Voyage to Freedom – The Secret of the Radio
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A dangerous, desperate voyage to freedom!
In 1977, the refugee boat Tự do (Freedom) brought 31 people safely to Australia from Vietnam. The journey took months, and both fear and boredom were constant travelling companions for those who fled their homeland in small boats. You can learn more about this story here.
A rare source of entertainment!
What did the refugees do for entertainment? One of the few objects that survived this journey was a radio and cassette recorder.
Dao Lu, the daughter of the owner of the boat, who was four years old at the time, still remembers the sound of Vietnamese classical music drifting from the wheelhouse of the boat. It was a piece of normalcy on a voyage that was far from normal, a way of forgetting the dangers that loomed for a moment:
“I do have very fond memories of this radio because I suppose at that time being four, it was a very weird contraption and music used to emanate from it.”
Dao Lu
Her mother used to sing on the boat as well, but sadly, Dao doesn’t remember the name of the songs, cassettes and radio stations of the journey. She was only four, after all!
A closer look! Can you decipher the clues?
Use your mouse to rotate, zoom, and pan around the 3D model.
Here you can zoom in on the radio. You can see that some of the frequencies are marked! But what radio stations shared these frequencies? And are these markings from the time when it was in Vietnam, on the boat, or when it was used in Australia?
Sadly, the cassettes that the refugees used did not leave any trace!
Can you help us?
But maybe you, your family or someone you know can help us!
What we are specifically interested in is:
- Do you know any radio stations that used these frequencies between 1975 (when the boat was built) and the 1980s (when the family was still using it in Australia)?
- Dao remembers that the radio often played “Vietnamese classical music” – music that she now only hears in Vietnamese restaurants and community events. What music do you think this could have been?
Get in touch with our team by emailing us at migration@sea.museum
