Biola Dawa was born in a refugee camp in Uganda. Now she plays rugby for Australia

There are inspiring stories about the road less travelled, and then there are stories that are rarer still, about a road never taken before.

Like the story of new Wallaroos winger Biola Dawa.

Dawa became the first person of Sudanese heritage to play for Australia in Test rugby – male or female – last weekend when the 23-year-old made her debut for the Wallaroos against Fiji in Sydney.

It was a proud moment for Dawa’s family, some of whom were at Allianz Stadium and others watching on from home in Wagga, in south-west NSW.

The huge pride came not just from seeing the flying winger pull on the gold jersey, but from the incredible journey Dawa and her family endured just to be in Australia in the first place.

“I was born in a small town in Uganda called Moyo – it is close to South Sudan,” Dawa said. “My family are from Sudan and they fled during the civil war.”

Biola Dawa in Brisbane ahead of the Wallaroos clash with New Zealand.Credit: Brenden Hertel/Rugby Australia

Dawa’s parents, Agnes and Samson, were “farmers and God-fearing people” in a South Sudanese village called Kajo Keji. But they were forced to flee in the late 1990s, along with most of their community, due to rising violence in the region.

The Dawa family escaped to a refugee camp in Moyo, on the other side of the Uganda-Sudan border. Biola was born there in 2000, and she was eight years old when the family learnt they had be granted visas to move to Australia, seeking a “better life” for Biola and her siblings, Betty, James, Juma, Amos and Emmanuel.

“We were meant to go to Melbourne, but we had family in Wagga, so we were fortunate enough to have cousins who guided us in the regional town, and advised our parents it was a better place for us kids to live than the big city,” Dawa said.

Biola Dawa scoring a try for the Brumbies.Credit: Getty

Settling into a sports-mad town such as Wagga meant playing anything going, and Dawa gleefully got involved, trying soccer, touch, rugby league, athletics and basketball. One girl on a junior basketball team was future Wallaroos teammate Piper Duck.

Like Duck, who only took up rugby in her later years of school, Dawa admits she “didn’t even know rugby was sport” until she saw the Australian women’s sevens team win gold in Rio in 2016.

She liked the mix of “physicality” and athleticism, and when a friend at school the following year gave a speech on her recent trip to the Gold Coast to play sevens, Dawa approached her afterwards and asked if she could play, too.

The teenager joined the Wagga Reddies and then things took off. She made the Brumbies under-18s side, and just a year later, in 2018, Dawa made the Brumbies senior team.

“I played three games but then broke my leg in a freak accident in a trial against NSW, and was out for almost three years,” Dawa said.

Complications led to multiple surgeries and several lost seasons, but Dawa never lost heart. She eventually returned for the Reddies, and by 2022, Dawa was back at the Brumbies, too.

Biola Dawa running the ball against Fiji at Allianz Stadium last Saturday.Credit: Getty

Three seasons later, Dawa’s solid form caught the fresh eyes of new Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp, and she was included in the Australian squad in April.

Yapp delivered more good news a few weeks ago: due to an injury to Maya Stewart, Dawa would be starting for the Wallaroos.

“It was such a shock,” Dawa said. “She asked me how I feel [after the news she would play for Austraalia] and I said, ‘I don’t know, nervous, excited’; the emotions were running high. If I am being completely honest, I still haven’t digested it all. It is such a surreal feeling.”

Biola Dawa is an inspiration to her family and her community.Credit: Brendan Hertel/Rugby Australia

Dawa will play in her second game against the Black Ferns on Sunday at Ballymore in Brisbane.

While she is still coming to terms with it all, Dawa said the part that resonated immediately was a feeling of her representing something bigger than herself.

“I felt like I was not only just representing Australia and my family, but every other kid out there that had come through the same journey as me,” she said.

“It is such a special opportunity I was given, to become Australian, and to live in Australia – and now to be a role model for other young girls or boys, who want to give rugby a go.

“Mum and Dad are definitely are very proud. They kept calling me this week asking if I got picked or not, and it was like, ‘I have to wait and see and then I’ll let you know’. They are very proud parents and that feels very special.”

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