diaCRITICS
Working From Home / May ở Nhà
Fashion writer Emma Do and illustrator Kim Lam talk about the process of assembling Working From Home / May ở Nhà – a book that stitches together oral histories, journalistic accounts, and illustrations to tell the stories of Vietnamese outworkers in Australia who sew for the garment industry from home.
When you read a lot of outworker stories, you only get a certain angle because many of the stories were documented to push for better conditions and laws...but in doing so, it also became 'look at these poor people'. That really does reduce people’s humanity. We wanted to be able to take that back a little and show that outworkers were people with families and that they were doing their best and that there was joy to be found as well.
Liberation/Fall
When I listen to my father tell his stories, I hear in his voice the almost universal youthful need for purpose and meaning in life, which the Vietnam War and the society he lived in at the time shaped into a particular direction. I hear the unfailing human desire, despite the circumstances and perhaps despite our own weaknesses, to want to create a better life for ourselves and for others. In essence, it’s a desire for life that persists in the belief that something can – must – be done when we feel there is injustice, an undying faith that we can have a better world.