BY LUKE FOMIATTI
SYDNEY — Aboriginal education will continue at the Bankstown campus of the University of Western Sydney, as the student occupation of the Goolangullia Aboriginal Unit ended in victory on November 9.
The university agreed to all the students' demands. Beginning on September 18, the protest lasted 52 days, making it the longest running university occupation in Australia since the 1970s protests against the Vietnam War.
Protests began in August when UWS announced a plan to restructure Aboriginal education by centralising all related courses and facilities at the Quakers Hill campus, closing, among other facilities, the Goolangullia unit at Bankstown. Goolangullia's students were told that their studies would be transferred to Quakers Hill.
Existing on the Bankstown campus in some form for 19 years, Goolangullia has been the organising centre for very successful Aboriginal education programs. These include the Aboriginal Rural Education Program and the Metro program, which give Aboriginal students the chance to complete a diploma in their first year of university.
Goolangullia also runs subjects about Aboriginal culture and history for non-indigenous students, helping to break down barriers between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
After a petition campaign opposing the closure, the university agreed to allow students currently studying at Goolangullia to finish their degrees there (although maintaining that new students would not be enrolled). However, quickly reneging on the deal, the university almost immediately organised for rural students to do residential study at Quakers Hill, instead of Goolangullia.
In response, students marched into the Goolangullia building and issued a "Declaration of Occupation", not only stating that they wanted to be able to finish their degrees at the unit, but also calling for Aboriginal education to continue at Bankstown indefinitely, and for all courses to remain.
The university initially refused to negotiate with the occupiers, but community support for them flowed in.
"Student representative councils from around NSW, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, and the Aboriginal community all came in behind the occupation", John McGuire, Bankstown Students Association president, told Green Left Weekly. "A number of academics also supported the students, but couldn't come out [in support] officially due to fear of reprisals from the university."
"While 20 students total have been involved in the occupation, as we controlled the space, they could come and go. Two students got in a van and drove around the state visiting communities, taking leaflets and press releases and telling people about the occupation", McGuire continued.
On November 2, the university began a "mediation process" with the occupying students. After two hard and tiring days of face-to-face negotiations, the university agreed to the students' demands — Goolangullia would stay at a guaranteed staffing level, no courses would be cut, and the unit would even be upgraded.
"It was an inspiring time", McGuire told GLW. "Right now, people are just taking a breath, but everyone wants to get involved in ongoing campaigning. Everyone's really seen that they do have the power to collectively make change: they're all saying 'what we did here, we can do in our communities'."
From Green Left Weekly, November 28, 2001.
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