Dhoombak Goobgoowana

Dhoombak Goobgoowana Volume II: Voice reveals the pivotal role played by Indigenous people in the history of the University of Melbourne.

It traces the University’s role in ignoring and quietening Indigenous peoples’ voices, and the reverberations created by those voices that broke through. It shows how collections of art and cultural objects have transitioned from texts for western interpretation to expressions of self-identity. It reveals the Indigenous pioneers who gained admission to the University as students more than a century after it was established, and then later as staff, and documents their triumphs and struggles.

This second volume, following the revelations of Dhoombak Goobgoowana Volume I: Truth, shows how Indigenous communities challenged and disrupted the University, how they contributed to its research endeavours and exhorted it to introduce Indigenous knowledge into the academic sphere.
Gradually, and often reluctantly, the University began to change. But there remains much work to be done.

About the Authors

James Waghorne is the official historian of the University of Melbourne, based in the Centre for the Study of Higher Education.

Professor Marcia Langton AO is a granddaughter of Yiman and Bidjara people in Queensland where she was born and raised. She is qualified as an anthropologist and geographer, and since 2000 has held the Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, and since 2017, has held the role of Associate Provost.