Scott Lecture and Colloquium Photographs

and more on the Kim Scott Colloquium Facebook page...

Healing

Mobile 'Phone Apps. A nice end to NAIDOC Week celebrations when the first stage in the development of a mobile 'phone app for clients of the Boorndawan Willam Aboriginal Healing Service coincided with Melbourne's Outer Eastern Region NAIDOC Ball. Quite an achievement - the young Indigenous software engineer developed the app while completing an Honours degree and dealing with the potentially life-threatening illness of a close family member. After missing out on funding we invested our own time and money because of the urgency of the need. Maybe it was a bit like leading with your chin to commence our funding application with the following: ‘V. S. Naipaul famously said that the colonised were condemned to use the telephone never to invent it. This project contests the fatalism of Naipaul’s dictum in two ways: It builds mastery and capacity in Indigenous communities in relation to evolving information technologies and systems; and Indigenous leadership and knowledge are central to the methodology it uses.’

AIME (Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience). This organisation continues to set new benchmarks in achievement. A recent email:


'They say good things come in threes. Think Musketeers, happy birthday cheers and Origin deciders...

And now, for the third year running, AIME kids have finished school at almost the same rate as every Australian child. We've just released the 2011 AIME Annual Report, and the results are in. 
 

It's because of results like these that ABC told AIME's Australian Story. It's because of results like these that the Prime Minister of Australia donned an AIME Hoodie to celebrate Indigenous success. And it's because of people like you that we're seeing a generation of Indigenous kids, a generation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous university Mentors, and a whole nation, step up to believe in something bigger, something better.' 

Check out AIME 's annual report and also  the University of Melbourne's own Seamless Transition Education Pathway (STEPP) program.

Honourable Mention. "A good night's drinking in the village. Sharrocks and I went to the local cinema to see  film about the aborigines of Australia - Bitter Springs. The aborigines were good.' John Fowles,  The Journals: Volume 1, 2003, 159.


Don't Forget. @ 7.00pm, on the 25th of July Australian Indigenous Studies hosts a major address by Professor Kim Scott at the Spot Basement Theatre, Business and Economics.  In a wide-ranging address Professor Scott will bring together his concerns with Indigenous cultural renewal though language revitalization, and the role of literature in an evolving vision of Australia in the twenty-first century. This event will be followed by a reception to honour Professor Scott.

http://www.facebook.com/TheKimScottColloquium

A New Generation

Congrats.  to John Morrissey, a son of the Kalkadoons, who received the Faculty of Arts Richard Gunter Prize for 3rd Year English in 2011.

 And Lilly Brown - currently an Honours student in the Australian Indigenous Studies program, Lilly will commence an MA at the University of Cambridge later this year.

The Kim Scott Colloquium 2012

Guest Post from Ruby Lowe, Co-Coordinator, The Kim Scott Colloquium

Australian Indigenous literature has played a major role in my literary education at The University of Melbourne.  I am currently completing my honours thesis on the political dimensions of John Milton’s early poetry, while taking course work subjects in English Literature and Australian Indigenous Studies. I am also co-convening the first national conference on an Australian Indigenous author with Philip Morrissey. 

The idea for the Kim Scott Colloquium 2012 began as a series of informal discussions by a dedicated group of Kim Scott’s readers. Interest within the university, combined with Kim Scott’s recent accumulation of literary accolades, made Philip and I realise that there should be a formal academic recognition and analysis of Kim Scott’s work.

Two major events will be held at The University of Melbourne to celebrate and discuss Kim Scott’s writing.  Kim Scott has agreed to give a public lecture at The University of Melbourne on 25 July. This will be followed by a colloquium on Kim Scott’s writings on 3-4 August this year.

The colloquium will survey Scott’s fiction and focus on True Country (1993), Benang (1999) and That Deadman Dance (2011). Emerging and established scholars from Australian Indigenous Studies, English Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Contemporary Art will engage with Scott’s representation of Australian history, politics and identity.

 

To register an expression of interest email Kate Rendell, rendellk@unimelb.edu.au.

 

That Chilling Moment

That chilling moment in the modern university when you realise that for a powerful class of people corporate speak/political correctness is the new ethics: the management of facades and surfaces with concomitant institutional rewards and group validation. On these social occasions I’ve wondered, ‘How could a real human being ever appear in this setting?’

In contrast I was at a recent event where toughness or the appearance of toughness was clearly a necessary component of male and female capital – most men were heavily tattooed (three had facial tattoos).  I was sitting beside an ex-biker who had suffered an incapacitating breakdown of health and now lived on an invalid pension. After we discussed the anti-oxidant effects of blueberries, and he informed me that frozen blueberries were a lot cheaper than fresh, he spoke of one of his sons visiting the Sioux Indians, and of his great love for Native American spirituality but then as if to emphasise that he wasn’t another disconnected New Ager, and to acknowledge me, he said, “It’s funny, I’ve never been interested in Koori spirituality."

24 Hours in Alice

A quick trip on Thursday to Alice Springs to do a presentation on our proposed Master of Indigenous Policy and Development at the Indigenous Forces at Work Conference being held there. The conference title sums up the practical and resolute tone of the conference.  It’s almost impossible to communicate the richness of such a conference to non-Indigenous outsiders – issues based politics and personalities provide more accessible and simpler ways of engaging with Aboriginal communities.

The response to the presentation was moving. I had particularly wanted to stress for the delegates the matter of validation as an aspect of our proposed Master of Indigenous Policy and Development. In the first instance, a validation of the skills and knowledges accrued by practitioners in the course their work; and following from this, a personal validation for them as individuals whose contribution and skills are usually not affirmed in any concrete and meaningful way.

While I thought it would be a case of airport - conference venue - hotel - airport, Alice still works its magic and strangeness. Where else but Alice Springs casino would you hear the murmur of Aboriginal languages mingled with the electronic chatter of poker machines?  (Provokes interesting reflections on gambling.) Finally the magic: 7.00 am by the hotel pool before flying out:

Master of Indigenous Policy and Development

 Where have we been? Pretty much submerged in the development of proposal for a Master of Indigenous Policy and Development targeted in the first instance at potential mature age students, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, employed in the multifarious branches of Indigenous affairs, community support, and development. If we manage to get the proposal through the various stages of evaluation we'll have a course that will enhance the capacity of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students to develop, manage and enact effective Indigenous policy in Australia. A Graduate Certificate will be built into it as well as flexible entry requirements. The vision thing revolves around the prospect of a dozen Indigenous students graduating with a Masters qualification from a sandstone university – an outcome that would really have an impact on the social and policy landscape.

Until now its been driven by will and exhausting work but we’ve picked up supporters and collaborators on the journey – to the point that we are quietly confident we can do it.

(Yes, the lettering is a different colour – the design of the blog will change, leaving the moody greys,  greens and blues behind. The older you get the less inclined you are to fake it.)

RAP. The University of Melbourne had its first Reconciliation Action Plan celebration the other day. Congrats. to everyone mentioned in despatches:

http://musse.unimelb.edu.au/march-12-82/celebrating-our-indigenous-community