Pride of Australia: Former refugee Deng Adut makes a difference across Blacktown region

BLACKTOWN lawyer Deng Adut has made the journey from child soldier to community advocate, a remarkable achievement for a man who couldn’t speak English when he arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1998.

Deng Adut is a former child soldier in Sudan who went on to study at Western Sydney University and become a lawyer in Blacktown.

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BLACKTOWN lawyer Deng Adut has made the journey from child soldier to community advocate and is making a difference in western Sydney, a remarkable achievement for a man who couldn’t speak English when he arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1998.

“Blacktown gave me a safe harbour, after years of living in war and uncertainty,” Mr Adut, 32, said.

At six years old, Mr Adut was taken away from his family’s banana farm in South Sudan and conscripted to the army.

He hid in a corn sack on the back of a truck and was smuggled out of the country to Kenya, before arriving in Australia.

He worked at a local service station to learn English, enrolled at TAFE and eventually studied law at Western Sydney University.

“When I first came to Australia, I didn’t understand anything that was happening around me,” Mr Adut said.

“I stood in front of a ticket machine at the station for hours because I didn’t know how to buy a ticket. When a woman was hit by a car in front of me, I didn’t know what number to call to get her help. But people came out of the woodwork and helped me to understand.

“I had help from mentors who took an interest in my welfare, people who helped me learn English, to get my first job mowing lawns. Small acts of kindness and reaching out to each other is very meaningful.”

Mr Adut now runs a busy law firm, AC Law Group, and works as a defence lawyer. He says people in Blacktown deserve more recognition.

“People are working incredibly hard here, struggling with employment, the cost of living, and young people are getting caught up in the justice system.

“For most people, multiculturalism is just an idea they talk about, but here we are practising it every day. We are lucky we have what I can consider to be one of the greatest universities in the world here, Western Sydney Uni. But we need more resources from the government, equal to the contribution we make.”