Refugee advocate and human rights lawyer Nyadol Nyuon has launched a $150,000 fundraiser to help her recover and remain in Australia until she leaves the country, saying she has become disillusioned with life there.
Nyuon created the GoFundMe campaign over the weekend, ahead of her planned departure in mid-2027.
The 39-year-old was born in an Ethiopian refugee camp in 1987 and came to Australia aged 18 after her family fled Sudan’s civil war.
She later studied at the University of Melbourne, where several scholarships and grants helped cover her law degree and living costs.
Among them were the Eleanor and Joseph Wertheim Scholarship, a refugee bursary from Ormond College and the Sir Ian McLennan Award.
Nyuon received an Order of Australia Medal in 2022 for her work advocating for refugees. Earlier this year, however, she said she intended to return the honour and renounce her Australian citizenship.
Her growing disillusionment has been linked in part to an $800,000 taxpayer-funded initiative she led to support female diversity in workplaces.
She resigned as director of Victoria University’s Sir Zelman Cowen Centre in 2025, citing alleged racism, difficult working conditions and mental exhaustion.
Outspoken refugee advocate and prominent lawyer Nyadol Nyuon (above) is seeking $150,000 before leaving Australia in mid-2027
In a statement posted with the fundraiser on Saturday, Nyuon said the money would help cover mounting expenses, including her mortgage and other essential bills.
“For almost two years, I have been unable to work. I have been the sole income earner in my household and my paid work supported both my household and the public work many people know me for,” she wrote.
“I am exhausted, managing depression and trying to make space for recovery. My bills have accumulated, my mortgage is in arrears and I cannot currently afford car insurance.
“I am asking for $150,000 to help me meet essential costs and remain in Australia through to mid-2027 while I focus on recovery. This support would give me some stability at a time when I have very little left to draw on.”
Nyuon said she decided to seek donations after friends encouraged her to do so, despite her own feelings of “pride and embarrassment”.
During her time leading the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre, the organisation was contracted by WorkSafe Victoria to oversee its WorkWell Respect Network.
Nyuon later criticised both Victoria University and WorkSafe Victoria in a series of posts published online.
She accused the organisations of being “racist” and using her as “corporate blackface”, claiming the experience subjected her to “sustained psychological and emotional assault”.
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Nyuon attended the University of Melbourne with support from several scholarships
Speaking on the televised ABC National Immigration Forum, Nyuon said the experience had damaged her trust in institutions that presented themselves as progressive and committed to diversity.
“It’s easy for people to think I have made a decision out of anger. Actually, it was out of grief,” she said.
Both institutions have indirectly denied her allegations.
Nyuon received mixed responses to her appearance on the program last month after stating she had ‘no intention of assimilating’ with Australians and losing her own cultural identity, and that there was no such thing as Anglo-Celtic culture.
‘Australia’s never been monocultural before. Before European settlement, there were Indigenous people who spoke multiple languages and considered themselves to be people of different nations,’ she said.
‘Then there was the immigration post WWII, those were also a diverse people.
‘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 be recreated here in Australia.
‘But there is no white culture. There is Italian culture, there’s French culture, but there is not this notion of sort of a white culture that is being threatened.’
She clashed with former deputy prime minister John Anderson on the ABC National Immigration Forum last month
Nyuon’s GoFundMe post suggested she is still in discussions with Victoria University and WorkSafe Victoria.
‘I have also been involved in a lengthy process seeking review of a difficult professional matter,’ she wrote.
‘I’m keeping the details private while that process continues. It has taken a significant emotional and financial toll.’
The lawyer said $50,000 from the fundraiser would go towards her ‘mortgage arrears, overdue household bills and utilities and car insurance’ while $100,000 would aid with ‘essential living costs through to mid-2027’.
Nyuon changed the fundraiser’s goal to $30,000 late on Monday night.
At that time, more than $5,800 had been raised.
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