Zimbabwean politician Sekai Holland was almost beaten to death by rival President Robert Mugabe's police in 2007.
Ms Holland was rehabilitated in Australia and is currently in a unity government alongside her former foe.
Now, she has returned here to receive this years' Sydney Peace Prize for her on-going efforts towards political reconciliation.
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Sekai Holland told SBS Presenter Janice Petersen what it takes to move on after enduring such brutality.
"I think that all of us actually need to take a deep breath and really understand world history, that if you really continue with an eye for an eye, eventually you are blind," she said.
"You don't think 'now I'm doing this for the greater good', no! You actually focus on what the outcome that you want is, and you don't even think about what happened, because if you did, I don't think you would actually focus and you wouldn't get to where you want to go".
Sekai Holland is currently the Zimbabwean Co-Minister of State for National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration in the Cabinet of President Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Watch the interview on YouTube:
