Adut Akech Bior: 'Whoever doesn’t see it as racist has a problem'

Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we're told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they're given. This week he talks to Adut Akech Bior.  The Australian fashion model, 19, was born in what is now South Sudan, spent several years in refugee camps and arrived here in 2008. Two years after her runway debut in 2016, she was named Model of the Year by Models.com.

"It still makes me angry when people who are fortunate enough to be given an opportunity think they got it because they deserve it. Even if you did, it’s important to remain humble and grateful."Credit: Getty Images

RELIGION

Atheist, agnostic, spiritual, religious. Do any of those labels apply to you?
I believe in God and I’m a Christian, but I wouldn’t say I’m a typical Christian. I stopped going to church around four years ago.

Why?
At first, it was because I was travelling so much. But also, I didn’t feel very comfortable at the churches we went to. People go to church and act all holy, but then talk badly about others – even in church – and judge people for how they dress. So I told myself, “God is everywhere; I don’t need to be in a church.” As far as believing in God and praying, I still do the same things.

What do you pray for?
The first thing I do when I wake up is thank God for making me live to see another day. I pray that God gives me the strength and energy that I need, guides me throughout the day, and protects me from anything that wants to harm me. I pray for family and everyone around me, and for the life I live today. I’m very grateful and thankful.

How much of that gratitude comes from growing up as a refugee?
I definitely think my childhood made me the person I am today. Being a refugee is not a choice. Making it to the other side, I look back now and think to myself, had I not gone through these experiences, I don’t think I would be as appreciative. I wouldn’t know hardship; I wouldn’t know what it means to make sacrifices.

DEATH

Most Australian 19-year-olds don’t have to think about death too much. But your family fled what is now South Sudan during a deadly civil war, and you grew up in a life-and-death situation.
Definitely. Growing up [in Sudan], groups of people, if they believed someone killed one of their people, would come around and do the same. Once, when I was five, there was an incident where women were just running and screaming at the refugee camp. We had no idea why. I remember holding my mum’s hand and just waiting to see whether fate was going to take us. Five-year-olds aren’t usually thinking about death, but in my head I was thinking, “This is probably it.”

You’ve gained a sense of gratitude by having gone through these experiences. Have you also acquired trauma?
There’s definitely trauma. It took time to adjust to Australia [after Akech and her family arrived in Adelaide in 2008]. It was weird that we didn’t have to go to sleep feeling scared or hungry. I judged my Australian-born cousins as being ungrateful and spoiled. But they don’t know what it’s like to come from hardship, so I had to learn that they’re not going to act or think the same way. But it still makes me angry when people who are fortunate enough to be given an opportunity think they got it because they deserve it. Even if you did, it’s important to remain humble and grateful.

BODIES

Many people are beautiful, but that doesn’t make them a model. What else does it take?
We’re all beautiful in our own way. But, like you said, beauty itself doesn’t qualify someone to be a model. The most important thing – which comes before beauty, in my opinion – is personality. I know so many beautiful girls who have a really bad attitude. You have to be nice to others, respectful and thoughtful.

What about physically? What do you need to do with your body to be catwalk- and photoshoot-ready?
For me ... I don’t do anything. [Laughs] I’m naturally blessed with a fast-working metabolism. I eat like crazy. Even if I was the type of person who could gain weight, I wouldn’t put myself through [dieting]. I know girls who stop themselves from eating for the sake of remaining skinny, and it becomes very unhealthy. It affects them mentally. I work out – I go to the gym – and I used to do athletics. I come from a very active, sporty family. We all did running and played sports. Even in the refugee camp, we would have racing competitions and we made a soccer ball out of rubber bands. It’s just in me.

Modelling looks glamorous from the outside. What’s not glamorous about it?
It’s a lot of hard work. We wake up early, work 15 to 16 hours a day, put our bodies through so much. With shows, you wake up at 5.30am or 6am, do make-up, rehearsal, you’re sleep-deprived. During fashion month, by the time you get to the last day, you haven’t slept in about three weeks and your body is crashing.

Earlier this year, Who magazine ran a feature on you, but with a photo of Ugandan-Australian model Flavia Lazarus. You said publicly the error was “unacceptable and inexcusable” and felt your “entire race has been disrespected”. How do you reflect on that incident now?
It was insulting; it is racist and it is pure, straight-up racism and whoever doesn’t see it as racist has a problem. Australia is my home, and it affects me when these types of things happen. A lot of people were saying, “Oh, it’s just a common error. It’s a mistake.” When something happens constantly, it’s no longer “a mistake”. A lot of people think that to be racist,  you have to say, “You don’t belong in this country,” but racism doesn’t just come in one form.

Final question: do you have any physical superpowers?
I’m very good at arm-wrestles. A lot of people – because of how skinny I am – tend to underestimate me. Then they’re like, “Shit, you’re strong!”

[e-mail]

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.