Thing 1: The Central Victorian Gold Rush of 1851
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_gold_rush

Thing 2: The Dim Sim, a chip shop snack
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sim

I hope my song leads you to believe that these two things are inextricably linked, and that all Australians know these stories, and that I have failed at linking two seemingly unrelated things. Most Australians do not know these stories.

***
Like pretty much everyone else in Australia, I always thought dim sims were Chinese food. Meat pies were Aussie, lamingtons were Aussie, pavlova was Aussie (even if New Zealand doesn't think so). Dim sims, even though you bought them at the chip shop, were mysterious and different, and definitely Asian. Then I became an immigrant and discovered that, no matter how hard you try, you cannot buy dim sims anywhere except Australia (and New Zealand). Australians don't make their own dimmies. They buy them from the chip shop already cooked, or from the frozen section of the supermarket. Most of the "recipes" online say to buy them frozen and chuck them in your air fryer. The recipes with actual ...recipes... are from Aussie emigrants desperate to figure the closest thing out.

A couple of weeks ago I participated in our local Culture Night in Ireland, and like many small towns currently, there are various pressures that are contributing to the rise of fascism amongst some members of the population. After a discussion with someone in my art collective, we decided I might make some artwork about immigration and racism for the exhibition. As an immigrant, I didn't think I could make something about the specific issues where I live, as I would just be written off as an outsider, but I could make work about the same pressures in a different time from my own home town. I also wanted to make it bright and fun, because nothing makes someone turn away quicker than being immediately confronted with something accusatory that makes them uncomfortable. So, bright and fun, with any reference to the White Australia Policy written very small so that you don't see it until you're already committed.

My ancestors emigrated from Ireland at the end of The Famine and the start of Australia's Gold Rush. They wanted to escape a miserable life here and start fresh in a place where, for a while at least, you could pick up gold from a stream bed.

My childhood was rich in the stories of the Gold Rush. Our local theme park recreated life on the gold fields, and we'd get a family pass every year, taking tours through underground mines, panning in the stream that was seeded with gold flakes each morning, and buying raspberry and eucalyptus drops from the confectioner. All through primary school I looked forward to the time in grade 5 when we'd get to go and spend two days in costume at the Sovereign Hill school, writing with a dip pen and learning about life back in the 1850s.

Back then, there was a small section of Sovereign Hill that talked about the treatment of Chinese miners, but most of the stories were about European miners and the Eureka Rebellion ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Rebellion ), the catalyst for democratic rule in Australia. It turns out, though, that at one point Chinese immigrants made up a fifth of the population on the goldfields. Eventually, due to extreme, extra taxes designed specifically to discourage Chinese immigration, Chinese people began to land in Robe, South Australia, and walk 450km to Central Victoria. Alongside the many extra taxes and penalties, they dealt daily with violent racism and distrust from the white population; people were struggling in the mines, the gold was not as easy to find anymore, and a group that looked and sounded different posed a threat because they worked hard, and often worked together to share the load.

The story was that the Chinese came to Australia for the gold rush and then immediately left. The actuality was much more complicated. Like my own ancestors who were escaping famine in Ireland, many of the Chinese immigrants were fleeing civil war and social upheaval in China. When the gold rush ended, many Chinese did move on (as did many Europeans), but a lot of people stayed. During the gold rush, many Chinese people set up market gardens rather than mining, growing food for the huge population on the goldfields, and when the gold rush ended, many stayed in Victoria and continued their food production businesses. The difference between the white and Chinese settlers, though, was that while the Eureka Rebellion established democracy in Australia, it also helped pave the way for one of our national shames, The White Australia Policy ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Australia_policy ), which only officially ended in 1973. The knock on effect from this policy was that many Chinese settlers would have hidden their pasts where it wasn't obvious, not telling their own children about their ancestry for fear of social and political rejection.

Over this period, Chinese food that had been eaten on the goldfields had slowly adapted and changed to suit the new environment, as foods do. What started as a small dumpling became a much larger, more robust dumpling made from available ingredients and suited to life in a harsh environment. The story is that in 1945, the son of a Chinese market gardener and food producer stopped to see his friend at the local chip shop (a Greek immigrant) while making deliveries, and decided to leave a box of dim sims with him. Because there was no steamer in the chip shop, they got chucked in the deep fryer, and the snack that I grew up ordering from our local chip shop finally stepped into the spotlight.

Australians often complain that they have no food culture of their own. This isn't true. Australian food is immigrant food, and it's time we started being proud of it.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

PS: The Welcome Stranger
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_Stranger

PPS: The art I made for Culture Night
www.crumpart.net#/the-way-to-someones-heart/