South Sudanese represented the first significant group of Africans to settle in Tasmania, starting from the early 2000s. Lawrence and his siblings arrived from a refugee camp in Uganda in 2003 when he was 14. School was challenging as there was no one that spoke his language and his prior education had been disrupted by regular moves from camps to camp to Uganda.

His father had been killed during the civil war in his country and the family had fled to Uganda as refugees to find safety, as many hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese have over the course of the ongoing conflict in Sudan.

Despite many challenges in adjusting to a new life in Tasmania in the early years, Lawrence was able to get work while still studying and eventually even ran his own shop. He now works in transport doing deliveries all around Tasmania, which gives me an opportunity to see all the parts of the island. He also sings and writes his own songs, which is his avenue to express his feelings and thoughts about things.

We also talked about the importance of family in South Sudanese culture and how the concept of family differs markedly from ours in Australia.