Launch of 65,000 Years: the publication

Speech by Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell on 10 November 2024.

Chancellor, Jane Hansen; Chair of the Ian Potter Board, Peter Jopling; distinguished guests, and colleagues:

I am deeply honoured to be invited to officially launch the book that accompanies our celebration of Indigenous art and culture, 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art.

The book that we launch tonight is important in a number of ways. For the stories and the knowledge that it imparts, for the people who have participated in bringing it together, and for the part it plays in a wider program of acknowledgement of, and education about the uniquely powerful roles played by Indigenous Australian art.

The book is published in partnership with Thames and Hudson Australia, and is edited by Associate Provost and Distinguished Professor Marcia Langton and Senior Curator Judith Ryan.

It is fair to describe this as a landmark publication on the history of Indigenous Australian art. Courageous in inspiration, and comprehensive in its coverage, it invites us to see and bear witness to 65,000 years of continuous culture, knowledge and art on this continent.

It is obvious to me that a subject of this importance requires a serious and long-term commitment, so we planned for this. With the launch of the publication tonight, we actually commence a year-long public program associated with 65,000 Years.

This includes an exhibitionthat will open during Reconciliation Week in May 2025 at the revitalised Ian Potter Museum of Art.

The exhibition is to be curated, in consultation with communities, by Professor Marcia Langton, Senior Curator Judith Ryan and Associate Curator Shanysa McConville. I acknowledge the great work being done by those three people.

In fact we have been looking forward to the project at the Potter for several years. Unfortunately, like so many other things the Potter project was delayed through the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be a wonderful occasion when the exhibition opens next year.

In anticipation of the excitement it is fantastic to launch the accompanying book  that goes with the exhibition tonight.

I am also delighted personally to be able to launch it tonight as I approach the end of my last year as Vice-Chancellor.  I do so recognisingthat although Vice-Chancellors may come and go, we are in fact a perennial institution, and within that institution, Indigenous art and Indigenous knowledge holds a rightful place of honour, today and I am sure into the future.

The exhibition opening next May will be another landmark moment, and an exciting one for everyone at the University, as well as for wider communities.

There is an old expression first that English took over the from the French philosophers – ‘art pour l’art’ – or art for arts sake. You might remember the expression in a song by 10CC.

In this University we have outstanding and wide-ranging collections of art that are uniquely valuable in themselves. But as well as art for art’s sake, at this University we think that art can play a very important role in what is, after all, our core business – education and research.

I am pleased that the close connection between the art that we hold and curate, on one hand, and the teaching and learning that we do, on the other, will be reflected in the 65,000 Years program over the next year.

In particular, 65,000 Years will be supported by a number of dedicated teaching and learning programs in partnership with the University’s signature Ngarrngga Project, through the Faculty of Education. These programs will benefit both tertiary and school students, in work that is generously supported by Ruth and Peter McMullin.

This teaching and learning initiative will provide a vital platform for Indigenous truth telling, and encourage wider dialogue in the Australian community about the importance of Indigenous culture, history and art.

I launch this important book with gratitude for the hard work, encouragement and collegiality that I have received during my six years as Vice-Chancellor, from so many colleagues and friends, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

And among those colleagues, none command greater respect from me, as well as from many other people, than my esteemed colleague, the Associate Provost of the University, Professor Marcia Langton. I invite Marcia to speak now. Thank you all.