In a packed auditorium with tears rolling down his cheeks, Ezidi genocide survivor Fawas Safil has recounted being buried alive in Iraq when militant group Islamic State trapped the religious minority a decade ago on a mountain.
"My name is Fawas Safil. I survived the mass graves on August 3, 2014," he said at a commemoration in Armidale held to mark 10 years since the mass atrocities took place.
"My father, brother, and cousins were killed in front of my eyes, and they believed I had been killed along with the others."
He was dumped in the mass graves because he was thought to be dead. He had to wade through limbs and rotting flesh to come up for air.
With only about 500,000 Ezidis, the siege of Sinjar in northern Iraq was broadcast globally with distressing images of people dying from thirst and hunger.
The militant group killed more than 2000 men and notoriously forced nearly 7000 women and girls into sexual slavery a decade ago. Around 3000 Ezidis are still missing.
The United Nations described the IS war crimes as constituting genocide.
Long discriminated against in Iraq for their mystical religion, the mass slaughter was the worst wrought upon the Kurdish-speaking people prompting thousands to seek asylum.
Hundreds of Ezidi families began settling in Armidale, Coffs Harbour, Wagga Wagga in NSW and Toowoomba in Queensland around 2017 as part of the Australian government's humanitarian scheme.
Salam Qaro, 32, has been living for five years in Armidale where he now feels at home but still remembers the terror of that day a decade ago.
"It was very scary. I was a psychology student at uni and that was the first time for me to see these things in life, to see people dying because of no food or water, and dead kids because of no milk," he told AAP.
"It was horrible you can't even imagine it."
The young community leader, who was one of the organisers of the commemoration where candles were lit, described it as "heavy and painful" on Saturday.
"But it's very important to share what happened to us and to ask for justice and accountability."
Along with Mr Fasil he has called for more humanitarian places by Australia to be provided to other Ezidis still stuck in Iraq, where they still feel unsafe being caught in Turkey's aerial bombing campaign against Kurdish rebels.
The NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma, which has been instrumental in providing culturally-specific counselling and therapy to Ezidi clients since their arrival to Australia, were also on hand to provide support to the scarred minority.
"Commemorative events like the 10th anniversary of the Ezidi genocide are crucial for honouring the victims, promoting awareness, supporting survivors, and advocating for the community," said the service's CEO Jorge Aroche.
"It is essential to provide a platform for survivors to share their stories and connect with their community, which is vital for their healing process."
