For 54 years, Cam Sojan had almost nothing to go on. He knew his father was born in Geraldton, attended school in Perth, and later joined the military in Canberra — but the deeper story of where his family actually came from was never told. Then, in 2025, a small historical society in a regional Western Australian town handed him the answers his father had carried to the grave.
A family history buried in shame
Mr Sojan, now 55 and based in Brisbane, grew up in the dark about his heritage. His father, he believes, deliberately kept quiet about his origins — the product of a life shaped by the pressures of race and identity in mid-20th century Australia.
"Sadly I think my father carried a bit of shame about his origin through his whole life," Mr Sojan said.
His father, like many children of immigrants during that era, experienced bullying and chose to suppress his background rather than confront it. "He really chose to look forward and suppress the dark shadows of his early childhood," Mr Sojan said. That silence meant an entire lineage went unspoken — until now.
Cam Sojan's discovery at the Irwin District Historical Society
During a period of personal reflection, Mr Sojan came across the Irwin District Historical Society, based in Dongara — a town roughly 350 kilometres north of Perth with a rich multicultural past. The society preserves the Midwest region's history through a wide collection of objects and documents left behind by the many immigrant communities who settled there.
Among the society's holdings was a collection of Sikh journals. Combing through them, Mr Sojan found what he had never expected: a whole bloodline bearing his surname, tracing back to men who had arrived in Dongara in the early 1900s.
"I am directly related to Sojan Singh, who was the Sikh Indian gentleman who arrived in the late 19th century when there was a wave of Sikh and Afghan migrants who arrived at that time," he said.
The journals contained detailed information about his great-grandfather and some material about his grandfather — a man Mr Sojan had never met. It was, in a matter of days, more family history than he had accumulated in five decades.
Trish Parker, the society's secretary, said moments like Mr Sojan's discovery make the preservation work "worth it."
A journey west to meet long-lost family
Armed with his new knowledge, Mr Sojan travelled to Western Australia with his wife Allison to pursue the connections the journals had pointed him toward. In Geraldton — 420 kilometres north of Perth — he met an uncle and other relatives for the first time, including cousins he had never known existed.
He admitted to nerves before that first meeting, but said any anxiety quickly faded. The family welcomed him without hesitation, gathering multiple times during his stay to share stories across generations.
"We sat around and shared stories — the good, bad, the ugly, which is what families are," he said. "My connection to the land and connection to the people couldn't be stronger."
A window into Australia's complex migration history
For Mr Sojan, his father's secrecy is not simply a personal wound — it is a reflection of a broader and troubling chapter in Australian history. His family were part of a generation of interracial children, many of them half-Irish and half-Indian, who grew up under the long shadow of the White Australia Policy.
"The wave of the White Australia policy really took hold of these interracial children who were subject to the difficulties of growing up in Australia," he said.
Back home in Brisbane after his trip, Mr Sojan said he felt a sense of completeness he had never previously known — and a renewed sense of purpose around Australia's multicultural identity. Families navigating hidden histories and complex family dynamics are often shaped by forces far larger than themselves, and Mr Sojan's story is a reminder of how much can be lost — and found — across generations.
"I'm so proud … it makes me want to really fight the fight of multiculturalism and embrace the heritage of multiculturalism in Australia," he said.
