When Goy Lok’s family completed their escape from conflict-ridden Sudan and travelled to a new home in Melbourne in 2005, Australia’s national game provided Lok with a second family that helped him feel he belonged in his new country.
The 20-year-old is now one of the emerging young stars of the Peter Jackson VFL and one of the competition’s Multicultural Ambassadors for 2018. A powerful on-baller at the Casey Demons, he won last year’s A. Todd Medal for the Development League’s best and fairest one season after being part of the Sandringham Dragons’ 2016 TAC Cup premiership team.
Lok has played at local clubs Northvale (South Metro JFL), Waverley Park Hawks (SMJFL) and Mazenod (VAFA) across his career and is currently giving back to football in Melbourne’s outer east while working with AFL Victoria as a Multicultural Development Officer for the Dandenong region.
Much has happened since Lok, his parents and seven siblings arrived in Australia from an Ethiopian refugee camp. Back then, they were sheltering from one of the world’s longest-running and deadliest civil wars on record which was taking place in their neighbouring homeland of what is now South Sudan.
Lok knew Australia “was a better place than where I was before” but didn’t know much else about the country – and certainly not how to sign up to a football club.
“I got hooked onto footy pretty quickly,” Lok said. “I played soccer originally, but being able to use your hands as well as kick the ball was what got me hooked on footy. I was a pretty big kid, so I didn’t mind the contact either.
“I had no idea footy was a big thing until I started playing, two years after I got here. I’d play at lunchtimes at school but I never played for a team. I wanted to, but I just didn’t know how to get into a club.
“I thought you had to be selected or something like that, so I didn’t even look into it until high school when someone sent me down to a local club to sign up and start my first season in under-14s.”
Lok said being part of football clubs from that point on had changed his life, helping him integrate into Australian society and making him proud to belong to its national game.
“Playing against people I don’t know and with teammates from different walks of life has made me aware of what’s going on in the world and how one sport can help bring everyone together,” Lok said.
“I think this game is a real community sport; it brings a lot of people into a shared connection and a new family. It’s not like you come in, play for a bit and then go and do your own thing – football people will stay in your life for a very long time.”
Cultural Diversity Week will celebrate the impact people like Goy Lok have on Australia and its national game from March 17-25.
