KALAYASIRI Bira
Born: 1 October 1912 – Died: 2 August 1943
Particulars:
Bira was born in 1912 in Songkhla or Singora in Thailand, where his father owned a rice farm together with his mother and four brothers. He studied in Bangkok and taught primary school in his hometown for two years before returning for further study. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science at Chulalankarana University, now Chulalongkorn University. Then at age 27, he left to travel to Aotearoa / New Zealand to study mining engineering, part of a joint project to develop Thai mining. He arrived at the Otago School of Mines in late 1940 with two other Thai students. He drove trucks on work experience at Brunner Collieries and became friendly with local families.
In December 1941, as a result of Japan taking over Thailand, he lost his stipend from the Thai government and became destitute. In March 1942 he was arrested as an ‘enemy alien’ and interned at Matiu / Somes Island in Wellington Harbour. He was killed when the plane transporting internees to Australia crashed in August 1943.
–Sophie Constable
More info:
Adam Aitken
Artist/s Statement:
‘Imagined Testament’ is based on letters written by three Thai students – Bira Kalayasiri, Aun Apibalsree, and Yuwan Saraniyam. My intention was to bring the archival material alive, by writing three separate testimonies in the voices of these men, and to emphasise their collective attempt at survival as prisoners of war. Their shared experience was one of exile and homesickness. I wanted to emphasise the quirk of history that led to their internment, that they were unlucky to have been citizens of Thailand at a time of Japanese occupation during World War II. They were also suspected to have been spies by the security forces in New Zealand. Their letters and statements to police gave me material that I could select in a way that emphasised their humanity. It seemed to me that their experience was tragic, since there is mystery as to how they died. They were also unable to return home, and in my writing I often ask the question of what home is, what leaving home feels like, and what being ‘unhoused’ or exiled does to the soul. The trope of sustenance is important here, and for the three exiles, the internment camp becomes a place where they can grow food, share meals, and make friends. In using a first person voice for each of them, a certain amount of artistic licence is necessary to recreate a sense of their presence, but I hope I have captured this through the tone of their writing, and presented them as resourceful and good men. This task of re-imagining was made easier by having visited the site of their internment on Somes Island many years earlier.
Artist Bio:
Adam Aitken is a teacher, poet, and non-fiction writer, who was born in London, United Kingdom. He spent his early childhood in Thailand and Malaysia, before settling in Sydney, Australia. Winner of the 2021 Patrick White Award, he is the author of six full length collections of poetry, most recently ‘Revenants’ (2022) and ‘Archipelago’ (2018), which was shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. He was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Hawai’i, and Poet in Residence at the Keesing Studio in Paris in 2011. He co-edited ‘Contemporary Asian Australian Poets’ in 2013. His writing shows a deep interest in contemporary cultural issues, especially issues of identity and cultural hybridity. His memoir ‘One Hundred Letters Home’ (2016) was longlisted for the Association for the Study of Australian Literature Medal in 2017.