Heather Anne Morris was born on October 7, 1972 in Ohio, USA. Her father, Bill Morris, served in the U.S. military from 1968 to 1970. He was stationed at the Long Bình base (Biên Hòa) in 1968 and 1969. When he just arrived in Viet Nam, he was forced to fight in a chemical battle with no protective equipment and was first exposed to Agent Orange/dioxin. Bill went home after nine months in Viet Nam, but those nine months changed his life forever.
Before Heather was born, the first two pregnancies of her mother, Sharon, ended in miscarriages for no apparent reason. On the one hand Heather's birth brought the Morris family happiness, but on the other, it came as a great shock to them. She was born two months premature, small like a cat, missing her right leg below the knee, several of her fingers and her big toe on her left foot, while the rest of her toes were webbed. Hospital staff warned Heather's parents to brace for the worst, because “when they [children like Heather] are damaged on the outside, they are usually damaged on the inside.” Sharon loved her daughter deeply. In a decade she suffered torment and guilt as a mother who could not give her child a good shape. Bill Morris and his wife could not understand what was happening and why that tragic fate befell their little child. The Viet Nam War was a conflict that changed the way the American society treated returning veterans. It was a war with considerable bitterness that America wanted to leave behind immediately.
Heather Anne Morris when she was a child.
In early 1980s, Agent Orange brought about more visible effects upon Bill Morris's health. He underwent a heart surgery at thirty-eight. After that, he was diagnosed with diabetes at forty, had a stroke at forty-eight, and in 1998, a massive heart attack killed him at fifty while he Was in poor health.
Heather Bowser has been making her endeavours to escape her tragic fate. She took a master's degree in mental health counseling. She works as a freelancer and also a painter, using different ways to express her feelings towards Agent Orange/dioxin through her Works. In her wish, those affected by Agent Orange/dioxin around the world are acknowledged and offered help. In 2012, she founded an organization called Children of Viet Nam Veterans Health Alliance (COVVHA). It is a charity which brings together all those affected by their parents' exposure to Agent Orange and the trauma of war. Currently, COVVHA has members from the United States, Australia and Viet Nam.
Heather Anne Morris has travelled to Viet Nam many times, witnessing and properly understanding the degree of disabilities of children in Friendship Village or at the centre where children affected by Agent Orange are taken care of in Từ Dũ Hospital. She saw the Agent Orange victims walking with difficulty, with their distorted arms, legs and backs. Some had problems with their eyes, some could push wheelchairs with their own arms, while others talked with a lisp. They helped one another, reminding Heather of her childhood. She was teased and bullied during her school years. Her mates at school often call her names like “peg leg”. At meetings and rallies seeking compensation for the effects of Agent Orange exposure, Heather sometimes wore a T-shirt that read “Agent Orange makes me sick”, punctuated with a frowning face. Sometimes, she wore a skirt or shorts to show off her flawed leg. Heather said, smiling: "I wasn't raised to hide who I was. I was raised to force everyone to deal with the reality of me.”
Heather and her COVVHA's activities have been helping to alleviate the pain of Agent Orange victims belonging to various generations not only in the U.S. but also in Australia and Viet Nam. As a person also suffering from Agent Orange, Heather properly understands the pain of those who share her fate. With that sympathy and desire to share the pain caused by Agent Orange, on April 22, 2019, Heather Bowser donated a painting of a victim of Agent Orange/dioxin used in the Viet Nam War to the War Remnants Museum.
Heather Bowser's work was painted in oils and on canvas, measuring 125cm x 124cm. She did it in 1994, while she was a college student. The painting shows a girl who suffered from exposure to Agent Orange/dioxin when she was a child. In the painting, she is exposing her pain and disability naked for all to see. What has brought her to this moment? A disability, being physically different, a war she did not understand, a parent that was broken, a family system that was bankrupt of justice, cruelty by peers, lie in a small town, and feelings of being alone. In the painting, she is unable to lift her head in the pure exhaustion of carrying the weight of Agent Orange that has come from beyond the war and into her family. The painting also depicts how alone Heather felt in her childhood due to the effects of Agent Orange.
The painting entitled “The Pain of Agent Orange” presenfed by Heather Bowser to the War Remnants Museum.
Heather wrote: “There are a few things I would like to tell this young woman in the painting. First is, she needs to stay strong. Her fears of being an outcast are unwarranted, she will find love and have a family with two healthy boys. Second, the loss of her beloved father from an Agent Orange related illness in 1998 when he was just fifty years old, will be extremely painful, but with the pain comes resilience and a desire for justice. His death brings life to the Agent Orange movement as she, the young woman in this painting, lifts her face and begins her activism. Thirdly, I would tell her she will serve as a bridge between Vietnamese, American and Australian Agent Orange victims. She will travel to Viet Nam, befriend many all over the world bringing awareness to the suffering of others. She works to bring peace and light to the long shadow of war something her father desperately needed.”
An exchange between Heather and other American and Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.
Heather has been carrying the photograph of her father with her. On the back, he wrote a note to a childhood friend, which reads: “Some day T will be able to take this uniform off for good. And maybe some day men all over the world will see its mistake and lay down their arms and live in peace".
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Heather Anne Morris and the War RemnanTs Museums director Trân Xuân Thảo pose for a phofograph in Ohio, USA, 2018.
Trần Thị Kiều
Department of Research & Collections