "We don't want to support the military, we will only go back to Burma if it gains democracy."
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