My thesis tells of the Cambodian refugee experience. It is based on the life stories of ten Cambodian refugees who presently live in Melbourne Australia. The stories that people told me were about their experiences of life before the Pol Pot regime, their survival of one of the twentieth century's totalitarian regimes, then their travel to and life in the Thai refugee camps and more recently their experiences of resettlement and life in Australia. My work explores the profound impact these life experiences had on Cambodian people and how they remembered and told stories about their past. Further, it considers how these experiences shaped the identities of survivors of the Pol Pot years. It is clear that the Cambodian refugee experience tells us that people can do the most terrible things to other people, but it is also clear that human beings can also survive almost any situation. In this regard my work shows that life is a most precious and fragile thing, but it also has an amazing strength and resilience.