Film - Sophie Boord and Jackie Farkas, 'An interview with Sudanese refugee Nyabana Riek', Museums Victoria

NYABANA RIEK: My country's been at war for as long as I can remember and for as long as I've been alive. The way we got out was very rough. You just take the minimum stuff you can get-- sometimes nothing at all. So we'd travel along, when we were woken up by a sound of guns and horrible stuff like that.

The closest place was Ethiopia. We just walked day and night to get to the refugee camps. That was the safest place. And we eventually made it there, and sure enough, there was tents and food and water. So we settled there for years.

Months later, the rest of my family, like my stepfamily, joined us in Ethiopia. And then my sister was married to a man who is here in Australia. And then I came with my sister. That's how I got to Australia, leaving the rest of my family behind.

It wasn't a proper goodbye because we were going to another refugee camp to play sports. Then there was another blast. And so my family was separated, and we were on the other. But the good thing is I knew where to find my sister, so I knew where to go when I found out that the refugee camp that I lost was in. It's no longer there. It's a long time ago and now, but-- yeah, still.

Because I didn't have my family, my sister couldn't really leave me behind, so she tried to add me onto her form. Because when her husband send it, he only send it for one person-- and, of course, wife. And by that time I was 15, I think. And they were like, who is this extra other person? Because my sister was only engaged at that stage and not really married-- or at least not recognized here. So she couldn't really bring extra person.

So that took us three years to battle with immigration-- who she was. She coming-- why can't she go to her family? You're not even married to this man. You can't even be taking your whole family.

It was very cold the first day I arrived. It was very deceiving because we got to Perth during the day, and it wasn't as cold. But we got to Victoria at about 10:30 at night. At that time, it must have been under 10 degrees. It was the coldest thing I've ever been-- the coldest I've ever felt in my entire life. I realized that it wasn't going to be full of troubles like the places I've been to before. So that's one thing I was sure of.

I was all right at the English language center because everybody there didn't speak English, and then whenever they did, it was just the minimum to say, hello, hi. But at high school, it was so difficult because you know how kids can be. I avoid hanging around the corridor just so I couldn't be teased and also that people wouldn't say hi to me because I didn't know how to tell them back. I couldn't converse with people. And the English language was very hard. And I've really never been in a formal school before, but there was nowhere else I could start.

Yeah, the biggest change was having to be responsible for myself and everything else that my parents would've been responsible for-- make my decisions relation to my school and what I was going to do. But now that I'm older, I think it has taught me a lot of things. And I am fine with it now, and I'm actually glad I went through it all. Because now I'm not regretting anything, because it's all my decisions.

At that time, there was about 10 of us-- 10 families. We stuck together. We lived in the southeastern suburbs. There was two other family in the west. So yeah, we did everything we could together. We have barbecues on the weekends. The guys just play cards, and we just play along. It helps with settling in, and you know that you're not really that far away because there are family or relatives or people from the same country. It did help.

The community has grown a lot ever since. I think it was December last year, it was estimated that the population was over 26,000. And so now we have a large, healthy community.

The thing that refugees face in this country, it's everything from settling to new-- settling into new country, new everything from your kitchen to the street. I'm not sure about people coming from other countries, but for people coming in Africa the language is totally different and so is the culture.

This place, it's very fast in that things move really, really fast compared to where we came from. And the children sort of go along with the flow quicker than the adults, and that creates a lot of family conflicts as well. But the support has been great lately because a lot of agencies are working with the family to help them move together.

It took me a long time to figure out where to define myself. Because I didn't really live in my country long enough to identify myself with everything there is about it, and I haven't been here long enough to know everything.

Victoria Immigration Museum captures how people came to Victoria-- how they left and how they ended up here. And I thought it was interesting. I read some of the stories, and I related to it a lot. And I knew that this is where I'm going to be for a very long time, so I thought I might as well have my history there. Not my history personally, but my background-- where I came from and how I've settled here and how I call Victoria home now.

I don't go back that often because I find it a little embarrassing. And also some of them are very touchy, and I don't want to relive it every day.

I was lucky to have lived with my family for some years. And then even to be able to travel all this far with my sister is something that a lot of people didn't have. You know, you just run away with someone from the same village. And they become your guardian for life, and you don't know where your parents are. They may not even know who your parents are because they just happened to have picked you up on the road. And yeah, so I'm lucky.