Our friends at U3A Melbourne City have put together a 4 part series, Approaching the Voice, in partnership with the Indigenous Unit at The University of Melbourne.

Later this year you will be asked to vote in the Referendum on a Voice to Parliament and in the coming months you will be bombarded with opinions from all political perspectives.  In this Approaching the Voice series we bring you voices that you won’t regularly hear on radio and television: the voices of people who work continuously in this area and who are willing to share their expertise with us.

The 4 sessions are:

1. Contemporary Conversations about Treaty and Voice

Monday, July 10, 2.00-3.30pm at the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Theatre, University of Melbourne

Speaker: Professor Sarah Maddison is Director of the Australian Centre at the University.

Sarah has published widely in the fields of reconciliation and intercultural relations and her most recent book is The Colonial Fantasy: Why white Australia can’t solve black problems  Allen and Unwin 2019.

2. Politics, truth-telling and history-making: a non-Indigenous person’s reflection

Monday, July 17, 2.00-3.30pm at the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Theatre, University of Melbourne

Speaker:  Dr. Rachel Standfield is a Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Studies, Culture and Communication.

Rachel is a historian of Indigenous societies and colonial histories in Australia and New Zealand.  She works as a historical consultant for Melbourne’s Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Community and has also

worked in public policy and supporting Indigenous activism for human rights.

3. Taking Indigenous knowledge seriously –  a grounded account of listening to Indigenous voices

Tuesday, July 25, 12.30-2.00pm at the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Theatre, University of Melbourne

Speaker:  Dr. Matt Campbell lectures in the area of Treaty and agreement making.

Matt spent more than two decades in Northern Australia, working with Indigenous people, seeking to find ways to ensure that his work appropriately centred Indigenous knowledge and governance.

4. Indigenous Voice: Uluru as pathway to Australian social reconstruction

Tuesday, August 1, 12.30-2.00  at the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Theatre, University of Melbourne

Speaker:  Professor Barry Judd is Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) and Director of the Indigenous Studies Program.

Barry is a member of the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and has worked in the support of Indigenous activity in Australian higher education for over 30 years.  He is widely            published with particular expertise in race relations in Australian sport.

In the Chair for all sessions will be Professor Russell Goulbourne, Dean, Faculty of Arts. Russell is a noted scholar in French literature having published extensively on major figures in French intellectual culture including Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau.

Our thanks to Russell for facilitating this cooperative venture.

The 45 minute presentations will be followed by an audience Q@A session.

All four presentations are in the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Theatre, University of Melbourne Parkville campus, Level B1: Arts West – West Wing, Street address: Professor’s Walk

• Extra directions: Room B01. Enter either east door (opposite Old Arts building) or west door (opposite Genetics). Take stairs to basement. Theatre is at the foot of the stairs. Lift access: Ramp on left side of east door (opposite Old Arts building). For main lift turn right then left. Otherwise go straight ahead to use open lift next to the far staircase.

You can book below for individual sessions or all 4 sessions. They are free-of-charge. These will not be offered via Zoom.   These sessions are sure to be popular to please don’t book unless you know that you can attend.