A swim in the rough surf: deaf, Aboriginal, and at the biggest school of all

Professor Scott Avery has crafted a beautiful allegory, which compellingly combines narratives of Country (ocean), wisdom of Elders and intersectionality. The cultural vibrance of the story is juxtaposed with a thorough meditation on the risks and (occasional) benefits of representing two diversity 'ticked boxes'. Professor Avery very incisively deploys a football metaphor to characterise his context and tackles head on the question of capacity. He asks challenging questions about who has the right to speak, actively contexts disciplinary approaches that seek to contain and restrain and calls out institutional practices that assume knowledge and decision-making primacy. Professor Avery also pays respect to Elders and to the advocacy which has opened up university spaces to Indigenous people.