Lingiari Lecture styled for digital audiences

Charles Darwin University will depart from tradition when it presents the 20^th Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture tomorrow with a new-look format to suit digital audiences.

Traditionally, the lecture has featured a single high-profile guest speaker, but tomorrow’s event will take the shape of a moderated panel format designed for television and online audiences.

CDU Pro-Vice Chancellor Indigenous Leadership and Regional Outlook, Professor Reuben Bolt said that this year’s pandemic restrictions had provided an opportunity to re-vision the Lecture and position it to a wider audience through social media platforms.

“The shape and style of the Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture has changed but I can guarantee that its substance remains,” Professor Bolt said. “It will continue to be a platform from which the urgent call is made to improve the outcomes of our most disadvantaged people. It will still commemorate the landmark Wave Hill Station Walk-Off event led by Vincent Lingiari in 1966 and honour the activism and struggle of the 200 Gurindji workers and their families for land rights that inspired national change.”

The title of this year’s lecture is “Our legacy of activism, advocacy and calls to action”.

Professor Bolt said that he was delighted that two former keynote speakers – Senator Patrick Dodson and Professor Dr Marcia Langton AO – would feature in this year’s Lecture, along with acclaimed author Bruce Pascoe.

“Each speaker will reflect on activism, advocacy and action from unique perspectives shaped by their own life journeys, career trajectories and experiences,” Professor Bolt said.

“This has been a remarkable year in terms of how we think, reflect and behave, largely thanks to the coronavirus, and a noteworthy year in activism, with the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter movement being two international cases that have given strength to calls for social change in Australia.”

Professor Bolt said the Lecture would begin with an address from academic elder and Gurindji descendant Dr Sue Stanton and conclude with a moderated question and answer session.

A full-length version of the Lecture will be available online on 10 December and an abridged version screened on NITV at 10pm on Monday 14 December.

The Lecture will be available here.