How long would it take to tow a boat from Melbourne to Canberra? Thirty-five days, according to Tri Nguyen and his friends, who set out on 16 March for a journey that will end at Lake Burley Griffin on Easter Sunday.
Tri is the pastor of the Brunswick Baptist Church in the City of Moreland, 6km north of Melbourne's CBD. The wooden boat he is taking to Canberra is a large model of the one he and his father and sister used to escape Vietnam in 1982, when Tri was ten years old.
I was at the boat's launch and saw Tri wheel it onto Sydney Rd. About 200 people joined him on the first leg of the journey, to Coburg. Some carried cardboard boats they had made — a symbolic flotilla of farewell.
At the launch, Moreland Mayor Lambros Tapinos referred to the somewhat larger boat that his family sailed in to Australia. There was applause from the crowd when he said that many of us had ancestors who arrived here by boat. We knew the history he referred to — of people who were often escaping poverty, hardship, the aftermath of wars and sometimes persecution; people looking for a better, more secure way of life.
Tri's boat has 'Thank You' painted on it. He will present it to members of Parliament in thanks to the nation for the gift of refuge and the welcome given to him and his family. 'The Gift of Refuge' is written on T-shirts worn by him and his three companions on the walk. They will stay overnight in country towns in Victoria and New South Wales and their journey can be followed on their webpage.
'The Gift of Refuge' is also the title of an inspiring song written by Kim Beales and sung at the launch. It speaks of Tri's carrying the boat to Canberra in the hope of seeing 'the nation's discourse change from fear to words of hope' for asylum seekers. It speaks of 'the wisdom that grows from compassion'.
A police escort accompanied the start of the journey and marshals carrying police crime-scene tape walked between the crowd and the trams and oncoming traffic. The irony of walking beside crime-scene tape struck me as significant in the current asylum seeker debate. Among other things I thought of similar tape used recently at Australia's detention centre on Manus Island.
Transcripts and interviews on the webpage describe Tri's journey from