Sydney Law School is proud to host the annual Wingarra Djuraliyin public lecture, which showcases Indigenous perspectives on law.

In 2023, the lecture is “One more broken silence: an Indigenous academic encounters racism in the law school 2023”, delivered by Dr Eddie Cubillo (University of Melbourne Law School).

This event is being held to mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, which is celebrated annually on 9 August.

2023 Lecture

One more broken silence: an Indigenous academic encounters racism in the law school 

In this lecture, I question why despite being white-qualified, having done an LLB, LLM, PhD, I am only seen as ‘the culture guy’ and only respected enough to do ‘smoking and acknowledgements’, why myself and other Blak academics continue to be subjected to casual and pervasive racisms as an everyday occurrence, and why some of our most prestigious academic institutions continue to be complicit in perpetrating and condoning racism despite all the rhetoric about standing for equity and justice.

In 2015, Wiradjuri man Stan Grant challenged Australians to consider that ‘The Australian Dream is rooted in racism…the very foundation of the dream’. Recently, as Australia tracks towards a referendum on a First Nations Voice to Parliament that 80% of Indigenous people support, non-Indigenous author Richard Flanagan challenges us to ‘confront th[e] most terrible truth…[that] racism experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people…is of a completely different order…far more extreme…[and] so pervasive as to often be invisible to non-Indigenous Australians’.

The toxicity of the academy and whether it’s safe for Indigenous staff and students needs to be confronted. It needs to be highlighted that they often are not. First Nations academics often ask each other if it’s all worthwhile. As a country, we need to acknowledge that the places settlers/non-Indigenous Australians have built for themselves were established by,  and  are sustained by, racial violence. Institutions  can be  unrelenting  in  their  viciousness towards sovereign Black bodies,  and this viciousness includes the silence of colleagues, their privilege and their ‘unconscious biases’. As Richard Flanagan acknowledges ‘Spend some real time with Aboriginal people and you’ll see how they are still made to live in another country, and it is frequently a cruel, pitiless and brutally destructive world.‘

So why am I still here? Why do I, and other Blak academics continue to subject ourselves to the viciousness and racial violence? For the same reason I call it out in this lecture – As a proud Larrakia, Wadjigan and Central Arrernte man I put up with the racism because of what I hear constantly from our people on the front-line advocating and delivering services trying their best in a racist world. If I can educate future leaders to respect my people, I will. My ancestors and elders have faced adversity, so that I can achieve, it’s my turn.

Wednesday 9 August, 6-7.30pm

CPD points =1.5

About the speaker

Dr Eddie Cubillo is a Larrakia, Wadjigan and Central Arrente man from the Northern Territory.

He is a long time advocate for Indigenous rights and is currently Associate Dean (Indigenous Programs) & Director of the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub at the University of Melbourne’s Law School, were he has his sights on the decolonisation of legal education and supporting graduates to work towards First Nations Justice.

Eddie’s other past roles include Anti-Discrimination Commissioner of the Northern Territory, Executive Officer of the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (NATSILS) and Director of Community Engagement in the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.

Eddie has been a former Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) Yilli Rreung Regional Council, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) and the Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee and is currently on the Law Council of Australia’s – Indigenous Legal Issues Committee, National OPCAT Advisory Group, Justice Policy Partnership (JPP) under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, and the Victorian Treaty Authority Panel.

Catch up on the 2022 lecture

In 2022, the Wingarra Djuraliyin lecture was presented by Professor Anne Poelina and Marlikka Perdrisat, who spoke on the topic of ‘First Law: A Climate Chance’.

Watch here

This event is presented by the University of Sydney Law School in collaboration with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services) at the University of Sydney.