Aliir Aliir opens up on his incredible journey from a Kakuma Refugee Camp to the AFL

Born in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya, Aliir Aliir didn’t even start playing footy until he was in his mid-teens. This is his remarkable story.

Aliir Aliir opens up on his journey from a Kakuma Refugee Camp to the AFL. Picture: Getty Images

Beaded wristbands in national colours constantly remind Aliir Aliir how far he has come to play in the AFL.

The one on his left arm is in green, black, red and white with “Kenya” on it.

“South Sudan” is written on his right wristband in the same colours, along with blue and yellow.

Aliir has been living in Australia for the past 17 years and is settling into a new state since joining Port Adelaide from Sydney in the off-season.

But the 26-year-old is a proud Dinka man of South Sudanese heritage, born in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya after his family fled his homeland during its civil war.

Since leaving for a better life, Aliir has been back to Africa once – to attend his brother Akolda’s wedding in Uganda in 2016.

He returned Down Under with a deeper understanding of his own journey, as well as with the keepsakes.

“It’s just something to remind me of back home,” Aliir says of the wristbands.

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It’s been an incredible ride to the AFL for Aliir Aliir. Picture: Michael Klein

“The year before I went, my brother brought back some stuff but I was like ‘nah, nah, I want to be able to get my own stuff, be able to go to some markets’.

“Kakuma being in Kenya, that’s still home.

“But South Sudanese is my heritage, my family. I’m a South Sudanese man, a proud Dinka man.”

Aliir also wears two necklaces – one with a South Sudan flag, the other with a map of Africa.

“I always have them on, I just take them off for training and games,” he says.

What Aliir does take with pride onto the football field is his name.

It means “air” in Dinka, which is fitting for a player whose athleticism and aerial ability are two strengths in his adopted sport.

The key defender is named after his grandfather and his middle name, Mayom, is handed down from his dad.

When Aliir was seven, his father died in a car accident in Kenya.

“(After his death) the elders try to explain to you what happened but you just don’t believe it,” he recalls.

Aliir Aliir at Port Adelaide training. Picture: Getty Images

“It definitely hit me when I got older.

“I think about him a fair bit.”

Aliir’s dad had two wives at the same time, a common occurrence in their culture.

It means Aliir has two mums – Zainab in Perth and Amer in Canberra – and he is close to both sides of his family.

He is also one of 12 siblings.

Three of them live in Africa: Akolda and another pair of brothers, Dombia and Aliir.

It was an eye-opening family reunion when he attended Akolda’s wedding.

“The drive from the airport to where we were staying (in Uganda), you get flashbacks watching kids playing soccer on the dirt, happy,” he says of children using clothes as a ball.

“(Growing up) you’d wake up, you’d go play a little bit of soccer, come back home, you’d eat then sleep and do the same thing back over.

“It made me appreciate what I have now even more.”

Aliir feels fortunate to be able to provide for his family, not least because he is still relatively new to football.

Aliir Aliir has a special bound with Majak Daw. Picture: AAP Images

He was 15 or 16 when he took it up in Brisbane, where he moved after stints in Sydney and Newcastle.

At one stage Aliir was playing rugby league, basketball and football and “honestly thought I could play all of them at the top level”.

Missing out on the 2012 draft led the Queensland junior footy representative to narrow his focus.

He then moved to Perth to be closer to family, joined East Fremantle and caught the Swans’ eye after being converted from a ruck/forward into a defender who could pinch-hit elsewhere.

“When I got drafted mum just said ‘your dad always said you were going to play some sort of sport, you were so active as a kid, always running around’,” says Aliir, who was taken at pick 44 in 2013.

After 64 games in seven seasons at the Swans, Aliir was traded to the Power for a future second-round pick in November.

He calls moving to Adelaide “just another part of my story”.

A 16 year old Aliir Aliir (left) after being selected for the World Team at the national championships.

Aliir sought his family’s advice before switching clubs and they told him: “we’ll back your call, whatever you want to do”.

He is already immersing himself at the Power.

In January, he went to a “brothers” dinner with Martin Frederick, also of Sudanese heritage, and the club’s Indigenous contingent, including Port Adelaide’s former director of Aboriginal programs Paul Vandenbergh.

Aliir is looking forward to being part of the Power’s multicultural work.

Even though he followed Majak Daw to become the just second Sudanese player in the league, he did not consider himself a role model early in his career.

That changed when he realised the influence he could have, particularly on youngsters from multicultural backgrounds.

Aliir Aliir (right) with Kevin Sheedy at the national championships.

“As I got older you know there’s bigger things than footy and there’s people who really do look up to me and want me to do good,” he says.

“I said to myself I need to use my voice and the platform that I have.

“A lot of us in the African community are doing great things and if we speak, people will be able to see that.

“I want to inspire other kids.

“My main goal is to play football and win games and win premierships but off field, also to help the young kids coming through.”

Allir is in a group chat with seven other present or past African players on AFL lists: Marty (Port Adelaide) and Michael Frederick (Fremantle), Mabior Chol, Bigoa Nyuon (Richmond), Buku Khamis (Western Bulldogs), Tom Jok (ex-Essendon) and Reuben William (ex-Brisbane).

They created it to talk and check in on each other.

Aliir Aliir after playing in his first AFL win with the Swans. Picture: Getty Images

“Majak helped me settle into the AFL and rang me if I was struggling or needed help with certain things and I wanted to do the same thing with the younger lads,” Aliir says.

“The relationships we’ve built is beyond football and if they come to Adelaide I’ve told them to let me know.”

While Aliir strives to keep making a difference in his community, he hopes to become the first Sudanese player to win an AFL flag.

Port Adelaide is coming off a six-point preliminary final loss to Richmond, while Aliir is striving to get to a grand final after missing the Swans’ defeat to the Bulldogs in 2016 due to injury.

Aliir has thought about making history and adding more jewellery – a premiership medal.

“But I can’t even put it into words,” he says.

“Hopefully I’ll win one here – that’s the plan.”

Originally published as Aliir Aliir opens up on his incredible journey from a Kakuma Refugee Camp to the AFL