Actions speak louder

Volume 6 Number 11 November 8 - December 12 2010

University of Melbourne Provost John Dewar (left) with President of the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc. Geraldine Atkinson, and Aunty Joan Vickery at the meeting of the RAP Convening Panel in August.
University of Melbourne Provost John Dewar (left) with President of the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc. Geraldine Atkinson, and Aunty Joan Vickery at the meeting of the RAP Convening Panel in August.

On 16 June Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis signed a Statement of Commitment to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan for the University of Melbourne. In September, its Senior Executive ratified this commitment. Gabrielle Murphy reports on the process being followed.

When the formal apology finally came, hosts of Australians joined Indigenous singer-songwriter Archie Roach in feeling that a big weight had been lifted from their shoulders. But the elation was often qualified and many also shared the sentiments of Norman Steward, son of a Stolen Generations member, who said that “the word ‘sorry’ doesn’t come near what my father went through … actions speak louder than words.”

Some three years after Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis echoed the federal government’s apology and acknowledged the past wrongs to Indigenous Australians carried out in the name of the University of Melbourne, and more than 12 years since his predecessor Professor Alan Gilbert acknowledged these injustices, the need to act – rather than just talk – provides the impetus for the development of a University of Melbourne Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

Development of the RAP was kicked off with a meeting of Indigenous elders, representatives of Indigenous educational and community organisations with whom the University has had a longstanding relationship, and senior members of the University’s academic and professional staff.

Its purpose was to seek the views of the Elders on the direction the RAP should take.

University of Melbourne Provost, Professor John Dewar, outlined the University’s intentions at this first meeting held in August. “A reconciliation action plan is a public document containing a number of measurable targets which will track the University’s progress toward achieving these objectives,” he says, “and we will be committing ourselves to reporting regularly on meeting those targets.”

According to Professor Dewar, the University’s RAP will be developed according to Reconciliation Australia guidelines. “It will provide an opportunity to integrate an Indigenous development agenda across the whole institution,” he says.

Professor Ian Anderson, an Aboriginal staff member at the University of Melbourne, is the primary driving force behind development of the RAP. Professor Anderson, whose family originally came from Tasmania, but who has spent most of his life within the Koorie community in Victoria, is foundation Chair of Indigenous Health in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and Director of the Murrup Barak Melbourne Institute of Indigenous Development.

“The University’s role is in guiding and developing the knowledge people have,” says Professor Anderson. “Therefore the University has the capacity to play a huge role in valuing and integrating that knowledge.

“A major role is to address ignorance and change the culture. If achievements can be made within the institution then both students and staff will take their valued knowledge and improved cultural views and attitudes with them when they move out into the wider world of their workplace and their profession.

“We have a vision about making a sustained contribution to getting a better deal for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australian society,” says Professor Anderson. “But in order to do that, it is not something we as Indigenous staff or Indigenous students on campus can do alone. Reconciliation is a journey and it needs all of us to go on that journey.

“We all have a contribution to make. It may be a small amount of our time, a small amount of our energy, a small amount of our emotional commitment, but that small amount has a big impact if we all go on that journey together.”

Since the meeting with Indigenous elders in August, an exhaustive consultation process has been under way to encourage Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff and students across Parkville and rural campuses to contribute to development of the RAP.

Jerome Cubillo from Darwin, a second-year arts student and resident of Trinity College, is a Wadjigan and Larrakia man on his father’s side and Torres Strait Islander on his mother’s. Mr Cubillo believes the action plan is a good idea for multiple reasons.

“I think the RAP is important in showing current Indigenous students that the University is taking initiatives to try to bring more cultural awareness and sensitivity for its Indigenous students,” he says. “But it will also help non-Indigenous students to get a better understanding, and help University staff to be a lot more supportive of Indigenous students.”

For Bridget Barker, a second-year arts student, one of whose majors is Australian Aboriginal Studies, the action plan for reconciliation has wider application and importance. “I believe the RAP is integral to the overall reconciliation of Aboriginal people of Australia,” says Ms Barker.

Associate Professor Maureen Tehan, Associate Director in the Centre for Resources, Energy and Environmental Law, has for many years worked on increasing Indigenous student and staff participation as well as advancing research agendas around Indigenous issues at the University.

“For me the idea of a RAP is exciting,” she says, “the crucial word being ‘action’. The plan will require the University to take positive, practical steps to implement an agenda to achieve some significant outcomes.”

University of Melbourne staff member Amy Bugeja believes that currently you could be forgiven for thinking that the University is European, with little indication that it stands on central Wurundjeri land. “I would feel a great deal of pride that the organisation I work for is committed to closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff members,” she says.

With the introductory convening panel and staff and student consultation process now completed, the way ahead has been outlined by Professor Dewar.

“Taking into account what we’ve now heard, we will proceed to develop a draft of the reconciliation action plan to take back to the wider University community for comment,” he says. “Then once the final plan has been ratified by senior executive, it will be presented to Indigenous elders of the convening panel for approval.”

“The plan will then be submitted to Reconciliation Australia, and the actions set out in the business and planning cycle of the University.”
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