Coming home to Country

I am honoured and profoundly privileged to have been appointed the University of Tasmania’s new Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic).

I was born in Devonport on the North-West Coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania. My mother is Palawa and my father comes from a rural family of farm labourers.

Our traditional culture and community are tied to tebrakunna country in the State’s north-east.

My non-Aboriginal family are largely of convict descent from across Lutruwita/Tasmania.

When I was young, it was often the case that if you had educational promise, you left the North-West Coast and only very rarely returned.

My journey was similar but slightly different. We left Devonport just before my tenth birthday. My dad worked in towns in New South Wales and Victoria.

I finished high school in Bendigo and left to study medicine at the University of Melbourne and build a career in public health research and policy, particularly the social and cultural determinants of health. In 2006, I was awarded a PhD in Sociology and Anthropology.

I served as a Deputy Secretary in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and from there was appointed as a Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student and University Experience) at the Australian National University.

I have spent more than 20 years promoting access to higher education for Indigenous Australians and for Australians from regional areas and educationally disadvantaged communities. The opportunity to return to Tasmania to continue this work was not one I could pass up.

I didn’t realise how profoundly I was affected by returning to Tasmania until I was sitting down for a counter meal at the Neptune Grand Hotel in Penguin in my first week in this role. I looked around the room and was overcome by the emotion of recognising I was among folks as if I had never left. I realised I had finally come home to Country.

As much as I am moulded by my Tasmanian upbringing, it is fortunate that times have changed since my days on the North-West Coast. I have come back to the island to make sure this wave of change continues. I am privileged to lead our wonderful new campuses on the Coast and at Inveresk as well as our agenda of building a distinctive course portfolio and stronger pathways to access these courses.

There is much that we are doing that is already nation leading. Our overall course satisfaction is up to 82 per cent, nearly three percentage points above the national average and higher than all the Group of Eight universities. The percentage of our graduates who secure full-time employment has also risen by nine percentage points to 80 per cent, which is three percentage points above the national average. And our domestic students enjoy the highest median graduate salary in Australia at $86,000, more than $10,000 above the national average.

These are tangible outcomes that are improving the lives of all Tasmanians, including those who in the past may not have had access to higher education, despite having the ability. It is vitally important that Indigenous Australians and Australians from regional areas and educationally disadvantaged communities all have opportunities to excel and give back to their community.

The University of Tasmania’s deeply place-based mission and commitment to embedding Indigenous knowledge to transform the institution is unique in the sector. The work of my colleagues (and cousins), Distinguished Professor Emerita Maggie Walter and Professor Greg Lehman, intellectual leaders in cultural and Indigenous sociology, has ensured we truly can lead the nation and indeed be global leaders.

We have an incredible opportunity as a university to invest in the social transformation and economic productivity of an entire state. And, in this year that the Australian people have the opportunity to vote to recognise Indigenous Australians in our constitution, we have a particular opportunity to further embed Indigenous knowledge by reflecting the Aboriginal notion of place in our strategy. I am excited about the possibilities before us.