The Duguid Memorial Lecture is held in honour of Dr Charles Duguid OBE and Mrs Phyllis Duguid OAM for their tireless Aboriginal rights campaigning.
Dr Duguid and his wife gained national and international headlines in the 1930s due to their campaigning for legislative reforms and fairer work policies for Aboriginal people. This led to forming the forerunner of what was to become the Aborigines Advancement League.
In 1994, the Aborigines Advancement League made a substantial gift to the University of South Australia and Flinders University, to provide study grants for Aboriginal graduates as well as to conduct a memorial lecture every two years.
Alternating between the two universities, the Duguid Memorial Lectures are designed to further harmonious relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities that continues the respect for Aboriginal culture that the Duguids initiated.
“Has the Australian dream been achieved at the expense of the Aboriginal child?”
The 2021 Duguid Memorial Lecture was held on Wednesday 24 November 2021 at the Hawke Building City West Campus, hosted by the University of South Australia.
Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney AM
Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion
University of South Australia
About the speaker
One of Australia’s most awarded and internationally respected Aboriginal educationalists, Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney AM is Professor of Education in the Pedagogies for Justice Group in the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion, Education Futures at the University of South Australia. He is member of the Scientific Committee, Foundation Reggio Children Centro Loris Malaguzzi Italy and was Distinguished Fellow at Kings College, London, Menzies Australia Institute. He is a citizen of the Narungga, Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri Sovereign Nation peoples of South Australia. He is a recognized expert on Aboriginal and minority Education of the Pacific. His research focuses on Aboriginal children’s rights and education, Indigenist epistemologies, teachers' work, Aboriginal education, Indigenous Intellectual Sovereignty, Treaty and school reform. He has been involved in national research and Australian Research Council funded projects on teachers' learning; Indigenist Epistemologies and School; Aboriginal Higher Education; and Towards an Australian culturally responsive pedagogy.
Lecture theme
In the 2021 Duguid Memorial Lecture, Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney AM asks “what is the place of the Aboriginal child in settler Australia?” He challenges the norms and inquires about universal truths and deficit views that inhibit schools from connecting the intelligences and talents of the Aboriginal child to learning. He calls for change through working with educator pedagogical instruction techniques that are culturally responsive and more linked to Aboriginal voices and aspirations in their purposes.
Professor Rigney is one of today’s leading education theory scholars. He was raised and educated on Point Pearce mission Bookayana and is a leader in the Narungga nation and is published widely throughout education and Aboriginal Schooling.
Please note the 2020 Duguid Memorial Lecture was postponed due to Covid-19.
"On what terms can we speak" Ethics, Connectivity and Climate Justice
The 2018 Duguid Memorial Lecture was held on Monday 12 November 2018 at Flinders Victoria Square, hosted by the Flinders University.
Professor Tony Birch
Bruce McGuinness Research Fellow
Moondani Balluk Academic Centre
Victoria University
About the speaker
Professor Tony Birch is a poet, short story writer, novelist and professor who holds the inaugural Bruce McGuinness Research Fellow at Victoria University. Tony is the author of Ghost River, which won the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing, and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. He is also the author of Shadowboxing, and three short story collections – Father’s Day, The Promise and Common People. In 2017 Tony became the first Indigenous writer to win the Patrick White Award for his ongoing contribution to Australian literature.
Lecture theme
Australia, along with nations and communities across the globe, faces the difficult task of formulating genuine responses to climate change. Indigenous people in Australia are at the forefront of the issue, both as communities majorly impacted by climate change, and the custodians of knowledge. Tony’s lecture explores ‘the politics of refusal’ as a strategy to empower Indigenous peoples and to protect country.
Three Generations on the Duguid Legacy
The 2016 Duguid Memorial Lecture was held on Wednesday 30 November 2016 at the Hawke Building City West Campus, hosted by the University of South Australia.
Professor Tom Calma AO
Chancellor, University of Canberra
Co-Chair, Reconciliation Australia
About the speaker
Professor Calma is an Aboriginal Elder from the Kungarakan tribal group and a member of the Iwaidja tribal group whose traditional lands are south west of Darwin and on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Northern Territory of Australia, respectively. He has been involved in Indigenous affairs at a local, community, state, national and international level and worked in the public sector for 40 years and is currently on a number of boards and committees focusing on rural and remote Australia, health, education, justice reinvestment, research, reconciliation and economic development.
Lecture theme
Professor Calma reviewed the significant events that have occurred since the 1930’s when the Duguids led and campaigned for legislative reforms and fairer work policies for Aboriginal people in Victoria and South Australia.
This event also celebrated the launch of the book ‘The Long Campaign’, a collection of past Duguid Memorial Lectures. A collaboration between UniSA and the Office of Indigenous Strategy & Engagement, Flinders University, the chapters address education policy, Indigenous health, reconciliation, community governance and national representation, Indigenous knowledge and philosophy, and the power of the written and spoken word in Indigenous literature and storytelling.
Considering Sameness
The 2014 Duguid Memorial Lecture was held on Monday, 17 November 2014 at Flinders Victoria Square, and hosted by Flinders University.
Presented by Dr Anita Heiss
Author and
Adjunct Professor at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning
University of Technology, Sydney.
About the speaker
Dr Anita Heiss is the author of non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women's fiction, poetry, social commentary and travel articles. She is a regular guest at writers' festivals and travels internationally performing her work and lecturing on Indigenous literature.
She is an Indigenous Literacy Day Ambassador and a proud member of the Wiradjuri nation of central NSW. Anita is a role model for the National Aboriginal Sporting Chance Academy and an Advocate for the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence. She is an Adjunct Professor with Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS and currently divides her time between writing, public speaking, MCing, and being a 'creative disruptor'. Anita was a finalist in the 2012 Human Rights Awards and the 2013 Australian of the Year Awards.
Lecture theme
Anita’s lecture celebrated diversity while considering what makes us the same as human beings, and provided the audience with an entertaining insight into Anita’s life and inspirations as an author and educator.
Indigenous Knowledges, the Academy and the Community
Dr Irene Watson
Associate Professor in Aboriginal Studies
David Unaipon College of Indigenous Education and Research
University of South Australia
> UniSA news release 'The position of Indigenous knowledges in Australian society'
The Uncomfortable Road to Cultural Ease - Shifting Focus to Close the Gap
Associate Professor Dennis McDermott
Flinders University
29 October 2010
> UniSA news release 'The position of Indigenous knowledges in Australian society'
Indigenous Education Outcomes: Are The Answers In The Mainstream?
Professor Peter Buckskin
Dean and Head of School, David Unaipon College of Education and Research
University of South Australia
27 November 2008
Professor Buckskin's lecture examined nationwide management of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education and the realities of the vast gaps in educational and social outcomes.
| Year | Speaker | Where Held |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Mr Klynton Wanganeen | The Flinders University of South Australia |
| 2004 | Associate Professor Tracey Bunda | The Flinders University of South Australia |
| 2003 | Professor Lowitja O’Donoghue | University of South Australia |
| 2000 | Dr Jackie Huggins | The Flinders University of South Australia |
| 1998 | Mr John Moriarty | University of South Australia |
| 1996 | Ms Jenni Baker | The Flinders University of South Australia |
| 1994 | Professor Paul Hughes | University of South Australia |
Contact the Advancement team on +61 8 8302 7375 or email us
UniSA respectfully acknowledges the Kaurna, Boandik and Barngarla First Nations Peoples and their Elders past and present, who are the First Nations’ Traditional Owners of the lands that are now home to our campuses in Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Whyalla.
ARTWORK: Ngupulya Pumani
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