Memoirs
They found my fatherWith a memorial passport photo.Liminal traces decide whether to hope or mournPromises to meet without bird or pen sworn.He was the last that they could find,The rest did not survive the genocide.
Seven-year gap from the eldest, charted;Second child, yet fifth, counting departed.Mother sacrificed her given chances“No burdens permitted” at refugee campus.
I dove, intangible in my mind’s eye,Yearning to find from lost archives,Stories they shared, yet left unwritten,Yet distant homelands linger within.
Did bamboo bend the crane’s neckOr plum blossoms bloom beside your desk?Did you watch seabirds as tides recede?River Yangtze washes over orchids and peonies.
Carrying the “tree branch” of traditionDried rice paper landscapes made for commissionsGolden opportunities to the lotus cityPlease tell me, great-grandfather of your folk stories!
Before your ink landscapes burned in defeatYet they kept grandma warm with the heat.
The waters of my heart have fallenThe unwritten lost and silent generation.Flames flicker like heat haze when I reflect I can’t find your grave to pay my respects.
Unable to view a past unforeseen,My mind’s eye - a visual anomaly,My hands reclaim both past and presentPainting memories in honour of my descent.written by Huy Lim Kha
2026
Scroll 1: Untimelined Letter
Memoirs is one of Kha’s ongoing bodies of works where she confronts her cross cultural identity as an Australian-born post migrant with Cambodian-Chinese heritage. Kha uses memorialisation and narrative storytelling to navigate complexities of intergenerational historical trauma. Memoirs is represented through a collection of poetry and digital and traditional ink and mixed media .
Kha’s parents migrated to Australia after the genocide in Cambodia. The story begins in a time with limited access to communication when her father was found by remaining family with a passport sized film black and white photo.
“Scroll 1: Untimelined Letter” is the first of her Memoir poems.
The artwork, “Family Portraits” was exhibited in “Dear Homeland”, 2020, at Kudos Gallery in Sydney.
Family Portraits
2019
Digitally composited photographs printed on watercolour paper.
Traditional ink and printed ink on 100% Cotton Watercolour Paper
14.8cm x 21.0cm (20 sheets)
