Meet the 2017 NSW Australian of the Year Deng Adut – and learn his pretty amazing story.
Last night as he was presented with the honour, he had a tear in his eye and said he was shocked. “”I never dreamed of anything. Even (being) a fisherman.”
At the age of six, Deng Adut was snatched from his mother and forced to fight in the war that eventually split
his homeland of Sudan.
Deng was eventually smuggled out of Sudan into Kenya before making it to Australia in 1998.
Deng’s life journey has taken him from an illiterate child soldier to a criminal lawyer making a difference in Western Sydney.
His remarkable story has spread around the world and has inspired millions of people, thanks to a viral video made by his alma mater, Western Sydney University.
Now studying for a second Master’s degree, Deng co-founded AC Law Group and fights for members of the Sudanese community from his home in Blacktown.
Mr Adut said Australia was not his adopted country, but his home.
“You are not Australian because you are born in Australia. You are Australian because Australia is born in you,” he said, re-wording an African saying.
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