Community Starters: Chinese

Mak Sai-Ying’s signature on his marriage certificate in 1842 (supplied).jpg

Mak Sai-Ying’s signature on his marriage certificate in 1842 Source: Supplied

Community Starters
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Australia prides itself on being a multicultural society - but it wasn't always that way. Each new culture that flourished here had to start with one adventurous individual or family who took the plunge and crossed the oceans to reach Australia. In this series, we're trying to find those first pioneers. Episode four tells us the story of Mak Sai-Ying, our candidate for the first Chinese person to ever call Australia home

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The Sydney market not far from the house of Francis Fieudard in 1842 (John Rae State Library of NSW).jpg
A view of the village of Kfarsghab, where the Magnificent Seven came from (From an engraving by WH Bartlett in 1838).jpg
Sakuragawa Rikinosuke (R) and Togawa Iwakichi as a seven year old boy, on the ladder (supplied).jpg
Portrait of a cameleer of the Burke and Wills expedition by William Strutt, 1860 (State Library of NSW).jpg

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