Om Dhungel
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Om Dhungel is a Bhutanese-Australian community leader and author who, after years as a refugee in Nepal, resettled in Blacktown, western Sydney, and became the inaugural president of the Association of Bhutanese in Australia. He co-wrote the 2023 memoir Bhutan to Blacktown with journalist James Button.
Om Dhungel is a Bhutanese-Australian community leader, advocate and author. Born in southern Bhutan into the Lhotshampa (Nepali-speaking) community, he rose to become a senior Bhutanese civil servant, serving as a divisional head in the country's telecommunications department.[1]
Dhungel left Bhutan during the displacement of Lhotshampa citizens in the late 1980s and early 1990s, losing his career and property. He spent roughly six years as a refugee in eastern Nepal before resettling in Australia, where he built a new life in Blacktown, in western Sydney.[2]
In Australia he became a central figure in organising the resettled community and is credited with a leading role in the settlement of more than 5,000 Bhutanese refugees. His memoir, Bhutan to Blacktown: Losing Everything and Finding Australia, co-written with Walkley Award-winning journalist James Button, was published in May 2023.[2]
Bhutan and exile
Dhungel grew up in southern Bhutan and entered government service, eventually heading a division within the Bhutanese telecommunications department. He was among the more than 100,000 Lhotshampa who left or were forced out of the country during the Bhutanese refugee crisis.[1] After fleeing, he lived for several years in refugee camps in south-eastern Nepal before his case was accepted for resettlement under the third-country programme that distributed camp residents to Australia, the United States and other countries.[2]
Community leadership in Australia
After arriving in Australia, Dhungel served as the inaugural president of the Association of Bhutanese in Australia and worked to establish support structures for newly arrived refugees, including settlement assistance and language and cultural programmes.[3] Publishers and reviewers describe the resettlement effort he helped lead as one of the more successful refugee initiatives in Australia.[2] He has also worked as a consultant, trainer and public speaker, and is associated with community-building work in western Sydney.[3]
Bhutan to Blacktown
Bhutan to Blacktown: Losing Everything and Finding Australia was published by NewSouth, an imprint of UNSW Press, in May 2023 (ISBN 9781742237893).[2] The book traces Dhungel's path from a village in southern Bhutan to senior civil servant, then human rights activist in Nepal, and finally community leader in Sydney.[4] It was co-written with James Button, and carries a foreword by the Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese.[2]
References
See also
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