Jennie Teasdale's Occassional Address

Salutations

• Deputy Chancellor Jan McClelland,
• The Honorable Barnaby Joyce, Member for New England
• Interim Vice Chancellor and CEO Professor Simon Evans,
• Members of the University Council,
• Members of the Academic and Administrative staff,
• Honoured Guests
• Graduands, their families and friends,
• Ladies and Gentleman

Acknowledgement of Country

Today’s Ceremony commenced with an Acknowledgement of Country. I too wish to acknowledge the spiritual connections of the Indigenous owners to the land upon which we stand. I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.

I particularly acknowledge the contribution of the Indigenous women and children of this place who have contributed to my own personal and academic journey.

Thanks

Today, my alma mater, the University of New England, has honoured me in a remarkable way by awarding me an Honorary Doctorate.

Deputy Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Members of Council, THANKYOU.

I am immensely proud and very humbled to receive this unexpected award.

I must also acknowledge and thank the South Australian Chapter of the University of New England Alumni who quietly chose to nominate me for this prestigious award. Thank you SACune members who are supporting me during today’s ceremony.

Since the birth of our South Australian Alumni Chapter in 1996, I have assisted with a significant number of successful applications for distinguished UNE awards. Every one of them MEN.

So, I am delighted to-day to be the first woman recipient from SA, since the inception of our UNE Chapter.

Occasional Address

It is yet another privilege to deliver today’s Occasional Address that I have entitled 'Don’t Rest on Your Laurels'.

It is time now to turn to the people who are the real focus of today’s ceremony, you, the graduands.

Each one of you has completed your study for the degree or diploma you are about to receive. Until that transformational moment when you process across this stage to receive your certificate, with as much dignity and flair as you can muster, you are not yet a Graduate.

Your families and friends are here cheering for you. Be prepared for the many photographs that will be snapped today. They will be enlarged and photo-shopped.  For decades to come, they will adorn walls and be shown to relatives, friends and unsuspecting visitors.

Today, you are all splendidly dressed in colourful caps, gowns and hoods as are many other academics on this podium. Each bit of your regalia has significant historical meaning, well worth researching. However, it is the ancient history of your cap, your mortar-board or bonnet, that I want briefly to explore.

If we had been living in ancient Greece or Rome, and celebrating an outstanding achievement or triumph - maybe in sport, in music, in poetry or in battle - we would be garlanded or crowned with a laurel wreath made from the leaves of the Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis).

No laurel wreath for us today but the laurel has left us a legacy in a different way. We’ve all heard and probably used the catch phrase:

‘Don’t rest on your laurels’.

Today will be memorable for each one of you. You have reached an end point. Very shortly you will walk up on to this podium to be metaphorically crowned with your laurel. Like a still life painting, the photographs taken will be a frozen reminder of this occasion. But for you, it is not only the end of a significant chapter, it is the beginning of the rest of your life. This is not a time to rest on your laurels. Seize the day and get on with what comes next.

I’d like to ask you to do three things:

1. OPEN your eyes,
2. OPEN your mind, and
3. OPEN your heart.

The world is waiting for you. You are about to become a graduate of UNE. You are prepared and ready to take on this world with its numerous challenges and opportunities.

1 First - OPEN your eyes  to the real and immediate challenges of the world we live in. Let me remind you of some of them:

• the aftermath of a global pandemic,
• the digital revolution,
• economic recession,
• a global climate crisis,
• war,
• Indigenous rights and The Voice,
• seeking gender equity.

Open your eyes to the possibilities of just how you, with your newly minted UNE qualification, might contribute constructively to resolving these world challenges. Believe in yourself. Look for opportunities close to you or further afield.

Open the door to your future. Don’t take a quick peek and slam the door shut. Open it wide, walk through proactively and with confidence.

Research the internet, send that SMS, write that email, personally network, apply for that job, undertake more study. Don’t just stand on the sideline, languishing and left wondering. Get involved. Take some risks. The world needs you, every one of you, whatever your age. But it is you who has to set the process in motion. Celebrate today but move forward tomorrow.

So

• Don’t rest on your laurels.
• OPEN your eyes.
• Embrace the opportunities that you see.

2 Second - OPEN your minds.

As humanities, arts, social science and education graduates, consider what you can do. See yourself on a launching pad. Open your mind, not only to the obvious, but to the ‘left field’. Think laterally and boldly about alternative career pathways you might take.

For example, you could become a peace maker in Ukraine, a geography post graduate scholar researching the impact of the permafrost melt, a sociologist assessing how the next pandemic can be better managed, a woman’s rights advocate in the mining industry in the Pilbara, a musician exploring frontiers of music with the hearing impaired. Have you ever considered how you might learn with and from our first nations people? Possibilities are endless; open your mind to them. Don’t ignore or back away because it all looks too hard. Today you graduate and celebrate, but tomorrow you continue your lifelong learning journey.

A comment from my own experiences of life as a teacher educator: I’m saddened about how many stale teachers I meet when I visit schools, colleges and universities. If teaching is your next step, become an inspiring, enthusiastic teacher listening to your students, exploring pedagogy.  Critically review the lessons or lectures you present each day, each year. Do they continue to inspire? If not, use your nous to polish them up… whatever the pay and conditions.

So

• Don’t rest on your laurels.
• OPEN your mind.
• Think outside the square.

3 Third - OPEN Your Hearts

Covid has heightened our awareness of family and community. All of us have multiple social connections. They might include a particular friend or friendship groups here at UNE, your immediate or extended family, your partner, your workplace connections, old school friends or neighbours – the possibilities are extensive. With some of these people you share your passions, your dreams and aspirations, your triumphs and your disappointments –the matters of the heart. Without these connections we are a diminished people.

We need to celebrate our humanness and the connections that make our world a meaningful place. To whom do we open our hearts? For me personally it is my husband, my children, my grandchildren my wider family, my networks of friends from across the world and last but by no means least, my special community on Kangaroo Island. All these people surround me, caring and sharing when I need them and I hope, and definitely try, to be there for them.

Famous English metaphysical poet, John Donne wrote: No man is an island entire of itself. Except for its gender bias, this statement rings true for me. None us can live a completely fulfilling life if we shut ourselves off from the people who surround us.

I believe we need to open our hearts wide to show compassion to those beyond our immediate group. Open your heart both to those who reciprocate your embrace and to those whom you do not know personally, who need your care. In opening you heart to others you will be a better human being.

So

• Don’t rest on your laurels.
• OPEN your heart..
• Connect with those who uphold you.

But, more importantly, connect with those who need you.

To conclude

My address contains a big ask of all of you, of all of us. None of us should rest on our laurels. Let us all travel through life with

• our eyes open,
• our minds open,
• our hearts open.

A life lived with these trajectories will be busy, edgy, but enormously fulfilling.

Jennie Teasdale

28 April 2023