Celebrating Aunty Mary Graham
Kombumerri and Wakka Wakka community development leader, Elder, educator, and philosopher
Adjunct Associate Professor Mary Graham
Adjunct Associate Professor Mary Graham
Adjunct Associate Professor Mary Graham is widely recognised as Australia’s leading Aboriginal philosopher. Her tireless work as a community development leader, Elder, educator and philosopher were recognised recently with an Honorary Doctorate – UQ’s highest honour.
The Kombumerri and Wakka Wakka woman has lectured on Aboriginal history, politics and comparative philosophy at UQ and other universities for many years and has collaborated on international social science research projects.
Adjunct Associate Professor Graham’s career as a local community development leader and educator has had far-reaching impact.
She was central to establishing the Aboriginal and Islander Child Care in the 1980s, a founding member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, a commissioner of the Queensland Corrective Services Commission, regional councillor with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, a member of the Ethics Council of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, and a founding director of Australian BlackCard – a cultural competency program built on the university courses she and Dr Lilla Watson developed.
Contact spoke to UQ colleagues close to Adjunct Associate Professor Graham about the impact of her career and what she means to them.
Professor Bronwyn Fredericks
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Engagement
Aunty Mary has contributed worldwide on matters of philosophy and ways of thinking that extend beyond Australia and beyond her realm as an Indigenous woman, and that’s the power of her work.
She’s able to showcase her ways of thinking, being and doing so that others can make sense of their own worlds and can gain some meaning for themselves and their lives.
Aunty Mary talks about land as having its own entity and power, and how land itself can shape law and relationships. If people had a greater understanding of that, maybe we wouldn’t have the same issues we have now around climate change and the decisions impacting the environment going forward. We – not as individuals, but collectively – may make different decisions.
Aunty Mary is still engaged with UQ through mentoring students and staff across a range of areas. In her role as Adjunct Associate Professor, Dr Graham has co-supervised students undertaking masters and PhD studies at UQ. She has had a big impact on the lives of individuals and large groups, and has added to conversations in powerful ways that have helped shift dialogue around agendas and matters that are important to our society.
Professor Tracey Bunda
Professor of Indigenous Education
Acting Director of UQ’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit
There is gentleness within Adjunct Associate Professor Graham. Gentleness takes time, it is considered, and it is a value that sometimes is not practiced on Indigenous peoples, particularly when Indigenous peoples find themselves against the enormity and alien nature of large white institutions. Perhaps it is paradoxical then, that it is an Indigenous woman, Kombumerri of country, who is teaching the large white institution – carefully, thoughtfully – how to be less alien and to be more human.
Her knowledge is grounded in Country and age-old traditions of caring for people and Country. It is knowledge that is much needed for the times in which we live, and knowledge which she celebrates and generously shares. In knowing Mary, we celebrate her and the knowledge she holds, for us all.
Associate Professor Morgan Brigg
Deputy Head of School
School of Political Science and International Studies
Adjunct Associate Professor Graham has generously enabled and contributed to our joint exploration of Aboriginal political philosophy. A great example of this is her contribution to the ABC series Why we need Aboriginal political philosophy now more than ever, in which she shared how we can build a new future together through hearing Aboriginal political philosophy and allowing difference to exist.
Mary is perpetually curious. Her thinking never stands still; she constantly seeks out innovative approaches and insights. She opens peoples’ eyes and ears to the remarkable systems and ways of knowing of Aboriginal Australian people. She has had a foundational role in developing Aboriginal philosophy and making it accessible. Emeritus Professor Stephen Muecke – Professor of Ethnography at the University of New South Wales – said, “Mary Graham’s contribution will be looked back on with gratitude for its foundational role in the ‘re-civilising’ of Australia”, and I completely agree.
Honorary Professor Norm Sheehan
UQ Business School
Aunty Mary possesses a presence that has subtly influenced UQ for decades. More than 20 years ago, I listened to her lectures on Indigenous knowledge. She would say that she was talking about her thinking and the thinking of many theorists, but every thought she shared was so deeply considered that it spoke to us Indigenous – and many non-Indigenous – students about the depth and strength of Aboriginal understanding that has always been embedded within Aboriginal people and Country.
Her presence is quiet and strong, and her words always catch me a bit by surprise. Reading her recent writings, Aunty Mary says that she is not talking about developing theory and repeats this as she speaks to the knowledge that lives in Country and references the law of this livingness. This reminds me of many dear Uncles who taught us so well and it also empowers all Indigenous thinkers. The living logic of relations she engages us with speaks to our ontology and helps us to take on features of academic life that Rod Williams, a leading Aboriginal colleague, describes as the ‘theory police’.
Aunty Mary’s refusal to develop theory has positioned Indigenous thinkers to see past the entanglements of divisive practice so many build their strength and follow cohesive life-affirming approaches informed by the generational truth she shares.
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