Arguably known as the "Laksa Queen" from Darwin, Amye Un is not only good at concocting spices and ingredients to make delicious dishes. Away from her kitchen, the woman who was born in a small village on the island of Timor 62 years ago is also good at stringing words together when campaigning to gather political support.
Speaking to SBS Indonesian in 2019, Amye Un, who at that time went viral for her political criticism videos on social media, said that she was considering going into politics so that she could make a real change. Away from her hometown, Amye Un is determined to enter Australian politics as a way of thanking the country for giving her the freedom of life.
Amye Un then puts her determination into realisation. In 2020, she was running as an independent in the Territory Election.
Despite having to swallow the bitter pill of defeat and being widely criticised for her "broken English", Amye Un said this result was not entirely unexpected as she is still very new to Australian politics and can learn a lot.
But Amye didn't stop there. She was also running to challenge the incumbent Darwin's Lord Mayor in the 2021 election in August. Amye said she wanted Darwin, her home for more than 30 years now, to attract tourists and investors.
But the result was not what she hoped for. Amye had to admit defeat to the incumbent mayor, Kon Vatskalis. However, she says that she will still cooperate with the mayor-elect, for the sake of improving the city of Darwin which she called "very dirty with the smell of pee everywhere".
Amye Un campaign for Darwin's Lord Mayor 2021. Source: Courtesy of Amye Un
Listen to the full SBS Indonesian's interview with Amye Un on the podcast.
Amye Un's political journey documented in film
Amye Un's struggle to try to win a seat through the Territory elections in 2020 is captured in a documentary. Caro Macdonald, the film director who is also Darwin native, starts to work on the documentary after she became one of the winners of the pitching competition held by Screen Australia and Al Jazeera English Witness in 2020.
Asked why Amye Un is an enticing subject for a documentary film project, Caro says that she feels Amye's story is a really good way for us to reflect on who we want to represent us in politics and how our democratic system is functioning from a representation perspective.
