Bior Aguer (Part 1)

Speaker 1
This is a Vision Australia Radio podcast.

Speaker 2
On Vision Australia Radio, welcome to our conversations on the work and experiences of emerging writers. I'm Kate Cooper and our guest today is Bior Aguer, a spoken word and published poet, freelance journalist, podcast producer and performing artist, public speaker and advocate. Bior has also been involved in a range of community projects and activities. He's toured around Australia as a performance artist and poet and is about to launch the third volume of his poetry trilogy which began with Journal of a Refugee and Divinity. In these works, Björr tells the story of his childhood in South Sudan, his journey to Australia as an unaccompanied minor and his experiences of making the transition from refugee to Australian. Welcome to the program Bior.

Speaker 3
Thank you, thank you, happy to be here.

Speaker 2
Thanks, we have a lot to talk about, but let's start with your childhood in South Sudan and I'd like to ask you too in that about a task that you took on at the age of three.

Speaker 3
Yes, well thank you, thank you. Oh, my journey back home, my homeland, South Sudan, which was originally Sudan before independence. My time back home was short, war had broken out, and from the age of three, I had gone back home to Sudan from Kakuma refugee camp where we were seeking refuge, and I was able to visit the cattle camp, which was a very significant cultural aspect for us, for the Dinka tribe, and it really helped me initiate into the culture as a three-year-old at that time, before leaving shortly to Australia for a better future at the age of four.

Speaker 2
For our listeners who don't know about South Sudan, what is the history? It's a very new nation. Comparatively, what's the story of South Sudan?

Speaker 3
Well, the story of South Sudan has its challenges, but the resilience and willpower of the people is showing each day. Now we had a long 50 -year civil war, which was going on with the late freedom fighter John Goring leading the way. And with that, there's been a lot of challenges, whether it's the impoverished demographics within South Sudan, the struggles within the governments to bring opportunity, employment and also their reconciliation between different tribes. It's had its challenges, but the people are working hard for better unity within South Sudan.

Speaker 2
In your poetry you talk about the story of your family and in one poem you say, I bear my father's name, my mother's strength and in another you talk about being raised to lead. So would you talk to us about your father's name, about being raised to lead and about your mother's strength?

Speaker 3
Well, yes, that's a very, very beautiful analogy there in one of my books. So there when I'm saying I bear my father's name, it's saying that my father has a legacy and I'm his legacy and I'm here to create my legacy, you know, and that's something that we all want as individuals to have a name or legacy. And my mother's strength because my mother's story is yet to be told. She's only told me glimpses of her journey and it's something of an inspiration to me. She's gone through a lot of adversity as a woman at risk being a single mother also living in refugee camps for about over 30 years, raising three children and not having adequate living conditions, whether it's shelter, food security or education.

So she had to go through that journey. So that's why I said my mother's strength because I'm being an unaccompanied minor here. I also had to draw some strength of my own to survive the Australian culture and the Australian ways and values. And that's not to say that we all have then our personal challenges as well. And then I've been raised to lead because from your adversity you either choose to be a victim or an example of the right way to live.

04:51

Speaker 2
Bior, could I ask you to read one of your poems for us from Divinity?

Speaker 3
Sure, I can definitely do that...

The question which comes to mind is how I define myself. A chief, I live with, governed the settlement of our family and led us through. I left my cattle camp, homeland, family at the age of three. He marks me with this name to signify to me. I must seek to take up the baton and build a legacy. Be your Lord a car. I hear stories of his legacy on my life quest.

Speaker 2
That's beautiful. And you said before to us that notion of legacy, that responsibility is something that's very important to you that you've carried through life. And you spoke to us before about being in a refugee camp and living in Kokuma refugee camp. Then you came to Australia when you were five years old and you came as an unaccompanied minor. Would you tell us that story?

Speaker 3
Yes, yes, I definitely can. So I came as a refugee due to the war with my relatives at the age of four back in 2004. I had just been turned five by then. Now life for me coming to Australia wasn't easy like any other refugee. There's a lot of things, whether it's through the pre -migration or post -migration. I face issues of whether it's employment, fitting into the community, representation. However, for me, I knew I was in a new environment and I knew I needed to adapt to that environment. And I knew that my situation wasn't easy being away and separated from families for so long. So for me, it was just the will to persevere and overcome any challenges that I would face continuing.

Speaker 2
And when you came to Australia, you came from a community where you spoke Dinka as your language. And then when you came to Australia, you started school in a new language environment as well. What was it like as a five-year-old coming here and starting school in a totally strange environment?

Speaker 3
Hmm. Well, as you can probably imagine, it was incredibly hard. I was still adapting to the fact that I've now been separated from my family and I may never hear from them for a long time, but I was still with family at the same time, but there's a separation from your parents that was really hard to adapt with at the beginning. And then there was me then getting enrolled in new arrival program schools to then start learning my ABCs, my one, two, threes, the Australian culture.

Television was another way for me to introduce myself to this new culture and as well as understanding the new family orientation here in Australia as well. And discovering who I am and my interests at the same time with that. But one thing throughout my childhood and early times was I could never escape the fact that I'm separated from my family. But all in all, I did find it difficult in school. I found it very hard to grasp the English language, you know, from the vowels, the nouns. It wasn't easy. And the cultural norm I was used to was completely different to the one here in Australia.

Speaker 2
What kind of things did you become interested in when you were at school? Did you play sport? Were you interested in music? What sort of things interested you?

Speaker 3
Yeah. Now I was a young person really looking to find themselves in the world. And I connected a lot with sports. Coming to Australia, soccer was one of my passions to escape, find myself. Number one, it was good for my fitness and health and mental wellbeing. And also it gave me a sort of purpose driven ideal of improving myself, training hard, meeting new friends. So soccer I identified with and it helped me through my childhood. Then I went on to play basketball and played semi-professional and learn more life skills through sport as well.

In academics, I was everywhere. I was helping out, volunteering in school, SRC is being in school leadership and also working very hard in my academics. I did an extra six hours of study after school during my schooling, early schooling and that helped me from a DC student to an A grade student. I knew I needed to get good grades, so I made sure I worked hard for those grades, which would then help me in the future in whatever dream I may have developed in the near future. So that was my goal - to invest in my education.

10:00

Speaker 2
And you write in one of your poems... I'm a grain in the sand, finding myself at peace. And your poems reflect a journey of self -understanding. What inspired you to first start writing poetry?

Speaker 3
So with me, with my story and as a non -accompanied minor, it was during COVID 2020, I wanted to share my journey, but I wanted to share it in a unique way. And I also wanted individuals to see themselves in my story, but that was always gonna be hard because how does the world connect with a refugee or migrant story? So I had to take that into account. Now I chose poetry because it was gonna help the audience or reader connect emotionally and critically to my story and journals. So that's where my poetry journey began.

Now, I also had to create a way to tell the story in a more like spoken word form. So I broke my story into four parts and then I used poetic storytelling to break up the four parts, which will then create the full jigsaw puzzle of my story that I wanted to present. Yeah.

Speaker 2
Could I ask you to read another poem from your collection?

Speaker 3
Hmm, sure. I'll pick out from Journal of Refugee this time, huh? So this one is...

My peers would try comprehend my life. Only a toddler, my peers cries for rights ring in my mind. I saw innocence in my peers eyes, responding. Suddenly. It was good. I would get questions like, Where is your family? Why did they not come? Penetrating towards my entrenched woefulness of my thoughts. I replied knowingly I was walking with a sacred intervention. I replied, I'm not sure.

Speaker 2
In this poem, as in your other writing in Journal of a Refugee, you share your emotions and thoughts, that feeling of being in a new place, far away from your family. Through the journey that you write about in your poems, you show the courage with which you faced adversity, and also how you became very self -sufficient and determined to persevere as you showed when telling us about your commitment to studying and getting A grades. It wasn't easy though.

Speaker 3
Well, you know, this was another aspect of my story. I became independent very young and it has benefits and downfalls. One of the benefits is I was able to learn very quickly, resilience, willpower and discipline. And it wasn't easy, it's not an easy journey. It impacted me, whether it's me burning out or having me into clarity. So one thing I've learned is to always take breaks and work smarter, not harder. Now, in terms of looking after myself early in life, I really had to be very disciplined.

So I would be working every night, Monday to Friday. And then I would be training Monday to Sunday. I also have basketball training. So I got basketball training and work commitments and then study. So I was doing all of that and I just had a will to overcome those challenges that we all face as individuals. But the hardest thing for me was the search to reconnect with my family. It was something I was working hard for. So when I was getting three hours, four hours of sleep per night, I knew that I was doing it for a purpose. And that was enough for me.

Speaker 2
On Vision Australia Radio, you're listening to our conversation program Emerging Writers. Our guest today is Bior Aguer, a spoken word and published poet, freelance journalist, podcast producer and performing artist, public speaker, advocate and community volunteer. And just jumping ahead and then we'll go back and keep talking about your poetry, your search for your family. Where is that up to now?

Speaker 3
So with that, I reconnected with them over the phone in 2017. Now since 2017 I've been supporting them with their educational needs, safety, food, security and anything that they'll need to live as best as possible within the refugee camp. So far I was able to remove them from the refugee camp and place them in a township in Uganda. And now I am working with the legal firm to help migrate them over on a humanitarian visa. So the legal proceedings are now underway and working towards that and helping to raise money now in order to help with their transition to Australia as well.

So there's a GoFundMe page going on. I myself are running some fundraisers here in Adelaide and just to make this dream come true to finally reunite with my family.

15:26

Speaker 2
And you recently held a fundraiser, you had a poetry night. So what kinds of activities are you holding to raise money to be able to bring? Is your mother and your siblings over to Australia?

Speaker 3
That's correct. So my mother and three siblings, eldest being 18 and youngest being 10 and middle 13. So with that, we had the poetry night fundraiser where we had two guest artists, two phenomenal artists, visual artists. One was Piaf Tuch, another one was Bior Bior. they in fact are the illustrators for the third publication. So they came out and shared their art and their journey. We had a lot of the South Australian poetry community come out as well and share some open mic with us.

It was a fun, insightful, inspiring night held at the Wakanda Motor Culture Bar down in Adelaide at Highland Street. And from there I was able to meet individuals one -on -one, speak to them and share my story as well and fill them in on my journey to reuniting with my family. There I was able to also perform for them and after that we were able to mingle and have a good night from there.

Speaker 2
Fantastic, and at the end of the program we'll give our listeners your website so people can find out more information about that. But I want to jump back to your poetry now. You've mentioned a third volume of poetry that's coming out quite soon. But you've already published two books. You've published The Journal of a Refugee and Divinity that you've been reading from for us. So tell us the story of publishing your own work in book form.

Speaker 3
Thank you. Well, this journey of me publishing these book forms began, like I said, in COVID time. I just wanted a way to have capitalised my experiences, whether as a reference for myself or future references for others. And I was able to do that. Now the journey to self publishing during COVID was hard because nothing was open. So for myself, I was either going to wait till the pandemic was over, or try to get it published some way.

So I called and I had a publisher overseas that I got in contact with. It wasn't the smartest choice because it was overseas. It was extremely expensive. And it wasn't it wasn't the best process, right? But I didn't know any better. It was the first time. But at that time, I wasn't thinking about profit. I wasn't thinking about what I would get from it. I just wanted to get my story out. So that was fine with me. So that was a lesson learned. One reference is to do in house publications as a self publisher as well. Another is to acquire your own ISBN as well so that you've got your rights to your body of work.

And also, there's going to be a lot of editing, a lot of self-editing. I had to define the topics I wanted to speak about. You have to condense your topics as well. You also have to do the normal orientations, plots, and an overall goal for your body of work and your message as well. So those are very, very important from my experience. And you want to leave the reader with a taste of color, wonderment, and inspiration at the same time, but make it unique to yourself.

Speaker 2
Your poems do that, your books do that, and they're available on your website and we'll give the web address at the end of the program. Pio, could I ask you to read again from your poems?

Speaker 3
I would love to. This one is very nice...

From birth, our elders shielded us from pain, but settling into Australian culture, struggled to grasp the undeniable truth. Mum was not coming on the journey. The choice was to either let my situation choose my path or empower my own purpose for a better tomorrow. The resilience my people possessed during the war inherited itself out of me. I learned early when I acknowledged and accept myself, I would aid in my growth, not focusing like limitations, like the word. But Bishop T .G. Jakes once said, the Lord never gave man a chair or table. He simply offered them a tree, an opportunity to create a dream into existence.

Speaker 2
Which is a really beautiful philosophy. And when I was listening to you read your poem, feel the rhythm, and I know that you've been a performance poet as well. You talked about spoken word poetry then. When did you start performing your poetry and what's that experience like?

Speaker 3
Yes, yes, a very, very, very fun journey. This began in 2021. 2021, I started sharing my poetry in performance. And it has been amazing. So I've been able to use the power of poetry and performance to be a voice of advocacy, as well as inspiration. I was always a shy individual. I was never in public. I just kept to myself. But I felt that my experiences are important as an inspiration for others. So I was able to have enough courage to put myself out there and do some performance poetry.

So it's seen me performing in different areas, such as the Adelaide Fringe, some other festivals in Melbourne and Brisbane. And also seen me doing school workshops and school talks as well around SA and other states in Australia. Corporate functions as well, panel discussions with different organisations, being recently a panelist at the Young Changemakers Summit, which was amazing. And yeah, so I'm having fun with it. I'm learning new things and I'm learning from all the communities that I interact with across Australia.

21:46

Speaker 2
That's fantastic. And you mentioned before we came on the show that you realised that you would be doing more speaking in public. So you actually went and trained as a public speaker as well. Could I ask you before we finish this week to read another poem?

Speaker 3
You know, I can read another one, but this time I will perform a small piece from the book as well. So these are notes from General Refugee, Kenyan International Airport - infatuated with a fresh surrounding as if I was summoned to a new world...

As machinery and high-rise buildings now surrounded me, unlike the refugee camp, the terminal had a luxurious interior with white tiles submerged with plasma screens. A hidden world of wonder, a switch from my traumas inflicted by conflict in my times of trauma. The solutions for my blues was a supernatural entity guiding me with faith. For a better tomorrow, people merely rushing on the move like they were escaping something, the scrupling, scruffling feet of passengers, high frequently calls over the speaker, departing and boarding flights.

The murmuring of foreign languages intrigued me. Suspicious of their motives, I remain apprehensive of everyone around me. We produce boarding passes at the door alongside my visa, my identifying verification for the new world. Soon enough, we heard from the captain. One final screeching call for takeoff, seated side by side front and back, the roar of the airplane's engine rattled me. Seated upright, alarmed, I began to feel restless.

Glancing down the plane's window, I watched the long harsh runway draw smaller and smaller. We seemed as if we were floating off towards the skies. In the belly of the wedge-tailed-eagle-like machine, we were pulled unwillingly but restrained by our seat belts. On my flight, everyone was flickering between books and magazines. Mindless individuals emerged in their own world. I was in. The captain announced. It's cloudy outside with a slight chance of rain. Outside my window, the sun's rays blaze bright breaking through the clear white fluffy clouds. A celestial light of hope in my mind was initiated. From birth, nothing was promised.

Speaker 2
There's an incredible sense of hope and optimism that flows right throughout not only that poem but all of your work. And you mentioned before about wanting to inspire others through your own writing, inspire others to tell their story and that's really important to you.

Speaker 3
100% - that is the ethos of this collection of poems from the first to the third That is the full ethos now general of refugee divinity they go one in hand. And the final part of this trilogy is Known as revelation. So that's one that's going to be coming out this year.

Speaker 2
Thank you so much, Bior. It's been incredible to listen to your story and learn about the experiences that inspired your poetry. So let's continue with part two of our conversation in next week's program. Our guest on Emerging Writers today was Bio Aguer, a spoken word and published poet, freelance journalist, podcast producer and performing artist, and community volunteer. And Bior’s website is biorthepoet.com.

This program can be heard at the same time each week on Vision Australia Radio, VA Radio Digital, online at varadio.org, and also on Vision Australia Radio Podcasts where you can catch up on earlier episodes.

25:49

Speaker 1
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Speaker 2
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