Humans of UniSA
I’m half-Vietnamese on my mum’s side.
Krystle Crouch
My parents split when I was younger, so I feel as though I was more influenced by my Asian culture growing up. My mum’s life has been
Bachelor of Medical Radiation Science
really fascinating. She was adopted, and came
(Radiation Therapy)
to this country from Vietnam as a refugee when she was just eight-years-old. When she became
Interview and photography by Geena Ho
an adult, she managed to track down some of her siblings through The Salvation Army. We actually used to visit them every year and it became a bit of a tradition we had—every Christmas, we would go to Vietnam. Initially, my mum was hesitant about the idea of my sister and I going with her the first time. But in the end, she thought it would be a good experience for us. She said, ‘you’re both halfVietnamese, this is your culture and it’s my culture. I want to teach you.’ We met my mum’s family for the first time at this market and they figured out who we were straight away. When they came up to us, all of them were so warm and friendly. I think my mum found the experience to be a bit strange though, especially because it had been such a long time since she last saw all of them. For my sister and I, it was like meeting strangers at first. But, over the next two weeks, we got to really know them—we played games, they introduced us to the food, things like that. All the aunties thought my sister and I were really interesting because we had such different features, and they were practically all over us. It was all very different.
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Edition 29 2019