Nyadol Nyuon has shared powerful first-hand accounts of racism and called for a “bold” and “revolutionary” multicultural vision for Australia in a speech at the National Press Club on Wednesday, 30 June 2021.
The chair of Harmony Alliance, a women’s advocacy group, made the remarks at the launch of a new survey of migrant and refugee women, which found one-third had experienced violence at the hands of their partners.
Ms Nyuon said Australia first felt like home to her when, after living in a refugee camp in Kenya and praying nightly with her mother to escape, she touched down at Tullamarine airport in Melbourne in 2005 holding her Australian passport. “I handed that passport to the immigration officer. She inspected it and returned it to me and said, ‘Welcome home’,” Ms Nyuon said.
