Author(s): Ross L. Jones; James Waghorne; Marcia Langton

Australian History

Dhoombak Goobgoowana acknowledges and publicly addresses the long, complex and troubled relationship between the Indigenous people of Australia and the University of Melbourne. It is a book about race and how it has been constructed by academics in the University. It is also about power and how academics have wielded it and justified its use against Indigenous populations, and about knowledge, especially the Indigenous knowledge that silently contributed to many early research projects and collection endeavours.

By appropriating Wurundjeri land for its buildings, and accepting donations drawn from the proceeds of colonisation of Indigenous Country, the University of Melbourne advertised its superiority as a whole institution to Indigenous people. Within its buildings, academics and students explored a worldview that effectively banished Indigenous knowledge and culture.

The University has supported injustices called progress, half-truths presented as facts, and prejudices pretending at objectivity. It follows the failings of many biographies and institutional histories that excluded race from their stories of achievement, overlooking how racist ideas complicated and shaped their narratives. Although many things have changed, the stain of the past remains. But the University no longer wishes to look away.