In celebration of NAIDOC Week 2023, MGSE is delighted to welcome Professor Barry Judd, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous), to present  a special Dean’s Lecture on Monday 3^rd July:

Giving Voice to Indigenous Australia: Formal education, help or hinderance?

As the Referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament approaches later in the year, Judd reflects on the role formal education has played in shaping the ongoing relationship between Indigenous peoples and settler-colonial Australians.

Drawing on his own experiences, Judd asks if formal education in Australia has worked to facilitate mature national debate on issues like the Voice proposal or whether it has in fact hindered and undermined such possibilities.

These questions go to the heart of the assertion by legal academic, Megan Davis, that Indigenous Australia continues to remain unknown to settler-colonial Australia. As well as the related refrain of Australian historian, Henry Reynolds, when pondering contemporary ignorance of the Australian past and the place of Indigenous Australia within this history, Why weren’t we told? (2000).

Judd critically discusses why formal education in Australia continues to be a largely unhelpful “friend” to Indigenous Australia in the task of overcoming the mistruths and misrepresentations that continue to characterise discussion and debate about the place Indigenous people occupy or should occupy in Australian society.

Join us at 5.30pm for registration and refreshments.

Lecture commences at 6.00pm.

Registration is essential.

The University of Melbourne and the Melbourne Press Club are delighted to host an interactive evening with Thomas Mayo on the Voice to Parliament.

The President of the Melbourne Press Club Ashlynne McGhee will interview Thomas Mayo, Uluru Statement from the Heart signatory and Indigenous advocate, followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Thomas Mayo and Kerry O’Brien have recently published a handbook on the Voice to Parliament that examines various issues surrounding the upcoming referendum, the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the history of Indigenous advocacy and how the Voice can help to close the gap.

This is your chance to shape the conversation through interactive polls and Q&As, and to engage with Voice to Parliament issues that are important to you.

Don’t pass up this unique event. Register now, bring along your phone or tablet, and get ready to engage.