Editors: Mostafa Abdullah and Mohammed Razzaque
Review by Adil Khan
The book, “Our Story: An Anthology of life stories of the first-generation Bangladeshis in Australia” is a unique and forward-looking initiative!
Our Story has been edited jointly, by Mostafa Abdullah and Mohammed A. Razzaque.
The backdrop
The book is the product of the vision of Mr. Mostafa Abdullah, a Sydney based first-generation Bangladeshi Australian and an IT Specialist.
Mostafa first thought of this project a couple of years ago and began the journey on his own. Mostafa was driven by selfless intent to serve an important and yet unfulfilled community need, “informing and educating our children the trials, tribulations, and challenges their parents went through to bring them up and establish them as proud Australians, while keeping themselves and their children rooted in the culture and values that they were born in”. Mostafa elaborates the purpose of the book further in his introductory comments where he stated, “…the hardships, trials, and tribulations they endured” and more importantly, “…the First generation Bangladeshi Australians owe it to their children, that they, need to tell their children of their origins, “..how and where we came from.”
The book had a slow start. The Convenor of the project started the mission by reaching out to people he knew personally in Australia and then it had a snowball effect. The result is, Our Story, a 310-page book, “an anthology of life stories of first-generation Bangladeshis in Australia”.
The Contents and the Lessons
The book, Our Story which contains 34 articles and two introductory narratives from the editors is diverse in content.
The topics range from personal stories of emigration to Australia, settlement, and efforts made in bringing children up in a culturally alien society.
For example, one of the authors, a woman has narrated how they as parents made sure that their two kids, a son and a daughter learnt to “pray and read Quran” and how these practices left an indelible impression on them that kids along with their parents regularly fasted during the Ramadhan month. The same author also informed in her article why at the time of choosing school for their two kids, they opted for public schools instead of private and that the decision to choose public school was made for two reasons, that the “public schools are co-education” and thus children will grow gender-sensitivity and secondly, that that the public schools are “multicultural,” which would help the kids to study and interact with peers as equals and in an multicultural environment.
Similarly, the stories of community initiatives such as the formation of associations, Bangla schools, and the establishment of mosques and in some cities the Bangladeshi Hindu community have organised their own Puja celebrations have revealed how these initiatives have helped keeping the first-generation Bangladeshi Australians especially their kids rooted in their culture, religious values, and practices.
The book is filled with many such inspiring narratives, personal and community that shared experiences and steps and actions taken by the first-generation Bangladeshi Australian parents in nurturing their children to grow and mature confidently and yet culturally autonomously in the multicultural Australia.
Indeed, these stories and lessons learnt are of immense value and expected to contribute to Australia’s ongoing mission to evolve as a multicultural society.
In sum, the stories in Our Story offer amazing insights into the opportunities and more importantly, the challenges the first-generation migrants face in Australia and thus reveal important policy areas that warrant attention and follow-up.
Finally, while the book is an exciting “anthology of life stories” it is also important to note that not all the authors are professional writers. In the book, they have simply spoken and not necessarily professionally drafted their stories and therefore, the book needs to be appreciated for its contents and not by the writing quality.
Publication
Finally, the issue of publication.
Publication of books costs money, a lot of money. However, this was easily solved. Initially, Mostafa Abdullah, the Convenor, and the initiator of the idea had in mind to bear the entire publication cost. However, after seeing the importance of the book and the contribution it would make to the community, its publication was facilitated by the Bangladeshi group called, Keeping Contact (KIC), the STARTTS, and funded by the WentWest, Western Sydney Primary Health Network (WWSPHN), a community organization in Sydney, Australia.
Congratulations to the Convenor, the Editors, the Contributors, and indeed, WentWest, the publisher for producing the Our Story, a pathbreaking publication!
Price of the book: Australian $ 30.0 (+postage)
Contact: Mostafa Abdullah at +61 405844005, email: mostafa_abdullah@yahoo.com
The Reviewer is an academic and former senior policy manager of the United Nations