source : the age
Deakin University has rejected a push to rebrand after a panel led by its first Aboriginal student advised against a change.
The university was named after Alfred Deakin, a founding father of Federation who was also the architect of the racist White Australia policy, prompting pressure from some staff members and students to change the name the university was given by the Victorian parliament 50 years ago.
Alfred Deakin, the second prime minister of Australia.
The university has now rejected that push after a series of conversations involving Aboriginal leaders, students and community members that led to a tanderrum – a Kulin nation term that means “safe passage” or “agreement”.
That document addresses the legacy of Alfred Deakin to “define a path” forward and commit to a process of truth-telling.
It says Deakin’s “complex” legacy had sparked questions for the university, including from Deakin’s own family members.
“We do, however, reject wholeheartedly being captured by, or colluding with, the darkness of history. We should all be drawn towards the light of the future,” says the tanderrum, a document aimed at addressing the ongoing impact of Deakin’s “divisive” policies.
Deakin University will not change its name, after a consultation process ended with an agreement. Credit: Penny Stephens
“Parties [to the tanderrum] agree to reject the proposition to change the name of the university and jointly commit to truth-telling and elevating the understanding and acknowledgement of the full history of our country.”
Deakin was a revered politician, Australia’s second prime minister, a driving force behind Federation and the nation’s first attorney-general.
But he was also responsible for the White Australia policy and pushed through the Aboriginal Protection Amendment Act in 1886.
The latter made a distinction between people of full and mixed-raced Aboriginal descent, and the law enabled the forced removal from their homes of mixed-race children who became the stolen generations.
His own great-grandson, Peter Sharp, believes Deakin was responsible, more than virtually anyone else, for policies designed to demolish Aboriginal Australia.
The tanderrum process started in 2020 and included representatives of the Deakin family. It was led by Professor Mark Rose, who in 1978 was Deakin’s first Aboriginal student and is now the university’s deputy vice chancellor, Indigenous.
Rose said Deakin the man and Deakin the university were very separate – but he echoed the words of another leader from the process that “we can’t go forward if we can’t keep looking backwards”.
“At no point, do we want to justify it or shy away from [the history], but there is a complexity around it,” said Rose, who is traditionally linked to the Gunditjmara people from Western Victoria.
“[Those involved in the process] didn’t have any appetite in changing the name as part of the bigger picture of dealing with the legacy of Alfred Deakin.”
Rose said Deakin’s policies had led to a “silent apartheid”, leaving many Indigenous people cut off from education.
“We were silent and mute in the curriculum, and what we really are doing is undoing the work of that silent apartheid,” he said.
Noting its 800 First Nation graduates and “extremely positive” relationship with Indigenous communities, the university’s annual report said time and effort spent changing the name would remove focus from the “real work” it needed to do, including committing to truth-telling and reconciliation.
Rose said Deakin had embedded an Indigenous perspective in its entire curriculum, along with truth-telling.
“My purpose at Deakin, and part of my ancestral mandate, is to assist our community to find their liberation through education, and Deakin is on side with that,” he said.
First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria co-chair and Gunditjmara man Rueben Berg said that as a general rule, name changes or a shift to dual names including Aboriginal words were welcomed.
“It’s a respectful way to celebrate our cultures and languages which I think helps bring us all closer,” Berg said.
“To help healing and provide more opportunities to move on together, it’s important that institutions reckon with the truth of what was done to Aboriginal people, their role in those injustices and how things can be done differently now.”
National Union of Students education officer James McVicar said the decision to keep the name was disappointing.
“Naming a major institution after Alfred Deakin is about glorifying an architect of the White Australia policy,” he said. “It’s not about preserving the historical record, which should be far less kind to people like Alfred Deakin than it is.”
But Rose disagreed: “I understand the default position of many people who want to do the right thing is to press the cancel button, but I do not want to stop the momentum of our people in their learning journey.”
Deakin is not the first Victorian university to be forced to reconsider its historical links. Monash renamed the John Medley Library in 2016 due to his links to eugenics. The University of Melbourne changed the name of the Richard Berry Building for the same reason.
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