Prominent lawyer and human rights advocate Nyadol Nyuon has hit back at the notion that Australia is an “Anglo-Celtic culture”, while insisting she has “no intention of assimilating”.
Appearing on ABC National Forum on Monday night for a debate about immigration, Ms Nyuon said using terms like Anglo-Celtic “creates this idea that there is some form of white culture that exists somewhere that can then be recreated here in Australia”.
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“It goes back to this notion that Australia is monocultural,” she said.
“Australia has never been monocultural. Before European settlement there were Indigenous people here who spoke multiple languages and considered themselves to be people of different nations. Then the immigration post-WWII, those were also a diverse number of people.
“I’m not trying to accuse anyone here of necessarily being racist, I just think that if we start talking about terms like Anglo-Celtic and stuff, it creates this idea that there is some form of white culture that exists somewhere that can then be recreated here in Australia.
“But there is no white culture — there is Italian culture, there is French culture, there is Argentinian culture, but there is not this notion of sort of a white culture that is being threatened.”
She added, addressing an earlier comment by an audience member, that “I can say truthfully … I have no intention of assimilating”.
“Yet I went to law school and I studied the law and I respect Australia as a country and indeed I respect the law of this country and will always do,” she said.
“But there is a difference between coming to this country and wearing something like this … and a mentality that has the ability to appreciate what Australia is. And I think the dominant amount of migrants do that.”
Ms Nyuon’s comments came after host David Speers had asked former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson to explain what he meant by “trying to protect Anglo-Celtic culture”.
Mr Anderson said partly that was “Aussie values”. “They’re the things that gave us dignity as individuals,” he said.
“We recognise dignity, the rule of law, all equal before the law. We believe in the separation of the secular and the sacred.”
“Who is not respecting that?” Speers asked.
“Let’s just put it this way — we know that security forces in this country are now having to monitor a very significant number of people who are anything but committed to our way of life and the respect and dignity of all other Australians,” Mr Anderson said.
“We need to recognise the Australian people are really concerned about this.”
Ms Nyuon told Mr Anderson Australians “have a right to be concerned about what we are seeing” but that “the way it’s being framed, it’s very hard to appreciate the argument”.
“Your point about there is a certain group of people — I’m not sure who they are — that are being monitored by our national security experts,” she said.
“Yes, that is true. That is also 40 per cent of concerns about white nationalism as well. So the idea there’s a particular group of people that are especially criminal, it is not true.”
Later in the program, Ms Nyuon opened up about why she was leaving the country.
The popular media commentator, who was born in a refugee camp in Ethiopia in 1987 after her family fled the Sudanese civil war and came to Australia as an 18-year-old, announced her decision to begin the “slow and certain” process of renouncing her citizenship earlier this year.
She said she grew disillusioned with Australia following her resignation as head of Victoria University’s Sir Zelman Cowen Centre last year, amid controversy over an $800,000 taxpayer-funded project aimed at protecting diverse women in workplaces.
The centre had been contracted by WorkSafe Victoria to manage the WorkWell Respect Network, a Victorian government initiative for a series of educational forums and workshops that was plagued with delays and allegations of mismanagement.
Last year, Ms Nyuon accused her former employer and WorkSafe Victoria of “racism” and claimed she had left the program early after becoming concerned about being used as “corporate blackface”.
Ms Nyuon later made a number of claims of mistreatment by Victoria University and WorkSafe Victoria, saying she experienced mental health struggles as a result of what she called “sustained psychological and emotional assault”.
“I went through an experience in which institutions that categorise themselves as woke, call themselves people who really believe in diversity, conducted themselves in a way that was so harmful it broke my faith to stay here,” Ms Nyuon said on Monday night.
“It’s easy for people to think I have made a decision out of anger. Actually it was out of grief.”
A Victoria University spokeswoman previously said in a statement to news.com.au, “Victoria University (VU) is an institution which is committed to fostering a workplace culture grounded in respect, safety and inclusion, and we always look for ways to improve. We do care — and we act.
“VU has chosen not to comment any further, but this should not be understood as admission or acceptance of the events as they have been described.
“Our primary concern remains the safety and wellbeing of everyone involved, both inside and outside the university.”
A WorkSafe Victoria spokeswoman said, “WorkSafe values the experiences of our partners and stakeholders including the opportunity to consider feedback as part of project review processes and identify learnings that can support our commitment to improved workplace safety.”