* THE TROUBLE WITH THE HMONG IS THAT THEY ARE TOO YOUNG
Dr. Pao Saykao sits back and laugh at the question, "Am I the only Hmong doctor around? Goodness no." he says. "There's another doctor in France and one who graduated four months ago in the US."
Dr Saykao is president of the Hmong community in Melbourne - one of Australia's smallest ethnic groups. At last count, there were 600 Hmong in Australia, 200 in Melbourne.
It is a close community - so close, says Dr Saykao, that nothing is done without the entire community knowing about it.
But he says it is also one of the most successful migrant groups in Australia. Apart from very recent arrivals, there is full employment, a 2 percent self-employment rate; and a 55 percent home ownership rate.
"We know who we are," he says, "We are proud of who we are. Our culture; our closeness is not a hindrance to integration, it is our means."
The Hmong, with a 5000, year-old history, are China's Longest surviving homogenous group. Throng the centuries they were gradually pushed South into the mountains. In the early 19th century, was forced them to move again - this time into North Vietnam, Laos and later Thailand.
From there the Hmong's history is one of physical division. First, the French came to Laos in 1893 splitting the community, then the Japanese in 1941. Dr Saykao, 34, was born three days after the Vietnamese arrived.
His own history is like his people. His family moved into the jungle away from the fighting soon after her was born. After seven years, the fighting caught up with them and they moved further. But the war was always there as for 10 years, the family of 16 lived virtually on the front line.
They move again in 1970 and in 1972, Dr Saykao accepted a scholarship to study at Monash University.
The Vietnamese took over completely in 1975. "The Hmong were in a unique position during the war," Dr Saykao says. "We lived in the mountains, around the supply routes between North and South Consequently, we were not very popular at the end of the war. We had to leave."
Before the war, the Hmong in Laos numbered 300,000. By 1975, a third of the population had simply disappeared. Another 100,000 have since left.
Dr. Saykao's family went to Thailand, where they were put into refugee camps.
But despite the physical divisions, Dr Saykao says the Hmong are be closest community he has seen. One of the reasons, he says, was the lack of any written language before the 1950s. "So you can imagine, we took to the telephone very quickly. Hmong are always on the phone. If something happens to you in Melbourne, you can bet you'll get a phone call 15 minutes later from America wanting more information."
The community, Dr Saykao says, has also a well-structured support network - everyone has a sense of belonging.
"A lot of people have difficulty comprehending our closeness, but it is not exclusive. If someone gets to know us, they become part of the community."
Dr Saykao says the Hmong have something to offer the countries they have settled in. "We have a code, old-fashioned family values, I suppose, which are being forgotten in the West.
"We have shown that it is possible to adapt 5000- year-old traditions to a technologically advanced society, to come to terms with change. It is because despite being disconnected physically, we are very connected personally."
The only trouble with the Hmong in Australia is that they are too young. Dr Pao Saykao, who is 34 was until recently the second oldest member of the Hmong community in Victoria.
The Hmong are one of the newest and smallest ethnic groups in Australia, with only 180 people in Melbourne and they have a social organisation second to none, Dr Pao says.
Dr Pao is secretary of the Hmong-Australia Society, but he is not the leader of the Hmong community. There is no Hmong leader in Australia yet, he says. The youth of the community makes it difficult for a society which relies so much on the wisdom and experience of its old people.
On the wall of Dr Pao's home in Templestowe is a picture of his clan, which is made up of 36 people, some of whom he "inherited" on the death of his uncle. Eleven members of the clan live with Dr Pao - his mother, brothers and sisters, wife and children.
Once you are a member of a clan - which you become by being born, adopted or married into it - you are assured of practical and financial help for the rest of your life, says Dr Pao.
"Whatever you do is judged in terms of the effect on the group. If you have a problem you expect your family to solve it. If they can't you go to the extended family, then to the wider community. Only as last resort would outside help be sought from social workers or lawyers."
The Hmong are mountain people from the northern Laos. Five thousand years ago their ancestor lived along the valley of the Yellow River in what is now Chine. They moved to Laos in the late 19th century after losing a series of land wars in Chine, only to find themselves this century caught up in one of the word's bloodiest battleground's.
A year ago the Hmong made up 38 percent of all Indo-Chinese refugees living in Thai border camps.
Almost all the Hmong in Australia came after 1976, but Dr Pao, who is an exception in many ways, came here to study at university in 1972, after winning a scholarship. When he graduated as a doctor of medicine, he was one of only two Hmong doctors in the world. He was the first child in his village to receive an education. Most Hmong in Laos are illiterate, and for that Dr Pao blames the French, who he said did not bother to build schools for the minority Hmong population. "My father couldn't read or write. But because people are illiterate does not mean they are ignorant or primitive," he said.
What most people remember - if they have heard about the Hmong at all - is their religious practices, which include the slaying of chickens for some ceremonies. While that may seem bizarre to us, Dr Pao points out that many of the beliefs of the Hmong like a belief in the 10 commandments, are the same as orthodox religions, and that their spirituality is very like the spirituality of the Australian Aborigines.
The Hmong believe that when they die they will be born again either as humans or animals, depending on how they have lived their present lives. When some one is hurt in an accident they believe that soul is lost and that if a chicken is sacrificed it can "call back" the soul.
But by being sacrificed for the soul-calling ceremony, the chicken may be reborn again as a higher form of life, perhaps even as a human being. Their beliefs are a powerful social control to make people behave properly, Dr Pao says.
Please direct all comment to Pao Saykao: drpao@ozonline.com.au