Souri
Sengdara

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My entry into this year's millinery award is called 'Hope Floats'. Hope Floats is an ode to freedom. It tells the story of the night I left Laos on a little dinghy. We fled the communist regime of Laos when I was 5yrs old. We became refugees the moment we left. Along with my brother, my aunt and grandma, I was put onto a dinghy in the middle of the night, covered with a blanket and was told to be quiet. They rowed us across the Mekong River to Thailand to join my parents in the refugee camp. My parents had made the swim across months earlier, with the possibility of never seeing us again.They made the brave 1.5km swim with only a plastic bag filled with some belongings.There were soldiers patrolling the river, stopping anyone from trying to escape. That’s why they couldn’t take us with them. Once they had raised enough money (by cooking and selling food in the refugee camp) they paid someone to collect us. We were some of the lucky ones who were reunited. We were given a new life in a better place. I am very grateful to be here. The jinsin sculpture is in the shape of the dinghy which carried us across the Mekong River to Thailand. I chose to make the Frangipani flower as it is the national flower of Laos. There are four of them to represent the four of us on the dinghy. The pearls are the bubbles of water created as our dinghy crossed the river.