Indigenous Professor Stan Grant Is Angry (Again)

Indigenous Journalist and Professor Stan Grant is angry (again), or perhaps ‘still’. This time over the results of the Voice Referendum. “‘Evil’: Stan Grant breaks silence on failed Voice to Parliament referendum.” In a speech delivered at the Australian National University on Monday, he criticised No voters for inflicting pain on Indigenous people and the Australian psyche. But before we get to that, just a quick backstory. I grew up with Stan Grant on my television screen. I didn’t think of him as Indigenous or non-Indigenous. I just thought of him as the news reporter guy. Around 2017, he started writing articles for the ABC, which for the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed. He certainly has a way with words.

In this first article about Ken Wyatt from 2017, Australia’s first Indigenous minister, he asks the question, should being Indigenous really matter? And he basically answers, no it shouldn’t. He said, “What I did not want to ask is how he felt about being the first Indigenous anything. Mr Wyatt is a federal Minister — he is there to be held accountable. He is there to represent all Australians.” And I think that’s a really moderate and valid statement.

In his article about Australia Day from 2019, he argues that Australia Day should be a time for hope, not resentment, and argues that the world is torn apart by conflicts fuelled by toxic resentment of past injustices. Again, I think this was a very moderate view.

But by the early 2020s, or so, I found his views getting more and more divisive, more and more extreme. For example, in March 2022, a pro-Russian audience member on the Q+A program dared to take an opposing view on the Ukraine-Russian conflict, and then Stan Grant famously (or infamously) asked him to leave the studio. Apparently in democratic Australia, you can’t hold a view that’s contrary to the majority opinion, and if you do, Stan Grant will kick you off his show.

In August 2023, Grant announced that he would be resigning from the ABC due to “grotesque racist abuse”. He now works at Charles Sturt University as the Vice Chancellor's Chair of Indigenous Belonging, and at Monash University as the Director of the Constructive Institute.

Now that he has a sweet new gig at Monash university, he should be happy right? Well, no.

Have you ever noticed of late that he always refers to “my people”, as if we’re not all the same people? Aren’t we all Australians? Aren’t we all part of the human race? But yet, he acts like his people are somehow different from our people. Indigenous vs Non-Indigenous. It’s very divisive language, and not the language I remember him using just a few short years ago.

“It is hard to think of Australia as a place of evil, there is just so much sunshine, smiling faces and wide open spaces – but evil has happened here. What else should we call it? People beheaded, flour poisoned, frontier raiding parties. That it happened in our past, does that make the evil any less? My historical wounds are Australian… the evil is known to us – the First People of this country – and this may be our curse, to see an Australia others don’t see and have no words to convince others it is real.”

He then went on to say the most honest thing I’ve heard during this entire campaign, “The Voice was never a modest ask, it was monumental, perhaps this was the opportunity lost by the yes campaign, to not let the Voice truly speak.” If you remember, the Prime Minister (and everyone else in the Yes campaign), were saying it was just a modest request. They were obviously lying to us. Luckily, the people of Australia saw through it. Grant continues, “Instead it was shushed… shrunk small enough to fit into politics. In the consultants’ suites and the lawyers’ dens, it was determined that if the Voice was made so inoffensive people may say yes – instead it was so inoffensive people found it so easy to say no.”

Basically, not only is he angry with No voters, he also condemned the actions of the Yes campaigners, arguing that they turned the Voice into a “lecture about unity”.

Stan Grant is angry, and I think he is having trouble finding peace in this world.

STAN GRANT REFLECTS ON FUTURE OF RECONCILIATION AFTER VOICE TO PARLIAMENT RESULT IN ANU ADDRESS
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-31/stan-grant-keynote-speech-anu-voice/103042468

Q+A HOST STAN GRANT ASKS PRO-RUSSIAN AUDIENCE MEMBER TO LEAVE THE STUDIO AFTER UKRAINE CLAIM
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-03/stan-grant-tells-audience-member-to-leave-qanda/100880520

AUSTRALIA DAY CAN BE A TIME FOR HOPE, NOT RESENTMENT
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-26/stan-grant-on-australia-day/10747000

BEYOND THE FACT OF OUR HERITAGE AND IDENTITY SHOULD BEING INDIGENOUS REALLY MATTER?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-19/stan-grant-heritage-aside-should-being-indigenous-really-matter/8195420

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn