Save the Institute of Postcolonial Studies

Read this feature in National Indigenous Times -

In an email to members on November 20, they said a proposal was being put forward to seek the appointment of four Aboriginal scholar-activists: Prof Gary Foley, A/Prof Crystal McKinnon, Dr Evelyn Araluen, and Natalie Ironfield.

As well as this, they also advocated for the appointment of three "racialised community organisers and PhD candidates" who would serve as directors of the board alongside the current four.

Professor and Author Tony Birch labelled the IPCS building "a vital asset that we cannot afford to lose".

"The IPCS has always had the opportunity to engage with Aboriginal scholars and activists from Australia, as well as Indigenous scholars from across the globe," he wrote in a letter published on the groups page. Unfortunately, this opportunity has never been fully realised."

He said that while fundamental and necessary change can create conflict, it is a concept of growth that should be embraced. He urged the leadership to sit down and have discussions with the members who felt disenfranchised.

In an online forum on Thursday night, members expressed their frustration of the boards decision, along with their love of the institute.

Dharug person and IPCS member, Natalie Ironfield, said the board needed to listen to the people most impacted by colonisation.

"I strongly believe IPCS needs to be accountable to the communities who are most impacted by colonisation and who are engaging in anti-colonial study," they said.

Uncle Gary Foley told the same forum that the exercise was about revitalising the institute by allowing greater input by the colonised.

"It's a great pity that people on the other side of this have reacted in an unnecessarily defensive way," he said.

Institute of Postcolonial Studies to shut down amid calls for change from members The announcement that the Melbourne-based Institute of Postcolonial Studies (IPCS) will be dissolved by the board has been met with disappointment by the organisation's more than 200 members, many who...

On December 2, 2023, Professor Tony Birch wrote the following letter regarding the Board of the IPCS efforts to close down the Institute -

2 December 2023

I am writing to raise my concerns about the future of the Institute for Postcolonial Studies (IPCS), based in Melbourne. I am alarmed that there are moves in place to sell the building in which the IPCS was established, a vital asset that we cannot afford to lose. In the last 25 years I have attended the IPSC on many occasions and listened to renowned speaks sharing their research and thoughts on the vital project of antiracism. I have also been fortunate to present my own research at the IPCS on several occasions. The IPCS has always had the opportunity to engage with Aboriginal scholars and activists from Australia, as well as Indigenous scholars from across the globe. Unfortunately, this opportunity has never been fully realised.

In late 2022 a group of IPCS members (and supporters) began to agitate for change at the Institute so that it could best meet its original charter, to ‘interrogate colonial relations and their consequences in the past, present, and future in Australia and globally’. The changes asked for would also require that the IPCS better represent the voices and political ideals of a new generation of scholars, particularly more Indigenous scholars and people of colour. I am not suggesting that there were no attempts to facilitate these objectives in the past, but that a more substantial and energetic shift now is required, considering current local and global politics, and the attack on the human rights of brutally and unlawfully colonised communities and nations.

Fundamental and necessary change can create conflict. It is a concept in the growth of our intellectual lives that we should embrace. Political history, particularly in relation to the rise of Indigenous activism and thought, highlights that younger generations by nature, demand change if genuine progress is to occur. Their energies and too often met with refusal. During the recent ‘Voice to Parliament’ campaign I listened to many new voices amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Some opinions I agreed with. While I did not agree with other statements, I was so pleased to witness our younger activists and thinkers doing it for themselves and challenging established members of our communities. Without such challenge and change our political, philosophical and cultural lives would wither.

I openly state that I am not fully aware of the basis of some of the conflict that has occurred at the IPCS in recent months, although I have tried to rectify this by speaking with members and friends. What I do know is that an absence of dialogue, of embracing a new challenge will do nothing but damage the reputation of the IPCS.

I have had many friendships with members of the IPCS over the years, people I respect greatly.
I implore those who are seeking to sell the building to not proceed. The death of the building could also create a death of ideas. I would also ask that the current leadership of the IPCS sit down with those seeking genuine change, and that people listen respectfully to each other. And finally, I would ask that a democratic process be put in place reflected the wishes members.

Professor Tony Birch
University of Melbourne

For the past five years, there has only been a single Aboriginal director on the IPCS Board, who resigned earlier this year, and two People of Colour (POC) who have also resigned. This is not a condemnation of individual directors. However, an organisation committed to interrogating colonial relations must embody a diverse governance structure, which includes directors of the Board with a lived experience of colonisation.

Transforming the Institute of Postcolonial Studies into a project that builds anticolonial and antiracist solidarities - Overland literary journal As members and friends of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies (IPCS), we write to express the urgent need to transform IPCS, into an Institute that takes up antiracist and anticolonial work in the Australian colony and transnationally.

The current board of the Institute of Poscolonial Studies emailed members and supporters of the institute announcing its decision to close down the educational project.

As members we oppose this decision.

We want to keep the project alive and see transformation at IPCS.

You can read the open letter elaborating the need for transformation here:

https://overland.org.au/2023/11/transforming-the-institute-of-postcolonial-studies-into-a-project-that-builds-anticolonial-and-antiracist-solidarities/?fbclid=IwAR2JQG2cshV0lKbtlWhmdmErVD9UPwRP-nb76r7ew4cYG9xmsD_6rvzjJzI

"I'm a founding member of the IPCS and I certainly do not approve of the closing down of the IPCS" - Phillip Darby, founding director of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies.

As many of us have read, the Board of IPCS sent an email to membership on Monday announcing the closing down of the Institute.

In this email the Board wrote:

"In recent weeks the Board and founding members have met on several occasions (including with the original benefactor) and after lengthy and careful consideration the difficult decision has been made to close down IPCS."

This has compelled Phillip Darby to speak out in clarification of his position on the decision to close down IPCS, and in favour of our campaign to keep the Institute open.

The website of IPCS features Darby as its founder, and the building's reading/library room is named after him: The Phillip Darby room.

Surely a board of this Institute would respect the wishes of its founder and its over 200 paid members to keep the postcolonial studies project alive.

From the IPCS feature -

Phillip Darby was educated at the Universities of Melbourne (MA, LLB) and Oxford – at St.Catherine’s and Nuffield Colleges (D.Phil). He taught at the University of Melbourne from 1969 to 2017, and is a principal fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences. He has published on imperial history, postcolonialism, international relations and security studies, mostly drawing on material from South Asia and Black Africa. His most recent publication is an edited collection From International Relations to Relations International: Postcolonial Essays, dedicated to the memory of Devika Goonewardene (Routledge 2016).

Together with Michael Dutton he founded the Institute of Postcolonial Studies in 1996 and was its foundation director up until early 2019.

https://ipcs.org.au/people/phillip-darby/