It is my great pleasure to invite you all to this very special and
different 21st anniversary celebration of the life and work
of one of our most impactful alumni, Charles Perkins.
I’d like to extend a particularly warm thank you to the Perkins Family, and to this year’s
orator, Tony McAvoy SC, whose words of wisdom and experience
we are looking forward to hearing.
Counsellor McAvoy is a Wirdi man from the central Queensland
area around Clermont.
He is Australia’s first Indigenous Senior Counsel and Co-Chair of the Indigenous Legal
Issues Committee of the Law Council of Australia.
Appointed Senior Counsel in 2015, Tony has developed a strong native title practice
and has significant experience in the areas of environmental law, administrative law,
human rights and discrimination law, coronial inquests and criminal law.
Even though we can’t all be together this year due to COVID, it is wonderful that we
can still hold this event in the heart of our University, our Great Hall,
and that we can reach so many people through our broadcast.
As Australia’s first university, the University of Sydney is dedicated to shaping change
that improves the lives of the local, national, and international communities we serve.
At the heart of all our aspirations for the future are the objectives
of our One Sydney, Many People Strategy.
This Strategy launched earlier this year, outlines our commitment to valuing
Indigenous culture and knowledge and creating higher education and leadership
opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The vibrant cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are central to the
landscape, identity, and character of our nation.
A fundamental commitment to strengthening our knowledge, appreciation
and practice of this identity and character lies at the very heart of the work
outlined in One Sydney, Many People.
We know our growing cohort of students will graduate to become future leaders,
inspired by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander alumni like Charles Perkins.
This generation of leaders will make lasting positive change in our society as
Government ministers, Chief Scientists, High Court judges, senior diplomats
and in many other roles.
Again we have the opportunity to reflect on the legacy of Dr Charles Perkins AC
and on how, in its 21st year, this oration remains one of the most important events
within our University and wider community,
when it comes to be being able to continue to learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander leaders.
I am very much looking forward to watching the 2021 Dr Charles Perkins Oration
delivered by Tony McAvoy, as I am sure you are.
It is my great privilege to invite you to view the 2021 broadcast
of the Dr Charles Perkins Memorial Oration.
The University of Sydney’s Camperdown campus has always been a place of learning
long before the university was even conceived.
This land, the home to the Gadigal who for tens of thousands of years
lived and cared for this beautiful Country,
where I am fortunate enough to stand on now.
The University of Sydney has a deep commitment to shaping sustainable and
lasting change from within our community and continues to deeply value
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and knowledges and how they enhance
this nation.
I believe these cultures and knowledges are so central to the identity and
understanding of our nation, and therefore core to who we are
as Australian peoples.
One of the most powerful tools we have, especially when it comes to closing
the many and well known gaps experienced by Aboriginal people compared to other
Australians, is that of education.
Education allows us all to come together in an equitable way to listen and learn,
to share knowledge, and embed cultural knowledges into our curriculum,
teaching, research, professional practices, and the wider University community.
An important part of this is the work of our newly established Gadigal Centre,
where First Nations students are supported academically
and encouraged to connect to culture and excel in their studies
and establish themselves for a prosperous future.
Over 50 years ago in 1965, as a student at the University of Sydney,
Charles Perkins and others organised a student bus tour around New South Wales.
This Freedom Ride highlighted the state of race relations in Australia
and is recognised as one of our country’s most significant civil rights events.
This year, we mark the 21st anniversary of the oration.
This milestone allows us to the chance to reflect on what has happened
for race relations since that Freedom ride, what has changed in the last 21 years and
what we can do to create change and shape the next 21 years for our future leaders.
Last year we were all enthralled by the empathic words of Aunty Pat
Turner who called on us all to take a stand for unity and lasting change.
This will be my first Charles Perkins Oration as Vice-Chancellor of the University,
and I, like you, I look forward to hearing the message of to this year’s orator,
Tony McAvoy SC.
As Australia’s first Indigenous Senior Counsel and Co-Chair
of the Indigenous Legal Issues Committee of the Law Council of Australia,
Counsellor McAvoy’s message is one for us all to hear, and will no doubt contribute
to a larger conversation across the nation and spark changes in our society.
I am confident the First Nations students watching this year’s oration
will graduate to become our finest leaders, inspired by alumni like Charles Perkins
and leaders like the Hon Linda Burney, Aunty Pat Turner,
and of course Counsellor McAvoy.
Looking ahead, my hope as Vice Chancellor is that the University of Sydney is a place
where people can come and learn and excel.
A place where traditional knowledges are deeply embedded in every part of our
practice and a place where the Charles Perkins Oration continues to contribute
to our national conversations and make a lasting impact. On all of us.
I thank you for joining me in watching this very special broadcast of the 2021
Charles Perkins Oration delivered by Tony McAvoy.
I look forward to hearing the messages shared.