Colin Bourke MBE
It is with great sadness that we record the passing of Colin Bourke, MBE on 10 Feb 2021.
Below is a tribute from Monash University, and below that is a more detailed Eulogy by his son Matthew at his funeral. He is sadly missed by us all.
Monash University is deeply saddened to learn of the death on 10 February aged 84 of Professor Colin Bourke, MBE.
Professor Bourke joined the University in 1977 as the first full-time Indigenous Director of the former Centre for Research into Aboriginal Affairs (now Monash Indigenous Centre), a position he held until 1981.
He was part of a new group of emergent Indigenous professionals dedicated to changing the future for all those from Indigenous backgrounds.
He also served two terms on the Monash University Council and was the inaugural Chair of the Indigenous Advisory Council, the latter from which he retired in 2018.
In 1999 Professor Bourke was appointed a Professorial Fellow in the Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, and in 2001 he became Adjunct Professor.
Professor Bourke was an outstanding theorist in Aboriginal education and a man of deep integrity.
He took a long view of history, identity and identification, once stating ‘everybody has got a history… you may not know what it is’.
In 1978 he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his efforts in providing leadership and support to Aboriginal welfare.
In 1998 he was appointed Emeritus Professor at the University of South Australia. Monash awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws in 2016.
The Colin and Eleanor Bourke Indigenous Postgraduate Scholarship honours Professor Bourke’s dedication to Monash University’s human rights initiatives, and that of his wife, Wergaia/Wamba Wamba Elder Professor Eleanor Bourke.
The scholarship supports the ongoing education of Indigenous students undertaking a postgraduate coursework degree.
The Monash University community acknowledges with deep gratitude the life and work of Professor Bourke, and offers its sincere sympathy to his wife and extended family for their great loss.
Eulogy for Colin Bourke 15 Sept 1936 – 10 Feb 2021
Colin Bourke was born in Sunshine, on Sept 15 1936. His father was Hugh Sidney ‘Sid’ Bourke and his mother was Kathleen Scifleet. In their early years Colin’s parents were itinerant agricultural and factory workers in NSW and Vic. His dad attended school to grade 3 and his mum to prep only.
Colin’s ancestor, John Bourke, arrived in Australia from Ireland in the 1850s via Norfolk Island, Tasmania, and the Bellarine Peninsula.
Colin loved his parents. He was very proud to be Gamilaroi and remembers his grandmother well. His grandmother lived for a time in a wagon out of Yenda in southern NSW where many Aboriginal camped at the time. His Gamilaroi family are the McGowans and Weatheralls.
Colin attended Sacred Heart Catholic primary school at Yarrawonga and was taught by nuns. His favourite teacher, Sister Camilus told him, on a final visit to her sickbed that she had expected him to do well.
Colin was a good footballer.. He played for Geelong in the Seconds, whilst at Geelong Teacher’s College. As a country schoolteacher he played in local leagues, for teams in Wangaratta, Myrtleford and Thornton to name a few.
Decades later people recall Colin’s impressive football skills and that he had a tremendous leap in his repertoire. He received a Teachers College blue for athletics and gold for football. In one trial game against Footscray, he recalled seeing Ted Whitten about to come into possession and so Colin lined him up. Before he knew it, he was flat on his back and Ted had the ball and was gone.
Colin completed his 2 year Primary School Teacher’s Certificate at Geelong Teacher’s College in 1957. In those days, graduates were billeted to families in the small rural towns. Colin was hosted by a Chesthunt farmer in the King Valley, Frank Lamson of Anglo-Chinese ancestry who had kids about the same age as Colin. It was there that he met and married his first wife, Valerie Lamson.
The family moved about from one school and town to another over the following decade. Not necessarily in chronological order there was Rubicon, Murrayville, Wangaratta, Alexandra, Coimadai, Tooborac, Baddagginie, Whittlesea, Broadford and Bacchus Marsh.
Colin mostly worked in small schools and at age 26 was the youngest school principal in the Education Department’s history. Colin's schools were able to win annual athletics competitions.
In 1957 he was conscripted into National Service and underwent training at Puckapunyal. Here Colin learned to drive the Ferret Scout car which could travel 60mph, forward or reverse. For at least one summer, he was a tour boat captain on Lake Eildon. He sold World Book Encyclopedias door to door in Melbourne in the early 1970’s and was recognised with the most individual sales in Australasia in one particular year.
Early teaching
Rubicon Junction 1962
Colin led a stellar academic and professional career in his chosen fields. He was the first Aboriginal person in Victoria to graduate with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, in 1974 from Melbourne University. He would finish his teaching work at school in Whittlesea and drive to Melbourne for night lectures. Initially, he was denied entry to the University because his high school grades were not good enough, even though he had been a qualified primary school teacher for a decade. So he redid the matriculation prerequisites for entry.
Colin completed a Bachelor of Education in 1976 at Melbourne University and became the first Aboriginal Director of The Centre for Research into Aboriginal Affairs at Monash University in 1977. Monash was a progressive institution with the Centre being established in 1967. In 1978 he and co-authors Colin Johnson and Isobel White, wrote a Primary School text, Before the Invasion. It was a first to bring the science and culture of everyday Aboriginal life into the classroom.
Colin was invited onto the Aboriginal Consultative Group to the Commonwealth Schools Commission in 1975. It provided a succinct report on Education for Aborigines. After which he became set about establishing the Victorian Aboriginal Education Consultative Group in Victoria, and became the first Victorian representative on the National Aboriginal Education Committee (NAEC). He was awarded an MBE in 1978 for services to Aboriginal education.
Colin made a career change from Education at Monash to the Commonwealth Public Service in Canberra where he became the first General Manager of the Aboriginal Development Commission (ADC) in 1981. In the mid-1980’s he was an Assistant Secretary in the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA) in Canberra.
In 1986 Colin was a Study Group Leader for the Duke of Edinburgh Sixth Commonwealth Study Conference. This Commonwealth program involved participants from Commonwealth countries who in smaller groups visited different towns in Australia or India. The theme being: Managing Change in an Industrial Society. He led his group to south west New South Wales visiting Broken Hill and surrounds.
In 1987 he worked at the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies as Deputy Principal. This research organisation holds the largest collection of Aboriginal ethnographic material in the world.
Colin completed a Masters of Education at the Canberra College of Advanced Education in 1987. He later completed a Law Degree at Adelaide University whilst working at the University of South Australia also.
Colin was among the country’s leadership on Aboriginal education and employment by the late 1980’s. In Canberra the family met many current and emerging Aboriginal leaders. Colin, Eleanor and Flo Grant established the ACT Koorie Club, which ran a great social calendar during NAIDOC
When the West Indies toured Australia in 1984 they played the Prime Ministers XI in Canberra. The Koorie Club hosted a reception at the National Press Club for the team and was a resounding success.
In 1988 Colin and Eleanor moved to Adelaide for Colin to take up the position as Head of the School of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Administration. Known as the Aboriginal Task force it offered certificate, diploma and degree levels to prepare Aboriginal people to take up roles in community organisations, administration and leadership.
In 1991 he was appointed Australia’s first Aboriginal Professor and Faculty Dean when he led the Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies at the University of South Australia.
Colin, along with others built the foundations for Aboriginal higher education in Australia! Looking back in the 1990s, he described the education and advancement of Aboriginal people since colonisation in 1788, in waves. The first wave included people like William ‘Bill’ Ferguson and William Cooper who led our community early on but without a formal education. The second wave was a very small group and included people with accidental education such as Margaret Williams Weir, Charles Perkins and Colin.
The third wave included those people who received education in at least some attempt from a supportive government to set things in the right direction. This was now a much larger group. The fourth wave is now, in the main, supported, educated and influenced by Aboriginal people.
Colin with support from a mathematician colleague among many others, created in Adelaide a summer school for the brightest Aboriginal high school students from across the Australia.
Aboriginal Summer School for Excellence in Science and Technology (ASSETS) began in 1991 at Scotch College but then moved to Prince Alfred College. A first of its kind, the school ran for two weeks and combined important cultural, academic and recreational activities. The students were introduced to public speaking and the new technology. Colin lobbied IBM and QANTAS to sponsor the program by providing the equipment and to fly the students to Adelaide from around Australia.
Dr Olga Gostin, a senior staff member paying tribute to Colin wrote that “tens of hundreds of students, mostly Indigenous, completed their tertiary education and have gone on to productive, sometimes brilliant, careers in various fields throughout Australia. We see them on national news, on NITV ,and they shine during NAIDOC week…
It was in the 90s also that Open Learning education was launched in Australia. Aboriginal Studies was on the agenda. The ABC was the broadcaster and a relationship between Faculty staff and the ABC was developed very quickly to form the basis of the program. Filming needed to start quickly. The scripts were being drafted as the filming was underway. The scripts became the chapters of the book Aboriginal Australia: An introductory reader: University of Queensland
Colin and Eleanor travelled overseas together several times in the 1990’s. They attended Australian studies/Aboriginal studies conferences at Harvard University and University College Dublin and linking up with Universities that offered indigenous programs, such as the University of Northern Arizona and the University of Hilo, Hawaii.
In the late 1990’s Colin started researching the Bourke family ancestry. He tracked down living family in Rathkeale in county Limerick. He visited with Eleanor and met family, making strong connections. Some of the Irish Bourkes later visited him. Since then, other family members have visited Ireland.
Colin began planning to buy a farm in Western Victoria after he turned 60. He completed a lot of research and preparation into this. He purchased 'Hughleigh' at Dadswells Bridge in 1997 and moved in during the following year.
He bought a property, added more land, and stocked it with sheep from Burra SA. Led by his concern for the environment, Colin planted thousands of eucalypts on the property. He became involved in the local Dadswells Bridge progress association, and was instrumental in getting the Dadswells Bridge walking track established.
He returned to Monash University in the 2000s, taking on key committee and consultative roles once again. He returned to the now Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies at Monash as Adjunct Professor, served two terms on Monash University Council, and received on Honorary Doctorate of Laws from in 2016.
Dadswells Bridge
Honarary Doctor of law
Colin, with Eleanor, enjoyed work in Aboriginal education and Research. They were committed to lifelong learning and study, took a close interest in their childrens’ study and progress, and then later, in their grandchildren.
Colin and Eleanor bought the Mt Noorat Hotel in 2009. Colin easily settled into his new role as a publican. He had a new system and taps installed at the bar, and the pub enjoyed somewhat of a renaissance with the locals. The hours were long and tiring for a man in his 70s.
Colin lived the last years of his life at Lismore, quite happily settled. He would walk to the shops, walk the dog, visit local eateries. He had a terrific 80th Birthday at the Lismore hotel in 2016 with many family from across Australia coming for the event. He would also still travel to visit family interstate, for birthdays and weddings.
Colin was a true visionary in some ways yet, for much of his life he lived in the country. He read the Weekly Times rural newspaper even when we lived in the city. He loved, but not necessarily in this order, Cadbury Old Jamaica chocolate, Earl Grey Tea and any biscuit, corned beef with boiled vegetables and mustard sauce, a cold Fosters, a good curry, ice cream and of course Collingwood.
He liked Irish comedian Dave Allen, Fawlty Towers, Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister and the Inspector Morse TV series. In football, his admiration of good players transcended fan loyalty.
He was diagnosed with Myeloma two years ago. Unluckily for Colin it transformed into an acute leukaemia at Christmas time. He wanted more treatment, being the eternal optimist that he was. But in the end sadly, he was not strong enough to beat some of the problems which arose over the last few weeks.
When Colin’s youngest son Matthew shared the sad news of Colin’s passing recently with one of his former work colleagues she described him as golden.
…his legacy and leadership lives on in the love, respect ongoing struggle for justice by his erstwhile colleagues and students (Dr Olga Gostin).
Colin is survived by Eleanor, his sisters Pat and Imelda; children Christopher, Richard, Matthew and Annmaree; and stepdaughters Sia and Kelly.
This obituary draws on Matthew Bourke’s eulogy and has been supplemented by Eleanor Bourke.
24 February, 2021
Noorat publican
