Yazidi refugee Saadoun Barakat has used his love and affection for music to adjust to his new life in Australia and entertain his Queensland community.
It was a passion that guided him during the worst period of his life.
In 2014, he was forced to flee his home in the town of Sinjar, in the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan.
His family was among thousands of Yazidis who were forced to flee the Islamic State invasion of the region.
The militant group systematically killed and enslaved the local Yazidi population in August 2014 in its quest to set up a caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Toowoomba's Yazidi community during the five-year anniversary of the Islamic State attack. Source: SBS Kurdish
Years after those horrific events and many detours later, Mr Barakat and his family received a lifeline in 2019 when Australia granted them asylum.
They settled in the Queensland town of Toowoomba in April 2019, joining a community of Yazidis who settled as part of Australia’s humanitarian intake.
Yazidi communities were also formed in the NSW towns of Armidale and Wagga Wagga.
With the freedoms afforded to him in his new homeland, Mr Barakat was finally able to focus on establishing a career as a singer, a quest which began in 2001 when he was a youngster in Sinjar.
Source: Supplied by Saadoun Barakat
Today, his songs focus mainly on love, but he also felt it necessary to sing about his hometown and the terrors that had crippled it.
“I have released many songs. When I was in Sinjar I used to attend events such as weddings and other functions to sing. My style of singing is love songs. I also have got some songs about Sinjar but I mainly sing about love and peace.”
He said working in the music industry or being a musician was difficult in Iraq and Kurdistan, noting that it’s something that very few people in the society took seriously.
As a result, he said most musicians struggle to make ends meet.
“Back home there was not much support for singers, there are many talented singers but as well as singing at some functions they have to go work in jobs such as labouring to be able to survive.
“But on the other hand in the last ten to fifteen years, Kurdish music has advanced and we have many high-quality musicians.”
However, his outlook has changed during his time in Australia.
He notes that when the community organises functions or weddings, he’s regularly invited to perform.
“I attend many events here in Toowoomba whether being organised by the Yazidi community or through other organisations. I provide whatever I can to help the community.”
Mr Saadoun said an album was currently in the works, but that he had future plans to return to Kurdistan to create music.
“My future project is that I am preparing an album and I will be going back Duhok, in the Kurdistan Region, to record my album because I don’t have the facility of a studio here to record my songs.”
Mr Barakat said he and his family were “very happy” to be living in Australia despite the short period they have been here.
“I am very happy that I am living in Australia now and I have a comfortable life, the people are very respectful and they respect refugees and migrants. The people of Australia are very nice and Australia is a very nice country, at the moment we are attending TAFE to learn the language to be able to communicate better.”
He hopes that other Yazidis are able to taste the freedom he now enjoys.
“The situation there is still bad and there still many Yazidis in refugee camps. People are suffering in refugee camps.”
