Decolonisation at FUSA: A Conversation Far From Over
Editors’ Note: We would like to acknowledge the sensitive nature of the issues discussed within this piece. We acknowledge the diversity of opinions surrounding the topics within, and our positions as participants in the 2021 Student Elections, as non-First Nations People, and as editors paid by FUSA. The Editors would also like to extend their gratitude to Yunggorendi for their guidance regarding this article.
Over the past few years, issues regarding First Nations Peoples and decolonisation processes have been at the forefront of student elections at Flinders University, but it is important we acknowledge that these conversations remain once the ballot boxes have closed.
Decolonisation refers to restorative justice for First Nations Peoples through cultural, social and economic freedom and self-determination. Discussions on how these principles can be adopted by FUSA and the Student Council have been on-going, and it is worth examining how well such principles have materially manifested.
While in recent years, efforts have been underway to provide appropriate maps, flags and dual signage on campus, and with the title of First Nations Officer also recently being adopted in place of ‘Indigenous Students Officer’, there have also been considerable blunders.
In 2019, the First Nations Officer position became vacant, leaving the First Nations community on campus without an appropriate representative for almost six months. Upon becoming vacant, a panel was formed to select a new representative for the role. The initial plans for this panel left it void of First Nations representation, until the issue was raised by a candidate. Following this, a FUSA staff member raised these concerns with the Student Council. In the Student Council meeting immediately following this recommendation, a motion was moved to limit staff interference in such matters. While the panel eventually provided appropriate representation, there is currently still no requirement for such representation on casual vacancy panels - despite there being other representational requirements.
In 2020, the position of allyship officer (intended for a non-first nations student) was advertised for the First Nations Student Collective’s AGM. This was allegedly done without consultation with the Flinders Indigenous Students Association, who condemned the decision, lodging a formal complaint. Subsequently, the Union of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Postgraduate Association expressed their condemnation of FUSA and the 2020 Student Council for this overreach. The notion of an allyship officer was eventually abandoned, after the AGM was cancelled.
And finally, the elephant in the room - autonomous voting. While some may view it as ‘political point scoring’, as one candidate referred to it, autonomous voting is an important means for respecting the autonomy of First Nations students and decolonising leadership structures. Simply put, autonomous voting means that only students who identify as First Nations Peoples would be able to vote for First Nations Officer in student elections. It can also be applied to other autonomous positions, such as Women’s, Disability and Queer Officer.
Many Australian universities have implemented autonomous voting rights for First Nations students for such positions including the University of New South Wales, the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, Queensland University of Technology, the University of Queensland and Australian National University. Implementing this approach would be reasonably simple from a logistics perspective, as students who identify as First Nations are already noted as such in our Student System. However, autonomous voting has not been implemented at Flinders, despite being long discussed.
The beginnings of the most recent discussions around autonomous voting began in 2020, when the motion to ‘Decolonise FUSA Now’ was passed on the 15th of December. In it, FUSA and Student Council committed to decolonising itself and reviewing its constitutions. Autonomous voting rights was explicitly stated as a component of this. However, when Student Elections rolled around once more in 2021, seemingly no progress had been made in achieving this.
On the 1st of September, Keenan Smith, the 2021 First Nations Officer, publicly stated that the issue had ‘failed to gain any traction past the discussion phase’ and on the 27th of September, they announced that they had lodged a complaint with FUSA and Flinders regarding ‘institutional racism at FUSA and Student Council’. In lieu of allowing non-first nations students to vote on the position for another year, Keenan called for the position to be removed from the upcoming election to allow for time to implement an alternate approach. This did not occur. Supposedly, there is no mechanism in FUSA’s Constitution to implement said approaches – an issue within itself.
On the 30th of September 2021, the Student Council General Secretary, Molly Turnbull, responded via Facebook, stating that they supported autonomous voting, and a ‘majority, if not the entirety, of Student Council supports the same’. If this is the case, one must ask – what was the hold up?
At the end of 2021, the Returning Officer’s (RO) report left us with more questions than answers. The Returning Officer oversees student elections, ensuring good conduct on behalf of campaigners. The RO seemingly echoes the confusion and hurt expressed by many in the Flinders community, stating they were ‘dismayed [..] to discover that the issue (of autonomous voting) had not been addressed’ since they had last raised the issue in reference to the 2020 Student Elections. The RO stated that ‘efforts to resolve this issue brokered by FUSA staff provided a well-informed account of alternative models at other campuses that could be implemented at Flinders, and a meeting to discuss them. This initiative ultimately failed to result in agreement’. This would suggest that the hold-out originated with the Student Council, and not FUSA bureaucracy, as there was no consensus reached in the time between the 2020 and 2021 elections.
The RO offers a word of advice to the Student Council, suggesting that they treat the issue of autonomous voting as a matter of urgency. In fact, the RO stated that she would ‘not agree to act as Returning Officer unless and until this issue is resolved’, describing the current approach as inappropriate, as well as inconsistent, with the stated position of Student Council’.
In early February, Empire Times received word that autonomous voting had been passed during a Student Council meeting that took place in December 2021; of which the minutes were only published on the 21st of February 2022.
On the 16th of February, Empire Times attended the first Student Council meeting of 2022. During the meeting, the issue of autonomous voting was addressed by the First Nations Officer. The First Nations Officer informed the Council that they had been in conversation with the First Nations Officer of the National Union of Students to gain an understanding of how other universities have implemented this process. They also noted that they would be attending other Flinders’ campuses to assess how this process could be implemented university wide (Editor’s Note: These visits have since taken place and stakeholder meetings have allegedly been conducted during the time Issue 2 was at print). Therefore, it is evident that this conversation is still ongoing within the Student Council. However, there is still no actionable plan moving forward as to how autonomous voting will be implemented – with Student Elections set to take place in next three/four months, we will see if such a plan materialises in time for the 2022 elections, or if it will be, as a former First Nations Officer stated on Overheard last October, once again ‘too late’.
EDITORIAL NOTE: This article has been reuploaded and was originally published in 2022.