Promoting diversity through art leadership

A victim of gender-based violence and discrimination due to dwarfism, Nguyen Minh Chau is now a prominent activist fighting against disability-related stigma and discrimination in Vietnam, following a one-year leadership training provided by the Australia Council for the Arts.

Nguyen Minh Chau, Australia Council for the Arts alumni, is the National Disability Inclusion Coordinator at UNDP and a program coordinator for the joint UNDP, UNFPA, and UNICEF partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Project in Vietnam.

Chau is a leading advocate against disability-related stigma and discrimination in Vietnam. She was the first member of an underrepresented group to work for UNDP specifically focusing on disability rights and one of the first presenters with disabilities to work for Vietnam National Television.

Nguyen Minh Chau and her UNDP colleagues

But she started her leadership course with the Australia Councils for the Arts a little nervous.

Though she has years of experience in public speaking and is often seen beaming with confidence, Chau recalled her hesitation when joining art leadership classmates in their first online greetings: “Everyone was asked to turn their camera on to get to know each other. All my classmates are artists, and they look gorgeous. I felt so shy about my look at first!”

This moment eventually inspired Chau to embrace and promote diverse beauties alongside her current work on disability inclusion. “The course highlighted what an inclusive society should be. It truly helped me recognised my own beauty and others and elevate each other. We are all beautiful in our own way.” she says.

Equipped with new skills and experience to tell stories and advocate for rights, Chau launched two new art initiatives to raise awareness about violence against women with disability and their rights, reaching thousands of people with disability, their family, and relevant authority and educators.

Chau’s unique perspective as a woman with dwarfism has given her firsthand experience of the challenges associated with marginalisation and lack of support, making her an effective disability activist both in Vietnam and internationally.

Through arts, she has been able to speak up on sexual harrassment, a key issue facing women with disability that is often brushed aside. A victim herself, Chau spent years trying to work out how to help others. Now she is encouraging other victims to open up about their own experiences through art – from writing a play to choreographing a dance – in which they are safe from judgements.

“It’s very hard for victims to speak up within their community, never mind answering the press,” Chau said. “But in my initiatives, I started with encouraging my participants to tell stories they know, using the third pronoun and an art form such as a play. Once they’d felt safer, they revealed that those stories were theirs.”

Now, Chau is calling on more Australian alumni with disability to join alumni engagement activities and share their experiences and ideas on disability inclusion to a wider network. She also encourages people with disability to seize learning opportunities from Australia.

“Creating a safe environment for sexual abuse victims with disability to perform and tell their stories through art is my motivation to study in Australia. I’ve learned a lot from the way Australian artists engage and show respects for diverse communities in their works.”

Nguyen Minh Chau introduces her projects at the Australian Alumni Symposium 2 in Da Nang.