By Jonty Ralphsmith
Former Lynbrook resident, advocate Nyadol Nyuon has been awarded a Queen’s Honour for her service to human rights and refugee women.
Ms Nyuon, a refugee herself whose family fled the Sudanese civil war, is a lawyer and has been a member of the Law Institute of Victoria since 2015, having arrived in Melbourne 10 years earlier.
Having gone to Melbourne University and graduated with a law degree, she is grateful for the opportunities that Australia has provided.
Ms Nyuon has been a victim of racism in Australia.
Speaking to Star in late 2021, she spoke about how those experiences encouraged her to become a human rights advocate.
“Sometimes hurt so much that you question whether you could belong in this country,” she said of the abuse she copped.
“After about six months it provided me with enough silence and solace to realise that we cannot let our fear win.
“I realised there were far more people who thought they benefited from what I did,” Nyadol said.
“I sort of came back with a different attitude. Now I block really racist or mean comments, I mute often, and I am more of myself.”
The advocacy and professional roles saw her nominated for 2022 Victorian Australian of the year, which ended up going to Dylan Alcott.
Ms Nyuon believes the country has the potential to improve its treatment of refugees which is driving her continual volunteering.
“I have done most of these things because these are things I actually enjoy doing, but also the feeling that things need to change, you cannot keep quiet and need to be involved in it to see what you can contribute,” she explained.
“Later when you have children, that responsibility is heightened – that responsibility to create a world they can thrive in.”
Among her human rights advocacy, she has contributed to newspapers including The Guardian and The Age since 2002 and has been a board member of African Think Tank and the New Sudanese Youth Association.
Currently, she is a board member for Career Seekers Australia, the Chairwoman of Harmony Alliance: Migrant and Refugee Women for Change and a member of the community refugee sponsorship initiative.
She also won the Victorian Premier’s award for Community Harmony in 2019, was one of the Australian Financial Review’s most influential people of the year in 2019, and won the Australian Human Rights Commission’s ‘Racism. It stops with me award’.
