the graduate union newsletter
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020
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What’s on at Graduate House Scholarships and Bursaries
Tue, 28th January
Italian Conversation Dinner
Tue, 4th, 18th February 6:00pm
Monthly luncheon
Wed, 5th February 12:00pm for 12:30pm start
Bridge Night
Wed, 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th February 6:50pm for 7:00pm start
Scholarships and bursaries open for applications. Graduate House offers scholarships and bursaries to its Resident Members to assist them in reaching their research and academic goals.
Dine while learning to speak Italian with an experienced teacher. Members $17 Non-members $25
Ambassador Izzat Abdulhadi Resident Members $10 Non-resident Members $30 Concession $35 General public $40
Do you enjoy a sociable game of duplicate bridge? Register at reception. All levels of bridge players welcome. Members $2 Non-members $6 Includes tea/coffee/biscuits
Special Morning Breakfast
Tue, 11th February 7:30am to 8:30am
Women’s Forum
Wed, 19th February 10:00am for 10:30am start
Non-resident Members are welcome to join Resident Members for a hearty breakfast at Graduate House. Free for Resident Members Non-resident Members $20
Come along to discuss ‘What will 2020 bring?’ The Forum is free. All are welcome. Lunch is at Member and non-member prices.
BOOK NOW: www.graduatehouse.com.au I (03) 9347 3428 I admingh@graduatehouse.com.au
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Contents dates ahead
GU Collegiate
4 International Days
28 2020 GU Collegiate Year at a Glance
5 Graduate House 2020 Calendar
29 Graduate House Monthly
features 6 The Nationals Mark 100 years by Paul Davey AM
Luncheon
30 Chinese New Year 31 Feedback
8 My University is Dying
ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MEETINGS
by Sheila Liming
10 Students Seek Social and Emotional Skills as Much as Intellectual Capabilities by Jana Bowden
VALETE
31 November and December 2019 Listings
Other 34 First Nations: The Golden Boomerang by Life Member, Mr Louis A Coutts
12 The Honorable John Cain (1931-2019)
reviewS 13 Graduate House Monthly Luncheon Review
35 Innovation 36 Graduate House Serial:
One Thousand and One Nights
with Dr Ross McMullin
18 Chairperson’s Cocktail Party 20 Members’ Christmas Party
38 The UN Sustainable Development Goals: Guide to the SDGs in the Tertiary Sector
39 Crowdfunding: Fund Lifelong Learning
Graduate house news 22 Lunch with Kerry O’Brien 24 Rice Fields, Villages, Volcanoes, Cigarettes, and Coffee: My Life in Indonesia by Resident Member, James Henshall
26 Probus Club of Carlton Parkville Christmas Lunch by Reg Flanigan
27 Seen at Graduate House 27 Residents’ News 27 Women’s Forum
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UPCOMING DATES
international days In 2020, Graduate House is raising awareness of some of the international days marked by the United Nations. These days help to educate the public on areas of concern and provide an opportunity to mobilise societal will and resources to address global problems. The days for January and February are: World Day of Peace 1st January
The World Day of Peace was instituted by Pope Saint Paul VI in 1968. Every year the Catholic Church celebrates the day by issuing a special World Day of Peace message. This year, Pope Francis’ World Day of Peace discussed ‘Peace as a journey of hope: dialogue, reconciliation and ecological conversion’.
Australia Day 26th January
Marked as the official national day of Australia, the day celebrates all the things we love about Australia. Today, Australia Day acknowledges and celebrates the contribution that every Australian makes to our contemporary and dynamic nation.
International day of Commemoration in Memory of the victims of the Holocaust 27TH January
2020 marks the 75th anniversary since the ending of the Second World War and the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps. Suitably this year’s theme is: ‘75 years after Auschwitz - Holocaust Education and Remembrance for Global Justice’.
World Cancer Day 4th February
World Cancer Day aims to empower communities through support, and works to lift the profile and awareness of cancer in a positive and inspiring way. The theme for World Cancer Day 2019-2021 is ‘I am and I will’ and was chosen as a way of empowering individuals and reducing the impact of cancer.
World Radio Day 13th February
World Radio Day was adopted by the UN in 2012, and in 2020 UNESCO has called on radio stations to focus on diversity, both in the newsroom and on the airwaves. The day recognises the powerful medium radio is for ‘celebrating humanity’ and gives a platform for democratic discourse. Radio remains globally the most widely consumed medium, and enables contact with diverse communities and with varied content.
International Book Giving Day 14th February
Graduate House want to share the joy of books and support the Rotary Club of Carlton 2020 Book Fair on the weekend of 21st-22nd March at Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre, 251 Faraday Street, Carlton. The proceeds will fund Australian mental health research, and a Young Children’s Literacy Project. Please bring books of any genre to Graduate House to assist this initiative. The books can be left in our Book Donation Box between Monday to Friday, 7:00am7:00pm.
World Day of Social Justice 20TH February
World Day of Social Justice was adopted by the United Nations in recognition of it being at the core of its global mission to promote development and human dignity. The day was in response to the International Labour Organisation’s Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation, which focused on ensuring fairer outcomes for everyone via employment, social protection, social dialogue and rights at work.
International Mother Language Day acknowledges the importance of cultural and International Mother Language Day linguistic diversity and multilingualism, for sustaining societies. Today, 43 per cent of the estimated 6,000 languages spoken in the world are endangered, with only a 21st February few hundred languages genuinely receiving a place in education systems and even fewer languages used in the digital world. At present, a language disappears every two weeks, and with it much of the cultural knowledge of that language. www.graduatehouse.com.au
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UPCOMING DATES
Graduate House 2020 Calendar Graduate House’s annual calendar is now available for in-House and online orders for the year 2020! Stay up to date with Graduate House events, international days and academic dates. This year’s calendar follows the inspirational theme of Who Will You Be?, showcasing some of The Graduate Union’s influential Members and Residents! Members: $9.95* Non-Members: $21.95* *Does not include postage
january – helen sexton
feburary – Sir john monash
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FEATURE
The Nationals mark 100 years by Paul Davey AM
The National Party of Australia celebrates its centenary on 22nd January 2020, making it the second oldest party in the Commonwealth Parliament after the Australian Labor Party.
Powerful arguments: the National Party exerting influence during the Telstra sale negotiations (cartoon by Peter Nicholson from The Australian newspaper, 21st March 2000, www.peternicholsoncartoons.com.au).
members to assess each other’s strengths and weaknesses before choosing a longer-term leader. The Tasmanian Member for Franklin, William McWilliams, was unanimously chosen.
Initially formed as the Australian Country Party (ACP), it has never been without parliamentary representation throughout its 100 years. Up to and including the May 2019 federal election, it had contested 1,192 electorates across regional Australia for the House of Representatives at general elections, winning 617 – a success rate of nearly 52 per cent.1
McWilliams explained the party’s philosophy to Parliament on 10th March 1920: “I may say at the outset that the Country Party is an independent body quite separate from the Nationalists or the Labour party. … We have appointed our own Leader and other officers. We intend to support measures of which we approve, and hold ourselves absolutely free to criticize or reject any proposals with which we do not agree.”3
It has been an influential partner in coalition governments for more than 60 years, providing many senior ministers and 11 Deputy Prime Ministers, three of whom, Earle Page (Cowper, NSW), Arthur Fadden (Darling Downs, Qld) and John McEwen (Murray, Vic), were commissioned as Prime Minister.2
The party’s first coalition agreement with the Nationalists was signed between the then Leader, Earle Page, and Stanley Bruce (Flinders, Vic), resulting in a coalition government that held office from 9th February 1923 to 22nd October 1929.
Because they served brief periods as Prime Minister, they are often disparagingly referred to as caretaker or stop-gap prime ministers. But each was sworn in with full authority and each made decisions and took actions that went far beyond the conventions of a caretaker government.
The agreement maintained the separate identity of each party and ensured the Country Party leader took precedence in the ministry after the Prime Minister and was acting Prime Minister during Bruce’s absences.4 All Country/National Party leaders have been second in seniority to the Prime Minister in coalition governments ever since.
On 22nd January 1920, a meeting of nine members of the House of Representatives, who had been elected on 13th December 1919 and who endorsed the ideals of the Australian Farmers’ Federal Organisation (AFFO), agreed to establish the ACP. State Country parties had already been formed by their respective farm organisations in Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales. The Tasmanian party would follow in 1922. The nine founding members of the ACP were joined by two more on 24th February 1920, giving a parliamentary strength of 11 on the cross benches.
Page, who was Treasurer, and the Country Party were soon delivering impressive achievements as participants in government – tax averaging for primary producers (1924), establishment of the Loan Council (1924), a Department of Markets, the forerunner of today’s Department of Agriculture (1925), the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – today’s CSIRO (1926), and the first Federal Aid Roads Agreement (1926).5
A party meeting the next day agreed to elect an interim leader, thereby providing time for the
The party has often been envied for wielding more influence on policy directions and outcomes than
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FEATURE
A conference in Melbourne on 23 -24 March 1926 of 60 Country Party delegates from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia adopted the party’s first constitution and agreed to establish a Federal organisation, independent of the farm organisations, with all State parties becoming affiliated and providing delegates to a governing body known today as Federal Council. rd
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Unlike the Liberal and Labor parties, whose State organisations are divisions or branches respectively of the federal organisation, each party affiliated with the National Party is independent and operates under its own constitution.
Determined to make a difference: an early photograph of the Australian Country Party members of the House of Representatives, taken between April and July 1921, (left to right, standing) Alexander Hay (New England, NSW), Robert Cook (Indi, Vic), Arnold Weinholt (Moreton, Qld), Percy Stewart (Wimmera, Vic), William Hill (Echuca, Vic), John Prowse (Swan, WA), William Fleming (Robertson, NSW), Edmund Jowett (Grampians, Vic), William McWilliams (Franklin, Tas); (sitting) Henry Gregory (Dampier, WA), Deputy Leader; Earle Page (Cowper, NSW), Leader; William Gibson (Corangamite, Vic), Whip (photo courtesy the Page family).
The party has had to face many challenges over the years to keep pace with changing economic, social and demographic circumstances. In part to meet these, it changed its name from ACP to National Country Party of Australia (NCP) on 2nd May 1975 and from NCP to National Party of Australia from 16th October 1982.
its parliamentary numbers should warrant. For instance, it has driven policies to increase funding for rural and regional roads, education, health and drought relief. It argued successfully to protect the competitiveness of commodity exports affected by Australian dollar revaluations in November 1967 and December 1971. It secured more than $4.5 billion for regional telecommunications from the sale of Telstra between 1999 and 2005, despite Treasurer Peter Costello’s (Higgins, Vic) view that all proceeds should go towards reducing Commonwealth debt.
Arguably, the party’s greatest achievement has been its very existence. Its presence has forced other parties, dominated by city-based politicians, to pay greater attention to the social and economic development of regional Australia than would otherwise have been the case. Paul Davey is a journalist and author of several books on National Party history. He worked for many years in senior positions for party ministers in Canberra and Sydney, was thus far its longest serving Federal Director and also a General Secretary of the NSW party. He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in January 2019.
The party has also done much to bolster coalition government interests, sometimes at the potential expense of its own. John McEwen, as Trade Minister in 1957, barely a decade after the end of World War II, took personal responsibility for negotiating the first Australia-Japan Trade Treaty, aware of the possible negative impact it could have on the government: “… I was making sure that, if I were to fall on this, the government would not have to fall with me. I was willing to carry the political responsibility for this on my own”.6
1 Australian Electoral Commission election results – see <www. aec.gov.au>; election records, National Party of Australia Federal Secretariat, Canberra. 2 The title of Deputy Prime Minister was not included in parliamentary records until it was established by Prime Minister John Gorton on 10th January 1968. However, the Country/National Party Leader has always taken precedence behind the Prime Minister in Coalition governments since the founding coalition between Stanley Bruce and Earle Page in 1923.
Another example came in the wake of the Port Arthur shooting massacre on 28th April 1996, when party Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fischer (Farrer, NSW), firmly supported tougher gun laws, despite strong opposition from many across the National Party.
3 Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, 10th March 1920, p. 250. 4 Page, E, Earle Page, Black Inc, Melbourne, 2000, p. 125; The Argus, Melbourne, 9th February 1923 5 Davey, P, Ninety Not Out, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2010, pp. 31-35.
As the ACP consolidated its place in Australian politics, Page was determined to build an organisational structure that would broaden its interests and appeal to wider sections of the rural and regional community than farmers and graziers.
6 John McEwen memoirs, John McEwen His Story, privately published, 1982, p. 54
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FEATURE
My University is Dying by sheila liming
I live in a land of austerity, and I’m not just talking about the scenery. When most people think about North Dakota — if, indeed, they ever do — they probably imagine bare, icecrusted prairies swept clean by wind. They see the clichés, in other words, not the reality — the towns that are, in fact, aesthetically identical to so many in America, with all the usual houses and shopping malls and parks and freeways. On the campus where I work, though, austerity has many meanings and many guises. Some of them you can see, like the swaths of new grass that grow where historic buildings stood just last year, before they were demolished in the name of maintenance backlogs. Most, though, are invisible.
has not been permitted to rehire). But some of them, I know, will not, and I grieve for them, too. If you build it, they will come; if you tear it down, they will go somewhere else.
Starting in 2016, our state university system endured three successive rounds of annual budgets cuts, with average 10 percent reductions resulting in a loss of more than a third of the system’s overall funding. Additional cuts, even, were on the table this past year. And while our state legislators ultimately avoided taking yet one more stab at the dismembered body of higher education, there has been no discussion of restoring any of those funds.
Back in 2013, when I was finishing up my dissertation and heading out “on the market”, I did so in the company of a number of other tenure-track hopefuls. The end of that year saw two of us packing up and heading off to new jobs: me to North Dakota, another to Alaska. A third colleague at a nearby school went off to Wyoming. What all of these states and all of these schools have in common, of course, are economies that rely on natural-resource extraction.
The experience of living with the metastasizing effects of austerity grants me some insight into what has been going on in Alaska. In July, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced a plan to strip the University of Alaska system of 41 percent of its operating budget. He has since tempered this plan, opting instead for a 20 percent cut to be meted out over a period of three years. After weathering three straight years of forced retirements, self-protective “pivots” to administration, and personal waterloos on my own campus, I cannot help but grieve for my colleagues in Alaska. Some of them, I know, will lose their jobs, or else be coerced into giving them up, as my own colleagues have been (my department lost 10 tenured/tenure-track faculty members — half of its roster — in four years and www.graduatehouse.com.au
When the budget cuts first hit North Dakota in 2016, our state legislature cited falling oil prices. I had been hired at the tail end of a boom that was just starting to taper off and resemble healthily average rates of production. Oil production in the state has grown since then and now outpaces the boom rates of 2014, even. But our campus has not recovered. The same will be true in Alaska, where the governor’s veto was spurred by campaign promises touting higher household revenue from the state’s Permanent Fund, which pays out dividends from oil revenue to private citizens. Our campus has struggled to recover, first, because austerity isn’t over for us, even if the 8
FEATURE
blitzkrieg of cuts has stalled for the time being. The second reason is because there are fewer people around now to help see each other through the grueling work of recovery. We lost our top-ranked women’s hockey team, which nurtured many an Olympian over the years; we lost whole programs and departments, or else saw them so hollowed from the inside as to effectively be lost. We survivors lost friends, colleagues, and neighbors. No one from my college, which is the largest at UND, a flagship state school, went up for tenure last year, because there was no one left who was eligible to apply. But these are the obvious losses, the ones that could be counted and read about in the local newspaper, or in the The Chronicle. It is the many and lingering surreptitious forms of loss — loss of confidence, of spirit, of purpose — that do the real damage.
This is what I’m talking about when I talk about living with, or surviving, austerity. I’m talking about the nonmaterial consequences of material resource depletion, which can last for generations and make earnest attempts at normalcy appear shot through with undercurrents of gloom. But the feeling isn’t unique to campuses like mine — campuses that have already met and locked horns with the new, ascetic order.
In the spring of 2018, I found myself occupying a spot at a banquet table as part of our campus’s annual Founders Day festivities. The event honors faculty and staff who are retiring from the university, alongside those who have won awards for service, research, or teaching. Two of my departmental colleagues were included among the latter, so a small group of us reserved a table (everyone — including awardwinners — must pay to attend). No words can describe the bleakness of an affair recognizing dozens and dozens of middle-aged, energetic employees who have been told that it is the end of their career. The theme for the evening was a 1950s sock hop, which couldn’t have been less appropriate given the age of most of the honorees. Then there were the speeches. The president was supposed to serve as master of ceremonies, but he couldn’t attend because he was interviewing for a job at another university. (He didn’t get it, but he got one a year later and has since moved on.)
If you build it, they will come; if you tear it down due to a maintenance backlog, they will go somewhere else — if they possibly can. But austerity is an infection. It spreads with those who run from it. As Karl Marx, writing in England but speaking to his native Germany, warns in the preface to his famous Capital, “De te fabula narratur!” The story is about you. Slightly modified version of the article, published in The Chronicle Review, 25th September 2019, by Sheila Liming, Assistant Professor of English at the University of North Dakota.
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FEATURE
Students Seek social and emotional skills as much as intellectual capabilities by jana bowden
Employers frequently lament the scarcity of workready skills of graduates entering the workforce.
more about the connection of the collective group. Education is no different.
This is especially alarming given the skills transformation that is occurring.
Discipline skills are essential factors, but the ability to learn does not equate to the ability to lead. In fact, the research demonstrated that learning was the factor least likely to lead to competence, confidence and transformational change in graduates.
McKinsey recently reported that up to 375 million employees will be required to switch occupational categories and learn new skills by 2030. In Australia, 46 per cent of jobs are predicted to be automated by the same year.
The right knowledge is relevant and, delivered the right way, leads to the right skills.
These statistics paint a picture of a new world of work governed by change, innovation, disruption and, inevitably, rejection. The question is, are universities preparing graduates with the right skills to succeed?
But knowledge can’t replace social and emotional skills. When it comes to social skills, Fortune reported that 82 per cent of hiring managers ranked communication and relationship skills as the number 1 employability skill. Analytical skills were a mere fifth on employers’ lists.
A recent study by Macquarie Business School published in Studies in Higher Education explored students’ perceptions of university as well as their opinions of the skills needed for “new world” employment.
Institutional experiences that foster relationship building are essential to creating a robust network of people who can help students to succeed. Yet the tertiary sector often fails to strategically focus on social engagement — students’ bonds of identification and belonging.
The research, which involved surveys and interviews with more than 1,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, found that graduates struggled with employability not because of the lack of intellectual skills training but because of the lack of soft skills preparation.
Universities need to reposition themselves away from being functional, utilitarian services offering “knowledge and content” to relationally driven hubs that offer social and communal benefits.
Students held the prevailing view that universities should equip them not only with intellectual skills but also with the social and emotional skills needed for transformative personal growth and development.
As one student commented: “I had opportunities to create networks, to have relationships through the university. The social network, the professional network — in the end, that’s what matters. I don’t want just a qualification with a high distinction.”
Despite this, many universities continue to respond to educational delivery by focusing narrowly on degree structures and curriculum redesign.
It is this social glue that supports graduates’ sense of identity and inclusion, and this, in turn, drives meaning and purpose in their education and work life.
Intellectual development certainly is the fundamental, core reason for enrolment. But are technical skills the most important determinant of student success?
Perhaps not surprisingly, emotional skills also are often under-emphasised by tertiary providers.
Employability and leadership in the modern workplace is less about intellectual brilliance and www.graduatehouse.com.au
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FEATURE
Emotional engagement is a critical component of a successful organisational culture. Students’ excitement, enthusiasm and optimism fosters inspiration, aspiration and resilience. As the primary determinant of student wellbeing and transformative learning, emotional connection is critical to graduate employability. In fact, emotional engagement was found in the research to determine institutional reputation.
and giving students a compelling rationale to get involved.
Universities need to incorporate authentic emotional cultures alongside their already strongly developed cognitive cultures. The two are symbiotic, not mutually exclusive. Campus values that draw on students’ lived experiences and collective successes create rich opportunities for emotional connection, and this leads to student and institutional success.
The task of making new hires job-ready should not only be left to the workplace. Graduate employability is the responsibility of universities and it is supported through the four key employability pillars of intellectual, social, emotional and participatory engagement — all of which can be built into the invisible tapestry and fabric of the tertiary experience.
As one student aptly observed: “Employers are not only looking for grades … they’re looking for someone who is confident, someone who has the skills, someone who has experiences, someone who has participated.” Universities are not only in business of educating; they are in the business of transforming.
Finally, research tells us that members of Generation Z are more “stressed, depressed and exam-obsessed” than any other generation. Energised participation in university life provides students with an opportunity to reconnect. It increases self-esteem, self-efficacy and agency. It also supports citizenship that underpins a socially conscious graduate who is equipped for the evolving future of work.
As our research shows, intellectual investment and knowledge can only get you so far. Article, published in The Australian, 4th December 2019, by Jana Bowden, Chair of Ethics, and Associate Professor of Marketing at Macquarie Business School.
The tertiary sector needs to fight dwindling student attendance and participation by reinvigorating the heart and soul of the university experience
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VALETE
Valete The Honorable John Cain (1931-2019) 14th President of The Graduate Union
• Member, National Tennis Centre Trust (Flinders Park) 1990-1994; • Trustee of the Melbourne Cricket Ground; • Member of Deakin University, Faculty of Business and Law Academic Advisory Board; • Chairman of Hume Global Village Learning Advisory Board; • Member of the Library Board of Victoria; • Member of the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust; and • Member of the Patrons Council of the Epilepsy Foundation of Victoria. Mr Cains’s academic and community involvements included the authoring of several publications including: • John Cain’s Years, Parties and Politics (Melbourne University Press 1994); The Graduate Union extends its deepest condolences to the family of The Honorable John Cain, aged 88, who passed away on 23rd December 2019, after suffering a stroke.
• On with the Show (Prowling Tiger Press 1998); • Off Course from public place to marketplace at Melbourne University [with John Hewitt] (Scribe Publications 2004).
The Honourable John Cain became the 14th President of The Graduate Union of The University of Melbourne in November 2005 and held the position for two terms until November 2011.
The John Cain Foundation is a think tank on political affairs of relevance to Victoria which hold their Luncheons on every third Wednesday of the month at Graduate House.
John Cain was Victoria’s 41st Premier and the longest-serving Labor Premier. A law graduate of The University of Melbourne, Mr Cain was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria and the High Court of Australia in 1954 and managed his own law practice from 1957 to 1976.
From left: The Hon John Cain, Professor David de Kretser and The Hon Alex Chernov, Chancellor of The University of Melbourne at the official opening of The Graduate Union’s Stella Langford Wing on 31st March 2010, in the presence of many dignitaries, benefactors of The Graduate Union and representatives of The University of Melbourne
Mr Cain was Professorial Associate, Department of Political Science at The University of Melbourne since May 1991. He was a member of the Observer Team from the Commonwealth Secretariat of South Africa’s first national election in April 1994. His other offices have included: www.graduatehouse.com.au
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REVIEW
Graduate House Monthly Luncheon Review with Dr Ross McMullin Will Dyson, Cartoonist, Caricaturist and Writer of World War I
At the November 2019 Monthly Luncheon, Dr Ross McMullin gave a presentation on the life and work of Will Dyson, Australian illustrator and political cartoonist, about whom he had written his PhD Thesis, Will Dyson: Artist, Radical and Nationalist (1984) at The University of Melbourne.
of Western Front drawings of profound empathy and sympathy and was wounded twice in the process. Dyson’s reverence for Australia’s soldiers was enduring — it was about his love for his country: “I never cease to marvel, admire and love with an absolutely uncritical love our louse-ridden diggers,” Dyson declared.
Dr McMullin is an award-winning historian and biographer who has written many books on outstanding Australian historical figures. His book Pompey Elliott (2008) is a comprehensive award-winning biography of Australia’s most famous fighting general in World War I, and his Farewell, Dear People: Biographies of Australia’s Lost Generation (2012) was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History and the National Cultural Award.
Dyson grew up in Melbourne and had a profound sense of attachment to his homeland. But this connection frayed. In 1929 he lamented that Australia had become “a backwater, a paradise for dull boring mediocrities, a place where the artist or [someone] with ideas could only live on sufferance”. Australians might have a reputation as hardy pioneers and explorers, he said, but what was overdue was some serious exploring of “our great empty mental spaces”.
Dr McMullin’s presentation at the Monthly Luncheon was on the topic of the biography of another outstanding Australian World War I figure, William Henry Dyson (1880-1938).
In his final years Dyson described Australia as “a beautiful country to die in”. Dyson’s story of love is also about his love for his wife, Ruby Lindsay. In 1918, nine years after their marriage, Dyson wrote that “never by any circumstance moral or physical did I deserve the wife I got”. This was a love that never died, even after Ruby died.
Dr McMullin began by introducing Dyson: “He was a brilliant and forceful cartoonist. Australia has been blessed with plenty of outstanding cartoonists, but Dyson was right up there with the best of them. He was our first official war artist ... I am not alone in believing that he remains our finest ever war artist as well as our first. Dyson was also a sublime writer of prose and poetry. He took up etching in his later 40s and won international acclaim in this field too. Besides all this, he was an instinctive radical with dazzling wit and a convivial personality. Dyson was described in his heyday as the most famous Australian in the world. He should be much better known today than he is.”
Dyson’s story is also a story about hate. He utterly detested war. “I’ll never draw a line to show war except as the filthy business it is,” he told his friend Charles Bean, the Australian official correspondent at the Western Front. Dyson, Bean observed, experienced at least 10 times more of the real Western Front than any other official artist, British or Australian. While deeply concerned with important issues affecting art, politics and society, he never lost his sense of fun. Dyson was convivial, amusing and a natural comic performer, and had a striking flair with words. He would dash off a letter on a long ship voyage saying, “Today is Sunday but it is so like any other day that it would take a learned theologian to tell the difference”. He would give an after-dinner speech to a gathering of Australian
Dr McMullin went on to speak about Dyson’s life in more detail, providing analysis of some of Dyson’s well-known cartoons and writings. Will Dyson’s story, Dr McMullin said, is not just a celebration of fame and achievement. It is about a sensitive soul - the ups and downs of a sentimental larrikin. It is partly a love story. It is about Dyson’s love for Australia’s soldiers. He produced hundreds 13
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REVIEW
artists welcoming him home by saying, “England [used to] send criminals to Australia, and we retaliated by sending artists to England”. Dyson was born in Ballarat. Some years later his family moved to Melbourne where the Dysons became close friends with another remarkably talented family, the Lindsays of Creswick. The Dysons and the Lindsays had plenty in common: art, books, yearning for talk and searching for fun. Dyson would prowl city streets stalking his prey, looking for quirks of character, mannerism and dress to draw his characteristically penetrating caricatures. He had a singular attitude to cartooning. He was a radical, a supporter of leftwing causes. Receiving instructions about what kind of political cartoon to draw was absolute anathema to him. He would pace up and down, developing his ideas or honing a caption for a drawing, just like the traditional genius at work. Nothing annoyed him more than editors altering his work.
An Old Saw, one of Dyson’s political cartoons about the “fat” capitalist
Dyson’s cartoons also supported the impoverished strugglers and militant suffragists. In one inventive cartoon, he combined both these concerns. With suffragists going on hunger strikes for their cause, the authorities responded with forceful feeding. Dyson drew a destitute mother and daughter passing a newspaper placard about this latest brutal treatment of the suffragists. Dyson has the impoverished little girl seeing the placard and saying, “mummy, why don’t they forcibly feed us?”
Despite showing conspicuous talent in a range of spheres — as cartoonist, writer and caricaturist — Dyson struggled to find a niche in Australia. He decided to venture to London in 1909 at the age of 29. He was engaged by the radical London Daily Herald as its cartoonist. This was a big breakthrough, a marvellous opportunity, and he grasped it with relish. The timing was perfect too. This was a time of political, industrial and social upheaval in England. Strikes were numerous, suffragettes were militant, politics was turbulent. The Daily Herald gave Dyson editorial freedom and encouraged him to go for the jugular. He certainly did.
When Emily Davison was fatally injured while carrying out a suffragette protest, Dyson responded with a grim cartoon. Dyson’s cartoons had an astonishing impact and the Daily Herald took advantage of Dyson’s success by producing volumes of his cartoons. Dyson was especially stirred by events of 1918. In this crucial year, Australian soldiers were influencing the destiny of the world more than Australians have ever done before. On 21st March 1918, the Germans launched an immense offensive that drove the British back no less than 40 miles. Australian soldiers were rushed to the rescue and were primarily responsible for filling in the gaps of the British. These were desperate days: for the British it was the biggest crisis of the war. There was widespread genuine concern that after years of fierce fighting, awful hardships and frightful casualties, Britain and its allies might lose the war.
Traditionally, English cartons had lacked passion. Dyson’s were different. His angry rebelliousness against inequality was intensely passionate. The striking aspect of them is that both workers and intellectuals admired them. The workers liked Dyson’s boldly drawn figure, representing clear symbols of noble wronged toilers versus his oppressive employer who Dyson drew and labelled as “fat”. And “fat” was an evillooking man in formal dress, featuring top hat and spats with several chains, sometimes waving a cigar and resting on a pile of money bags.
The arrival of the Australian formation in vulnerable sectors was inspiring and influential. Distressed French civilians whose home had been in path of the Germans’ advance were terrified of retreat. The arrival of the Australians transformed the situation. Confident and unflustered by the
At the same time the intellectuals savoured Dyson’s witty captions. George Chesterton and Wells praised the new Australian newcomer as the most brilliant and forceful cartoonist in decades. www.graduatehouse.com.au
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dismay around them, they were ready to do the business and stop the Germans in the gravest crisis of the greatest war that there has ever been. Many of the retreating civilians recognised the Australians by their uniforms and became exalted, raving “‘les Australiens merveilleux’ [‘the marvellous Australians’].” Many of these retreating civilians went back to their homes which they had abandoned because now they had the confidence that the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) were going to stop the Germans.
Welcome Back to the Somme (1918)
heroes and are the most important thing on earth at this blessed moment. Dyson wrote about Australia’s soldiers as superbly as he drew them. This is what he wrote about Dead Beat, his drawing of an exhausted young Australian soldier:
In the Midlands, Cartoons (London, 1914)
The New Advocate: Death of Miss Davison, Cartoon (London, 1914)
Dyson depicted these stirring events in a drawing he entitled ‘Welcome Back to the Somme’. He showed Australian soldiers marching towards the fray and being greeted by civilians delighted to see them. The key to the drawing is the raised hand of a woman who is beckoning to other retreating civilians, urging them to turn around and return, as she is doing, to their vacated homes because the Australian soldiers have arrived.
Dead Beat (1917)
He was there as we came back ... I have not drawn him as childish as he looked ... He ... had lost himself and floundered all night in shell holes and mud through the awful rain and wind ... He had floundered into the cover of the tunnel and stopped there, disregarded, save for occasional efforts to assist on the part of the men — attempts that could not penetrate through to his consciousness past the dominating instinct to sleep anywhere, anyhow, and at any cost ... he looked so very young — that quality which here has power to touch the heart of older men in the strongest way. To see going into the line boys whose ingenuous faces recall something of your own boyhood — something of someone you stole fruit with, or fought with or wagged it with through long hot Australian afternoons — to see them in this bloody game and to feel that their mother’s milk is not yet dry upon their mouths.
On 24th April 1918, the Germans attacked Villers-Bretonneux, a strategically vital town that overlooked Amiens, drove the British out and captured it. Two Australian brigades were assigned the task of recapturing the town. Dyson and Bean were on the scene. This daring venture on the third anniversary of Anzac Day was brilliantly successful and signalled the end of the dangerous German thrust to Amiens. It intensified Dyson’s worship of Australian soldiers, as evident in letters he wrote at the time to his brother Ted: The boys are more eager, cheerfull [sic], bucked up and full of fight than ever before. Weather is good, food is good and they are at the height of their reputation. What they have done is in so striking a contrast to what the others did not do ... God alone knows what terrible things are coming to them, but whatever they are they will meet them as they have met everything in the past ... they are of the stuff of
This is sombre and sobering, appropriately so, given what Dyson was witnessing. 15
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introductory tribute he wrote that Ruby’s “death came after the Armistice, when it seemed that we might dare to hope again. ... It was as though War before departing utterly from us had added her death as a footnote, to enrich with a final commentary the tale of his crowded horror.” The other book consisted of poignant poems Dyson had written since her death. He called it Poems in Memory of a Wife. In the final poem, “Surrender”, Dyson the poet called on himself to accept the tragedy and cease behaving as if his bereavement was different from countless others since 1914:
However, Dyson found scope even in these ghastly surroundings for his legendary wit and repartee. He sometimes did amusing drawings as well. When a machine-gun officer retrieved a drawing Dyson had left near the front line, Dyson drew for this machine-gunner an impromptu thank you caricature of a bedraggled wet digger. The artist’s skill is very evident in the inflamed nose and dripping moustache indicating a heavy cold as this disgruntled digger ploughs through shin-deep mud and slush while rain continues to fall. He is clearly fed up with France in winter. Dyson’s caption has him asking “Isn’t there ever any flamin’ droughts in this country?” Dyson’s months at the front affected him severely. The effect was obvious to Ruby. He “looks years older and is very grey”, she observed. “I couldn’t get over the change in him last time he came back.” Worse was to come for Dyson. In March 1919, Ruby died of Spanish flu. Dyson was devastated. The eulogies that poured in emphasised the remarkable impression Ruby’s personality, manner and beauty had made on those she met even briefly.
Ruby Lindsay (1885-1919)
Now wrap you in such armour as you may, And make your tardy peace with suffering, Since grief must be your housemate to the end ... Nor is it meet that in these bloody years Such traffic you should make of common wounds. What is your grief above our mortal lot That in a world where all must carry scars, Isn’t there ever any flamin’ droughts Peace and Future Cannon Fodder in this country? (c.1917-1918)
In this mood of bleak despair, Dyson drew his most famous cartoon, Peace and Future Cannon Fodder. This was his response to the notoriously one-sided Treaty of Versailles. In this 1919 cartoon he predicted not only that this tainted treaty would produce another world war, but also the actual year when hostilities properly began. This remarkably prophetic drawing has been described as one of the most outstanding political cartoons of all time — by any cartoonist, in any country.
A prodigy to earth in this your woe. Now make your peace, and go as you have gone: The world was so before this grief befell, But you, the broken, have in breaking learned A wisdom that you lacked when you were whole. ... in your veins no flavoured stuff doth flow That fate should beat upon your head in vain. ... Now bend thee to the yoke,
Still preoccupied with Ruby’s death, Dyson was intent on producing two books in memory of her. One volume was to commemorate her art. He called it The Drawings of Ruby Lind. In an www.graduatehouse.com.au
You clamour to the skies as though were fall’n
And teach thy heart no longer to rebel. In 1925 Dyson returned to Australia, having accepted a five-year contract to work for The 16
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Herald group of publications run by his former Western Front associate Keith Murdoch. Socially he had a lively time in Melbourne, but professionally his return was less successful. His cartoons were clever, inventive and sometimes vigorous, but lacked the searing power he had consistently displayed before the war. Dyson was struggling to come to grips with postwar Australia. He had returned to a scarred, chastened Australia that had paid a terrible price for its eager enthusiasm to participate in the Great War. Each Anzac Day and Armistice Day, a stirring new Dyson cartoon and stirring new verse from his friend C.J. Dennis appeared in The Herald side by side. On Anzac Day 1927 Dyson’s moving drawing called A Cost of living Voice from Anzac had such an immense impact Will Dyson died in January 1938, aged 57, of that The Herald printed a thousand copies of it. heart trouble. “Too many gaspers,” Dr McMullin noted. Dyson’s friend Nettie Palmer wrote: “something extraordinarily vital and irreplaceable has gone out of the world.” We thank Dr McMullin for a sensational presentation and all Members who attended the Luncheon.
A Voice from Anzac
We are powerless, one of Dyson’s etchings about the Great Depression
But the legacy of the war shaped Australia in ways that Dyson deplored. In Australia, in the mid-1920s, forward-looking, visionary idealism was scarce. Dyson was disenchanted with postwar Australia politically and socially, but especially frustrated with it culturally. Partly out of frustration, he embarked in his later 40s on a new art form, etching. He proceeded to make a pronounced success of this as well. Whatever Will Dyson did, he did well. During the 1930s Dyson drew numerous cartoons stressing the evil of war and the folly of rearmament. In one cartoon he simultaneously covered concern about inflation and rearmament. Dyson has the little boy asking his father, “Daddy, what makes the cost of living go up?” “The cost of dying, my son.”
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chairperson’s cocktail party
The annual Graduate House Chairperson’s Cocktail Party was held on 29th November 2019 with much gaiety, laughter and, of course, exquisite food and drinks. Arriving guests received their lucky raffle tickets to enter a draw for a bountiful hamper filled with wine, beer, bars of chocolate, and a whole range of Graduate House merchandise: silk scarf, tie, homemade jam, coffee glass and keychain. The magnificent cannoli tower, seafood, fruit, nut and cheese platters prepared and decorated specifically for the party by our professional culinary and hospitality team wowed the guests as they arrived in the dining area which was already buzzing with the excitement of the highly anticipated party.
Other eminent guests were Ms Vivienne Nguyen, Chairperson of the Victorian Multicultural Commission, Mr John Pesutto, Victoria’s Shadow Attorney General (2014-2018), and Ms Rosemary Wilmot, Acting Regional Director for Victoria and Tasmania at the Department of Home Affairs.
Opening the ceremony, CEO/Head of College, Dr Kerry Bennett acknowledged the Wurundjeri people who are the Traditional Custodians of this Land and paid respect to the Elders both past and present of the Kulin Nation and extended that respect to other Indigenous Australians present
Dr Bennett then invited the Chairperson of Council and host of the evening and the party, His Hon Tony Pagone to the podium. His Hon Pagone reflected on the year’s achievements, particularly the Diamond Jubilee Campaign and the muchneeded redevelopment project of Graduate House given that the majority of Victoria’s graduate students live in this precinct. It was then time to draw the raffle ticket winners and MGS Architects, who oversee the design and construction of the new wing of Graduate House, were the lucky winners. Dr Bennett then invited His Hon Pagone to present the MV Anderson Awards to two Resident Members, Ms Aparna Nair and Mr David Henry Smith. The MV Anderson Award was established by the descendants of Magnus Victor Anderson, who was a significant contributor to The Graduate Union and a past President of a previous incarnation of the Association in 1953. The MV Anderson medal recognises the achievements of graduates in a range of intellectual pursuits that require perseverance and attaining important
Dr Bennett then welcomed all Members and guests, including dignitaries representing Sweden, Estonia, Malta, Sri Lanka, Russia, Germany, the Republic of Botswana, Indonesia and the United States of America. www.graduatehouse.com.au
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insights, as well as for their contribution to the collegial experience.
Concluding the proceedings, His Hon thanked all guests for attending the party and invited them to continue enjoying the food, the celebration and the company of each other.
Mr Smith, from Gippsland, Victoria, is a Master of Science student at the University of Melbourne specialising in biophysics. Ms Nair is a Master of International Business student from Indonesia. Both Ms Nair and Mr Smith have been excellent contributors to Graduate House and have achieved great accolades and distinctions in their tertiary education so far.
We thank all guests who came along to the 2019 Chairperson’s Cocktail Party to celebrate another successful year at Graduate House with us. We look forward to seeing you all again at the 2020 Party!!
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Members’ Christmas Party Friday, 13th December 2019
Entrée platters of prawn cocktail and Peking salad were served, followed by mains of turkey breast and baked salmon. Desserts included plum pudding, cheesecakes and summer fruit salad.
The last GU Collegiate event in 2019 was the Members’ Christmas Party, held on Friday, 13th December in the dining room. The festive atmosphere could be felt as soon as one stepped into Graduate House, which was decorated in the traditional Christmas colours, trimmings and lights with Christmas-themed songs playing in the background.
The popular Poinsettia competition, which has now become a tradition at our Christmas party, resulted in one guest from each table winning a vibrant red and green foliaged plant. Many prizes were won throughout the evening from the raffle tickets drawn with nearly everyone going home with a prize!
The highlight of the evening was the entertainment provided by Midnight DJ’s proprietor and Master of Ceremonies, Mr Nader Elalfy, who arrived early to set up his equipment and photo booth with props.
One of the highlights was the ‘Lucky Bistro Feedback’ form prize of a $500 Coles Myer gift voucher which was won by Nancy Price. To be eligible for this draw, patrons of our dining room had submitted feedback forms throughout the year (and had also been eligible to go into the monthly draw to win a bottle of wine).
Members and their guests began arriving from 5:30PM onwards, enjoying pre-drinks and having fun at the photo booth. Santa Claus came along soon after and handed out lollies. … And then the party began …
Other lucky winners included Howard Pascoe, who won the Accommodation Voucher and Margaret Mayers who won the big hamper.
CEO/Head of College, Dr Kerry Bennett welcomed all to Graduate House, acknowledging the GU councillors, Cr Mary R Kelleher, Cr Keith Ryall and former councillor Leo Santalucia. www.graduatehouse.com.au
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Dancing music throughout the evening provided guests with the chance to show off their moves on the floor, from doing the ‘Chicken dance’ to the ‘Hokey Pokey’ in circles. We thank everyone for coming along and joining us in another very successful Members’ Christmas Party. We look forward to seeing you at our next Members’ Christmas Party. Special thanks to De Bortoli Wines which kindly donated a wide variety of excellent wines for the evening. Many photos were taken throughout the evening – they were from the photo booth and the roaming camera during the party. If you missed out on downloading the photobooth photos before the expiry date of 30th December 2019, please contact us at publications@graduatehouse.com.au.
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GRADUATE HOUSE NEWS
Lunch with Kerry O’Brien Patricia Karvelis interviews Kerry O’Brien
The Walkley Foundation is supporting the next generation of journalists through mentorship and development; increasing accessibility to careers in the media with scholarships and providing grants to freelance journalists to produce public interest journalism. It will launch a public awareness campaign to emphasise the value of journalism.
On Tuesday, 3rd December 2019, CEO/Head of College, Dr Kerry Bennett attended Lunch with Kerry O’Brien, co-hosted by Australian Communities Foundation and the Walkley Foundation on the importance of public interest journalism. The key message from the lunch was that it is more important than ever to develop and support the next generation of journalists to cover the stories that matter - stories that can change lives for the better and make our society a fairer, equitable and happier place to live.
“Journalism is at a crossroads. Supporting good journalism and good journalists has never been more important,” said Patricia Karvelis, presenter of Radio National’s RN Drive, prominent senior journalist, currently writing for The Australian, and interviewer at the lunch.
Kerry O’Brien is an Australian journalist based in Byron Bay. He is the former editor and host of The 7.30 Report and Four Corners on the ABC. O’Brien is one of Australia’s most respected journalists, having been awarded six Walkley Awards during his career. He is currently the Chairman of the Walkley Foundation.
“There have never been more corruption inquiries underway in this country than there are right now ... That is very telling of the erosion of the strength of our democracy,” Kerry O’Brien said. “Good journalism leads to royal commissions. Good journalism leads to change. But good journalism doesn’t just happen,” Patricia said on the need to support public interest journalism.
Australian Communities Foundation (ACF) was established in 1997 as the Melbourne Community Foundation. It was renamed to ACF to reflect more accurately its current work, which continues to grow nationally and reach globally. ACF offers individuals, families, groups, corporations and not-for-profit organisations an easy and satisfying way to give something of real value back to the community that they care about.
Think of recent stories like the underpaid workers at Woolworths, Michael Hill jewellery chain, Commonwealth Bank, 7-Eleven, Grill’d and other companies; the exposure of the treatment of young people at Don Dale Detention Centre; the revelatory stories on now-convicted NSW MP Eddie Obeid; or the exposure of child sex abuse by priests.
The Walkley Foundation is at the heart of the Australian media. In addition to celebrating and promoting the most skilful, impactful and captivating Australian stories, its role is to foster resilience and growth in the industry in practical, measurable ways. The annual Walkley Awards are the pinnacle of achievement for every Australian journalist. Peer-judged and renowned for integrity, they recognise the impact of journalism and build public trust in good reporting. In these times when journalism is challenged and trust is so important, their mission is to tell Australia that award-winning journalism matters, and that it does make a difference. www.graduatehouse.com.au
In an article titled Explainer: what is public interest journalism?, published in The Conversation in 2017, Andrea Carson, Lecturer, Media and Politics, School of Social and Political Sciences; Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne, wrote: “Public interest journalism is not universally defined. One common understanding among media practitioners and academics is that it refers to a journalist pursuing information that the public has a right to know. 22
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itself as having the wherewithal to be a serious part of the equation,” Kerry O’Brien said on supporting good journalism and mentoring. “Investing in the Walkley Foundation doesn’t just support Australian journalism; it makes our democracy stronger, our society fairer and our lives richer.”
“Often implied in this definition is that, if it were not for the reporter, undisclosed information affecting the public that governments, companies and other powerful interests hold would remain hidden.” “It’s incredibly important that philanthropy sees 23
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GRADUATE HOUSE NEWS
Rice fields, villages, volcanoes, cigarettes, and coffee: My life in Indonesia by Resident Member, James Henshall December 2019
A highly memorable range of experiences and sites greeted me when I arrived in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This was combined with the sounds, congestion, heat and traditional, conical-shaped hats of farmers. I excitedly came to realise I was in Asia – south-east Asia. Here in The Graduate Union Newsletter, I am very glad to convey my recent experiences of living in Indonesia. It was October 2017, and I, along with 12 other Australians, travelled by train for eight hours from Jakarta to Yogyakarta through rice fields and corn fields. Our journey also took us past villages, volcanoes and richly green, picture-perfect countryside. At the same time, commencing our work as volunteers in international development was the beginning of the six-month rainy season in Indonesia; a season of heavy, almost-daily hourlong downpours.
A rice field, Bantul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
by second-hand passive cigarette smoke exposure for women and children. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the advocacy and campaigning work of MTCC was extensive and ambitious, comprising three main elements: • advocate for a ban on tobacco advertising promotion and sponsorship (TAPS ban) of tobacco and cigarettes;
The essence of working in international development in low-middle income countries such as Indonesia is to work towards positive, sustained, long-term structural and systemic change. The longer term impact of these efforts is increased efficiencies, living standards and life expectancies.
• campaign to restructure and simplify the cigarette excise tax structure that was otherwise open to gaming and abuse; and • develop and implement smoke-free area regulations.
Over the last 50 years, the Australian Commonwealth government has administered a volunteer aid program to Asia, the Pacific region and Africa in which people can provide their professional skills and expertise for the purpose of international development. I was very fortunate to be selected and posted to Yogyakarta in Central Java. My role for the next two years was in economic health research at the Muhammadiyah Tobacco Control Center (MTCC), and marked the beginning of an enlightening, vision-fulfilling life for me. This was a vision I held since my days as an undergraduate student – to work in the field of international development.
Since the mid-1980s, Australia has been a world leader on tobacco control legislation by means of TAPS bans, price indexation, excise tax reform and the establishment of VicHealth in Victoria in 1987. These efforts were expanded upon from 2010 with simplification of tobacco excise tax structures and annual increases of 12.5 per cent in the excise taxation on cigarettes. These reforms were implemented with the aim of raising the wholesale and retail price of cigarettes to reduce the affordability of cigarettes. I was, therefore, very proud to support the work of MTCC and contribute. Indonesia is making positive, but gradual, change in reducing the prevalence of cigarette smoking, even in the absence of an international convention on tobacco control, and starting well behind world’s best practice.
The prevalence of cigarette smoking among males in Indonesia is around 65 per cent. Further, the implications of smoking on public health wellbeing and cardiovascular disease risks are compounded www.graduatehouse.com.au
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My role at MTCC also involved giving occasional guest lectures and presentations to students as part of their professional development and postgraduate training. These appearances were on how to give a presentation, as well as occasional lectures on health economics, and Australian social and economic history. Among my first glaring impressions after arriving in Jakarta and Yogyakarta were the constancy of traffic and sounds of short, warning toots of motor vehicle horns. The slow, constantly congested movement of traffic merging and melding with cars, tourist buses, bicycles, trucks and thousands of motor scooters are images that first confront the visitor. It was from the train station that our driver made his way to transport us – each with about 35 kilograms of a year’s luggage – to our accommodation.
Universitas Slamet Riyadi, Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia.
I can clearly recall how healthily naïve, openminded, new and inexperienced I was to Asian city living. At the same time on that October day, I was coming to more fully realise the large degree to which I would have to adapt and adjust to contentedly settle and live in Yogyakarta.
Map of Indonesia.
Source : https://geology.com/world/indonesia-satellite-image.shtml
times a day every day, I also witnessed Indonesians’ purity of commitment and devotion, as well as humility to their religious faith, Islam. I will remain forever grateful to the Australian Volunteers Program for the opportunity to take part according to my expertise, personal values and worldviews. Among these are the values of reform and change to bring about social and economic equality, inclusion and social betterment. This program allowed me to board that train, go on that meandering journey through verdant fields, enjoy a variety of experiences and make my contribution. It has all been professionally gratifying and personally enriching.
Two days after our arrival, we commenced language training. For three-and-a-half hours a day over the next month, my teachers patiently taught me the national Indonesian language. In one-on-one sessions, I was instructed very well, with the aid of clever teaching techniques and methods. On completion a month later, I had learnt a great deal and attained a good, base-grade proficiency in speaking Bahasa Indonesia. We then each dispersed to various parts of the long and varied archipelago to commence our work and respective responsibilities. These roles were in various areas of environmental, social and health policy and programs. Our work was carried out under the principles of social inclusion, a needsbased approach, capability building and crosscultural learning. It was also guided by the federal government’s international aid program coupled with the overarching United Nations’ framework of sustainable development and its associated goals.
Oh, and for the lovers of coffee and tea – which is almost all of us – there are many types that can be sampled and enjoyed from many areas of Indonesia – Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Bali.
I have great admiration for the people of Yogyakarta and Indonesia. They never express or display angst or frustration either professionally, as road users or in day-to-day life. This is all despite ever-present resource and spatial constraints, combined with growing demands of rising population, traffic congestion, tourism and living standards. Several 25
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Probus Club of Carlton Parkville Christmas Lunch BY Reg Flanigan
Thank you for your help in making the Probus Club of Carlton Parkville Christmas Lunch at Graduate House on Tuesday, 10th December the success that it was. Our members appreciated the excellent preparation and service that we received from you and your staff. Our day commenced with our usual acknowledgment of country followed by the announcement of the winner of a photo competition that one of our members conducted. As it was the 150th anniversary of the periodic table and the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, we used these as our themes for the Christmas gathering. We began with a quiz on the periodic table followed by our STEMS group performing some songs of the time of the moon landings with three of the group dressed as the three astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. The other members of our STEMS group held miniatures of stars, the moon and Mars on sticks waving them at the appropriate times during the singing of “Fly Me to the Moon�. All this occurred during the intervals between your capable staff serving our main course then dessert. Once again please accept our sincere thanks. Regards, Reg Flanigan (President)
www.graduatehouse.com.au
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seen at graduate house The John Monash Scholars We welcomed the John Monash Scholars from the General Sir John Monash Foundation, who stayed at Graduate House for their two-day 2019 John Monash Scholars’ Global Symposium Beyond Boundaries: Transitions to Sustainability, hosted by The University of Melbourne. During two days, 70 Scholars discussed a combination of abstract and concrete sustainability challenges and formed networks and collaborations in order to work together to find solutions for these problems. The Graduate Union is connected with the General Sir John Monash Foundation by our history and links to General Sir John Monash GCMG KCB VD (1865–1931), who was the founding President of The Melbourne University Graduates Association (now The Graduate Union of The University of Melbourne) from 1911 to 1912, before he commenced his war service in 1914.
The John Monash Scholars at Graduate House, from left (back): Alexandra Devlin, Jonty Coy, Alexander Barbaro, William Mitchell and Tom Williams; (front): Claire Daniel, Maria Bilal, Nicole Bart, May Samali and Victoria Cox
See our story on the General Sir John Monash Foundation in our May 2019 Newsletter: http://bit.ly/2DtMXkT
residents’ news Congratulations to Merium Kazmi who graduated from her Masters of Global Media Communication and Muhammad Mossavir Ahmed for graduating from his Masters of Development Studies both at The University of Melbourne in December 2019. It was also a bittersweet goodbye and good-luck to Muhammad and his wife, Amna, who left Graduate House to return home to Pakistan. We wish them the best of luck!
Women's Forum Wednesday, 19th February 2020: What will 2020 bring? The following Women’s Forum is on Wednesday, 18th March 2020 with the topic: ‘Juvenile Remand Centres in Melbourne with special reference to Turana’ 10:00AM for 10:30AM start. The forum is free. Lunch is at Member and non-member prices. 27
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2020 GU COLLEGIATE YEAR AT A GLANCE We thank you for your support in attending and promoting these functions.
FUNCTION
MONTH
ITALIAN CONVERSATION DINNER
MONTHLY LUNCHEON
RESIDENTS’ SPECIAL MORNING BREAKFAST
BRIDGE NIGHT
RESIDENTS’ MEET AND GREET
WOMEN’S FORUM
COLLEGE TABLE
JANUARY
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FEBRUARY
4th, 18th
5th
11th
5th, 12th, 19th, 26th
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19th
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MARCH
3rd, 17th
4th
10th
4th, 11th, 18th 25th
17th, 27th
18th
20th
APRIL
7th, 21st
1st
14th
1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th
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15th
24th
MAY
5th, 19th
6th
12th
6th, 13th, 20th, 27th
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20th
15th
JUNE
9th, 23rd
3rd
9th
3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th
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17th
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JULY
7th, 21st
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14th
1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th
24th
15th
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AUGUST
4th, 18th
5th
11th
5th, 12th, 19th, 26th
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19th
14th
SEPTEMBER
1st, 15th
2nd
8th
2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th
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16th
18th
OCTOBER
6th, 20th
7th
13th
7th, 14th, 21st, 28th
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21st
16th
NOVEMBER
17th
11th
10th
4th, 11th, 18th, 25th
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18th
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DECEMBER
1st, 15th
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8th
2nd, 9th
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16th
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SINGLE DATE EVENTS 2020 GU INFLUENZA AND VACCINATION DAY
GU ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND DINNER
RESIDENTS’ CHRISTMAS IN JULY PARTY
28th APRIL
28th MAY
24th JULY
DONOR THANK YOU DAY
CHAIRPERSON’S COCKTAIL PARTY
MEMBERS’ CHRISTMAS PARTY
4th OCTOBER
27th NOVEMBER
11th DECEMBER
www.graduatehouse.com.au
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Graduate House Monthly luncheon wednesday, 5th February 2020 12:00noon arrival for 12:30pm start
With guest speaker Ambassador Izzat Abdulhadi Born in Nablus, Palestine, Izzat Abdulhadi pursued education in Egypt, Lebanon, the UK and Australia. Prior to joining the Palestinian Diplomatic Corp, Abdulhadi was the founding Director General of Bisan Centre for Research and Development, a leading NGO in community development and civil society strengthening established in 1989. Abdulhadi was among a core group of civil society leaders who established the Palestinian NGO Network or “PNGO”, the most significant networking body for Palestinian NGOs. He was also part of the establishment of the Arab NGO Network for Development and a member of its steering committee. In 2006, he was appointed as Head of the Embassy of the State of Palestine to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Nations. Guided by a strong commitment to public diplomacy, Abdulhadi’s work as Ambassador focused on creating open and robust relationships between all levels of Australian and New Zealand society and Palestinian society.
Telephone
(03) 9347 3428
admingh@graduatehouse.com.au
Venue
Abdulhadi is an active member of the Council of the Arab Ambassadors in Canberra and currently holds the post of General Secretary of the Council. He is also the deputy of the president of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Group in Canberra.
Graduate House 220 Leicester Street, Carlton, VIC, 3053
Cost
$10 Resident Members $30 non-Resident Member $35 concession $40 general public
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恭喜发财 HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR 2020 YEAR OF THE RAT
MENU FRIDAY, 31ST JANUARY Seafood soup (gf, df) MAIN COURSE
LUNCH
Chinese BBQ pork belly (gf, df)
Members: $12
Seafood and egg noodle stir fried with green onion and ginger
Non Members: $20
Steamed prawn dumplings (df)
Loyalty Card Holders: $15
Chinese vegetable stir fry (v, gf, df)
DINNER
Steamed rice (v, gf, df)
Members: $17
DESSERT
Non Members: $25
Coconut rice pudding
Loyalty Card Holders: $20
(gf) gluten free (df) dairy free (v) vegetarian
THE GRADUATE UNION
of The University of Melbourne Inc.
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FEEDBACK
Feedback Dining Room Feedback Our event was really well planned and hasslefree. The Graduate House team was just too good – the food was wonderful, everyone especially loved the salmon and the desserts.
was a difficult few moments during the event, and the amazing Bill, with his magic, somehow managed everything.
I just cannot thank him enough for the crisis I would like to place on record my never-ending management he did and am really sorry for thanks and gratitude to Bill who was literally God the trouble he had to go through. My sincere in disguise yesterday. Instead of five “free guests” apologies to you, Bill and the team. who one of our senior members had invited, he Thank you very much again for all the help at the brought in 11, which brought in mayhem. Added event. to the fact that people who hadn’t given any Vijay Paul, IEEE Victoria dietary restrictions asked for vegetarian food. It
ACADEMIC and PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MEETINGS The following groups from The University of Melbourne have convened meetings, workshops and events at Graduate House during the months of November and December 2019. Business Services BI and IT
Centre for Health Policy
Committee of Convocation
Department of Infrastructure Engineering
19th, 20th November 50 attendees
27th, 28th, 29th November 40 attendees
20th November 20 attendees
3rd December 55 attendees
Faculty of Business and Economics
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Services
Melbourne Graduate School of Education
Melbourne Medical School of The University of Melbourne
28th November 6 attendees
2nd, 3rd December 56 attendees
20th November 30 attendees
5th December 100 attendees
Melbourne School of Health Sciences
Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Melbourne School of Professional and Continuing Education
MGSE Language and Literacy Education
10th December 60 attendees
7th, 8th November 37 attendees
25th, 26th November 172 attendees
17th, 18th December 24 attendees
Research Innovation and Commercialization
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
UoM Operational Performance Group
5th December 20 attendees
21st November 80 attendees
4th November 70 attendees
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ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MEETINGS
The patronage of organisation Members in charitable, not-for-profit, government and professional development sectors is acknowledged, as is that of our many Members who hold their functions at Graduate House.
Australian Asian Association (AAA)
Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW)
Australian Centre for Heart Health (ACHH)
Association of German Teachers of Victoria Inc. (AGTV)
11th November, 16th December 15 attendees
14th November, 5th December 12 attendees
27th, 28th, 29th November 69 attendees
15th November, 12th December 45 attendees
AMA Arts
Australian Psychological Society (APS)
Australian Research Council Training Centre for Medical Implant Technologies (ARC)
Australian School of Applied Management (ASAM)
3rd December 15 attendees
20th November, 10th December 29 attendees
8th November 35 attendees
7th, 8th, 15th,18th, 19th, 28th November, 9th, 11th, 12th, 16th December 227 attendees
Asia Institute Taiwan Forum Dinner
Victorian Chapter (ASME)
Australian Teachers of Media VIC (ATOM)
Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN)
12th December 15 attendees
13th November 9 attendees
6th December 17 attendees
13th December 10 attendees
Australian Calabrese Cultural Association (ACCA)
Care Connect Ltd
Carlton Gardens Primary School
International Coach Federation (ICF)
18th December 28 attendees
22nd November 25 attendees
17th December 55 attendees
22nd November 8 attendees
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Victorian Section
International Student Advisors Network of Australia (ISANA)
Jack Brockhoff Child Health and Wellbeing Program
John Cain Foundation
13th December 3 attendees
20th, 27th November 101 attendees
Medicolegal Group Christmas Dinner
Melba Group
9th December 12 attendees
29th November 12 attendees
11th December 53 attendees
John Hayman Form 5A 1948 at Melbourne Grammer School 15th November 13 attendees
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st November 30 attendees
Marilyn Cobain The Victorian Fellows Lunch 27th November 15 attendees
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ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MEETINGS
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA)
Modern Greek Teachers Association Victoria (MGTAV)
Michael Quin Ex PAV group
Modern Language Teachers’ Association of Victoria (MLTAV)
1st, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th November 95 attendees
2nd December 7 attendees
4th December 12 attendees
17th December 5 attendees
MosaicLab
Order of St John
Order of St John of Jerusalem
Parkville Conference of St. Vincent de Paul
6th November 4 attendees
4th November 8 attendees
2nd, 19th December 30 attendees
18th November 10 attendees
Probus Carlton Parkville
Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI)
Robert Pratt 1966 Chemical Engineers Reunion Luncheon
Rotary Club of Carlton Lunch, Board and Heritage Cluster Meetings
10th, 12th December 153 attendees
2nd December 8 attendees
11th November 18 attendees
6th, 12th, 19th, 20th, 26th November, 6th, 10th, 17th, 18th December 226 attendees
Senior Officers of Victorian Education Services ISOVES Christmas Lunch
Shoten Pty Ltd Thanksgiving Dinner
Social Education Victoria (SEV)
Social Work Department
3rd December 23 attendees
28th November 16 attendees
13th November 12 attendees
26th November 8 attendees
The Graduate Union Collegiate Events and Governance Meetings
Tomika Morell Private Function
Trinity College
6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 25th 27th, 29th November, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 22nd December 703 attendees
4th December 14 attendees
4th, 5th December 33 attendees
University Lodge
Vincent Mirabelli (ACCA) Meeting
Venture Capital Institute (VCI) Breakfast
Women and Leadership Australia (WLA)
12th November, 10th December 40 attendees
11th, 18th December 16 attendees
13th November 12 attendees
27th November 31 attendees
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FIRST NATIONS
Wominjeka (Welcome)
The Golden Boomerang by Life Member, Mr Louis A Coutts
I am currently doing research for a book on the performance of our High Court. One section will be devoted to how it has approached indigenous issues. In my research I have come across some ancient aboriginal stories that have been recorded by students of aboriginal history and language. I would like to share some of them with you. The first is the story of the golden boomerang and parts of it reminded me of the stories the Nuns told me when I was a child about how God created the world in seven days.
Emu was still running. Finally, the Koala took its turn and climbed up the highest tree and on a flimsy branch, settled itself in and went to sleep. A powerful wind came up and blew at the tree so violently that it was bending but the Koala did not stir and when the wind dropped, it climbed down the tree to Earth.
Now it so happens that Aborigines of the Wiradjuri people believed that the creator was Byamee, and before Byamee created man and woman he had created the land, the oceans, the rivers and the trees and all the wildlife. The first to be created were the Kangaroo, the Koala, the Eagle and the Emu. These four separately believed that they were better than the others and continually fought amongst themselves. As their fighting continued, Byamee came down to earth and spoke to them. He then suggested that they have a contest to prove which of them was better and invited all of the other creatures he had created to come and witness the contest.
Byamee congratulated the four and said that he would like to participate. He then took out of his bag a strange instrument which was a crescent shaped piece of wood that he called a boomerang. He then threw the boomerang into the sky and it cleared the tallest tree and went out of sight. But then the strangest thing happened. The boomerang reappeared and came down and stopped at Byamee’s feet. Everyone was surprised and congratulated Byamee. But he said he wasn’t finished. By this time it was dark and there was no moon. He threw the boomerang back into the sky and this time it didn’t come back. Everyone waited and waited and looked into the dark sky when suddenly a bright yellow crescent shape appeared in the sky and from then on, it was never necessary to wait for the full moon for brightness at night.
When everyone was assembled, the Kangaroo went first and took off and jumped into the sky and over the highest tree and then came back to earth. Everyone thought that the Kangaroo was amazing. Then it was the turn of the Eagle who took off and soared out of sight high into the sky and all the animals thought that he must have been lost in the sky but then they saw a small spot in the sky which became bigger and bigger and it turned out to be the Eagle returning. Everyone agreed that that was amazing. Then it became the turn of the Emu who challenged all the other animals to a race. But of course, the Emu was so fast that you could only see a blur and when all the other animals had given up, the www.graduatehouse.com.au
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INNOVATION
Innovation Researchers discover a simple way to estimate how long a species lives
CSIRO researchers have found the maximum natural lifespan of humans is 38 years using the human genome, which matches anthropological estimates of lifespan in early modern humans. This lifespan has been extended over the centuries by changes in lifestyle and more recently by advances in medicine. The discovery has revealed the lifespans of extinct species such as woolly mammoths and Neanderthals. It also benefits fisheries and conservation management, which until now have relied on observing how long animals live in the wild.
The genome of the Pinta Island giant tortoise is known from the last surviving member of the species, Lonesome George.
Dr Ben Mayne, postdoctoral fellow with CSIRO’s Environomics Future Science Platform, said understanding lifespan is critically important for conservation, biosecurity and wildlife management.
They found Neanderthals and Denisovans had a maximum lifespan of 37.8 years, similar to modern humans living around the same time. “There are many genes linked to lifespan, but differences in the DNA sequences of those genes doesn’t seem to explain differences in lifespan between different species,” Dr Mayne said.
“Our method for estimating maximum natural lifespan is based on DNA. If a species’ genome sequence is known, we can estimate its lifespan,” Dr Mayne said.
“Instead, we think that the density of a special type of DNA change, called DNA methylation, determines maximum natural lifespan in vertebrates.
“Until now it has been difficult to estimate lifespan for most wild animals, particularly long-living species of marine mammals and fish.” To calibrate their method, the researchers used genomes of animals with known lifespans from public databases such as NCBI Genomes and the Animal Ageing and Longevity Database.
DNA methylation does not change a gene’s sequence but helps control whether and when it is switched on. Using the known lifespans of 252 different vertebrate species, we were able to accurately predict lifespan from the density of DNA methylation occurring within 42 different genes.
“Using our method, we found the maximum lifespan of the Bowhead whale is 268 years, 57 years longer than people thought,” Dr Mayne said. “We discovered that extinct woolly mammoths lived for 60 years and the recently extinct Pinta Island giant tortoise from the Galapagos lived for 120 years.”
These genes are likely to be good targets for studying ageing, which is of huge biomedical and ecological significance.” The research involved scientists from CSIRO and the University of Western Australia.
To estimate lifespan for the extinct woolly mammoth, the researchers worked with a genome assembled from the genome of the modern African elephant, which lives for 65 years.
Find out more: https://www.csiro.au/en/News/ News-releases/2019/Genetic-clock-predictslifespan-in-animals 35
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SERIAL
One Thousand and one nights Tales from one thousand and one nights a graduate house serial realised. Scheherazade ended the night’s story on a captivating turn just before the break of dawn. The Sultan was so engrossed in Scheherazade’s story that he allowed her to live one extra night to finish it.
Once upon a time, a sultan of a big and powerful empire left his castle to embark on a hunting trip. Returning unexpectedly early, he caught his beloved wife in bed with servants. Enraged, he beheaded them on the spot and made for the estate of his brother, who was away at the time. He decided to stay in one of the outhouse guestrooms. Here lay his next staggering revelation: past midnight, he started to hear music from the gardens and open windows. Exploring, he was shocked beyond belief to find his brother’s wife also cheating.
Of course, the following night she finished the first story and began another one. She continued this night after night, always ending on a tantalising twist. Scheherazade continued telling her tales for a thousand and one nights, and in that time the Sultan slowly started to fall for her beauty, charm and intelligence. He eventually saw the error of his ways and the injustices he’d wrought. Professing his true love for Scheherazade, they finally began a life together. The bloodlust stopped, and peace was restored.
Stunned by the turn of events, he returned to court blinded with a desire for revenge. Engrossed in feelings of betrayal and rage, he vowed to take revenge on all womankind by beginning a monstrous tradition: he would take a new wife every night, only to behead her the following morning so that she didn’t have the opportunity to cheat.
This is the frame story of One Thousand and One Nights, the story of the legendary Persian storyteller Scheherazade who volunteers to spend a night with a vengeful king and who tells him many enchanting tales, but keeps the punchline of the stories for the next night. And so the king keeps Scheherazade alive, eagerly anticipating the finishing of the previous night’s story. At the end of 1,001 nights, Scheherazade tells the king that she has no more tales to tell him. By then the king’s heart is transformed and he has learnt the values of human love and forgiveness.
In the Sultan’s madness, the kingdom became a hostile place for all young women. Families fled elsewhere with their daughters as the Sultan continued with his rage-filled murder. Sick with worry, the Sultan’s vizier (minister) urged his daughters, Scheherazade and Dunyazad, to leave. Scheherazade refused to leave and instead insisted on becoming the Sultan’s next bride. After attempts by her father to make her see sense, Scheherazade and the Sultan were married.
One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic. It is often known in English as The Arabian Nights, from the first English-language edition, which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights.
On Scheherazade’s wedding night, as a last wish, she begged for her sister’s company. Dunyazad joined them and requested one last tale from her sister. With the Sultan’s approval, Scheherazade started telling a story. So captivating and mesmerising was her charm and her storytelling capabilities, it was almost dawn before anyone www.graduatehouse.com.au
The tales were collected over many centuries and depict a fabulous world of all-powerful sorcerers, ghouls, jinns imprisoned in bottles and enchanting 36
SERIAL
multilingual, global compendium of stories that exist in many different languages. This is an anonymous work, the first manuscript is from the 14th century — it’s probably much earlier. We have no idea who, with a name, made these stories. Basically, it’s an example of how storytelling imagination works across borders. It doesn’t need to inhabit a particular ethnic or linguistic [geography] ... it’s not behind walls. The analogy that I’ve used is that they are like birds. Birds don’t observe barriers, birds know no frontiers, and in a way that is a pattern of human, imaginative, and intellectual yearning to know and to explore and to go further. And the stories track that too. They follow us but we also follow them.”
princesses. Despite their imaginative extravagance, the tales are also anchored to everyday life by their bawdiness and realism. The bulk of the text is in prose, although verse is occasionally used for songs and riddles and to express heightened emotion. Some of the stories commonly associated with One Thousand and One Nights, in particular Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, were not part of the book in its original versions but were added to the collection by European translators. Though it appears to be a story against women, it actually marks the creation of one of the strongest and cleverest heroines in world literature: Scheherazade. Scheherazade is described in the book as having “perused the books, annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of bygone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique (sic) races and departed rulers. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred.”
One Thousand and One Nights is also praised for the ways in which Scheherazade uses stories and storytelling as a means to connect with, and heal, the Sultan. Shahryar, entangled as he is in a web of hatred, jealousy and anger, has retreated to the dark night of his soul where he satisfies the monsters of hate and vengeance tormenting him by turning into a bloodthirsty monster himself. Scheherazade decides the way to stop this hatred and violence is to tell him a story. By telling Shahryar a thousand tales about every and all shades of life, Scheherazade uses the power of words and imagination to free the Sultan of the dark night of his soul and bring him back to the daylight of the love, compassion, friendship and human understanding.
Writers, poets, historians, scholars and readers have marvelled at the wit, intelligence, depth and imaginative power of Scheherazade’s tales for centuries. Professor Dame Marina Warner, explains the following about the significance of One Thousand and One Nights:
Translations of One Thousand and One Nights have been made into virtually every major language of the world, with many English translations (of varying accuracy) published since the 18th century. The first unabridged and unexpurgated translation was made by John Payne (1842-1916) in nine volumes.
“The Arabian Nights depicts a picture of a common humanity that is also wonderfully diverse, therefore very entertaining, very surprising and full of fresh ideas. Within the frame in which Scheherazade, in bed, is telling Shahryar, the wicked Sultan, these stories, there are many stories which explore the limits of human knowledge, the limits of human passion, all the things that can go wrong. There are stories about wickedness, and there are stories about virtue, goodness, and generosity; there are stories about cleverness and deception. The whole picture adds up to a marvellous atlas of the twists and turns of the narrative imagination. It is a repository of human wisdom, fantasy, wit, and deep understanding and desire to know.
In our 2020 Newsletter, we are serialising some of Scheherazade’s most enchanting tales. For the purpose of our series, we have chosen Payne’s translation, which is available in four volumes at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/ search/?query=one+thousand+and+one+night+ Stay tuned for the next issue of the Newsletter when we start taking you on a magic carpet ride of Scheherazade’s tales.
“One of the aspects of The Arabian Nights that I truly appreciate and enjoy is that it was written in Arabic first ... but it contains many earlier trace elements of Iranian, Indian, and other kinds of earlier — even Classical Greek — cultures. But it then transforms itself into a kind of multicultural, www.graduatehouse.com.au
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
The UN Sustainable Development Goals Guide to the SDGs in the tertiary sector
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established by the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, where it saw 193 member states including Australia, commit to 17 goals to reach by 2030. The 17 goals are a roadmap to tackling the world’s most pressing challenges. Graduate House will be profiling some of the work being done in Australia by government, business and civil society to achieve Australia’s SDGs, in our monthly Newsletters.
Organisational governance, culture and operations of the university: implementing the principles of the SDGs through governance structures and operational policies of the university.
One resource developed for the tertiary sector, titled Getting started with the SDGs in Universities: a guide for universities, higher education institutions and the academic sector outlines the role the higher External leadership: building strong public engagement and involvement in addressing education sector has in contributing to the SDGs the SDGs; facilitating cross-sectoral dialogue and the benefits of being engaged. and action; ensuring higher education sector The guide outlines how universities, with their representation in national implementation; and position in the creation and dissemination of designing SDG-based policies. knowledge and place in society, will have a critical Since universities already make important role to play in achieving the SDGs. Some of the contributions to the achievement of the SDGs, main areas of contribution are: for the goals to be truly successful on a global Learning and Teaching: give students the scale, universities need to become ‘champions of knowledge, skills and motivation to understand and sustainable development’ and have a leading role in address the SDGs; supply academic or vocational their implementation. expertise to implement SDG solutions; provide The guide identifies that a whole-of-university accessible, affordable and inclusive education to approach is needed and universities can use a all; and enable capacity building for students and five-step approach (outlined in the guide) to begin professionals from developing countries. and develop their action with the SDGs. Tools and Research: provide research, including evidenceguidance are also supplied, and can be customised based solutions, technologies, pathways and to different universities’ contexts and needs. innovations to support the implementation of Read Getting started with the SDGs in Universities the SDGs by the global community via traditional at: https://sdgs.org.au/about-us/resources/ disciplinary approaches and interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and sustainability science approaches. Supporting capacity building for developing countries in undertaking research, and collaborating with innovative companies to implement SDG solutions.
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CROWDFUNDING
Fund lifelong learning
What is crowdfunding? Crowdfunding is a method of raising funds from many people for a specific cause or venture. Using the collective effort of friends, family, various networks and even strangers, online crowdfunding mirrors the traditional concept of fundraising in a streamlined process all on one platform! On a crowdfunding platform, the plans and ideas for a fundraising venture can be crafted in the form of a post or a pitch and can be marketed across various online platforms. All the funds raised can be received through the post itself!
Crowdfunding and you Resident Members can be involved with this project by becoming a part of the Crowdfunding Working Party. The Crowdfunding Working Party was established to involve Resident Members in the development, establishment and running of this platform.
Crowdfunding and Graduate House Graduate House is launching our very own crowdfunding platform – Fund Lifelong Learning to host fundraising ventures for ‘People, Programs and Places’ in the areas of Education and Research, Professional and Sustainable Development in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, Lifelong Learning and Philanthropic Pursuits. The site is intended for release in 2020.
Fund Lifelong Learning is an online cross-border, cross-discipline crowdfunding platform that has the potential to facilitate actionable ventures promoting lifelong learning, education, research, development and sustainability across the globe. By being a part of the working group for the website, you will: • develop skills fundamental to the creation, administration and promotion of this online platform;
Crowdfunding creates many opportunities for individuals, organisations and the like to develop their idea or venture and garner support for the cause from various networks online. The benefits to crowdfunding go beyond the value of dollars and cents. This means that a fundraiser or project creator can create and design a campaign on the crowdfunding platform, describe the idea, share it directly across social media platforms and other online networks. People can then donate to the venture or share it within their own individual networks to gather and receive further support.
• acquire communication and cross-industry skills in management, marketing and governance; • gain the ability to work in a team to develop creative ideas and solutions addressing website development, structure and design; content writing; fundraising; and social and digital marketing; and • gain opportunities to enlarge your online network. As the platform significantly relies on you for your feedback and suggestions during this period of building and testing the site, please email crowdfunding@graduatehouse.com.au regarding your interest, or please see Graduate House Reception.
In our mission to lead crowdfunding for academic, economic and social good, development and sustainability, the platform is designed to receive donations from all over the world.
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THE GRADUATE UNION of The University of Melbourne Inc.
220 Leicester Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia Telephone: +61 (0)3 9347 3428 Australian Business Number: 55 610 664 963 Incorporated Association Registration Number: A0023234B
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