Adrian Appo OAM

What a wonderful night. I actually came into Sydney today and I thought, if I was going to gradate on any day, this is the sort of day I’d want to graduate on. And it’s probably fairly significant, because I didn’t actually attend my own graduation, and I’ll tell you a little bit about that in my speech. The first thing, though, as an Indigenous Australian, is I’d like to do an acknowledgement to Country. In fact, it’s not only I’d like to do it, it’s as an Aboriginal person, I have to do it. But before I do that, I’d like to explain a little bit about what acknowledgement to Country is. And an acknowledgement to Country, I actually heard the Pro-Chancellor do one earlier, but an acknowledgement to Country is virtually us paying respect to the people on whose land we’re standing. And in the simplest form, it’s like someone coming to your house and you knock on the door before you actually enter, and that’s what I’d like to do on my behalf or on your behalf. 

So, as a Gureng Gureng man from southeast Queensland, I pay my respects to the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. I pay respect to Elders past and present because it’s on the platform of their works that we stand here today. And why do we actually pay respects? Because this is Aboriginal land. It always was, and it always will be. To the university, I thank you for inviting me back and giving me the opportunity to be a part of this ceremony. To you, the graduates and the families, my congratulations. And it is to the graduates to the families, because we know that when we’re studying, it’s never a lone journey. There’s families and friends to get us through the long nights, the stresses of assignments and exams and papers that we have to actually get forward. And so, the significance of what family and that support network brings to us is as much you are graduating – it’s their achievement as well. So, congratulations to graduates and the support networks that are here in numbers. 

I’ve never considered myself any sort of academic, and so if people actually ask me to describe myself, I really talk about myself as being   a practitioner, and I would say the practical sense of me is how I apply the trainings and the learnings that I’ve actually picked up along the way. But there are significant events that shape your life, and kind of point you in directions or pull you up, and some of those significant events for me is like meeting my wife of 35 years, Robin, marrying, the births of our kids and our grandkids, but also there’s the sorrows of deaths within families. But one of those significant events for me was UTS, and UTS was significant, not because it’s – well, it is a significant university; in fact, but I could not lay claim to say it’s the most prestigious university that I’ve actually been to. I was actually fortunate enough to actually study with 150 other not-for-profit CEOs at Harvard, and I don’t think anyone would, you know, lay claim to say that that’s not a prestigious university. The special part of UTS for me, though, is that it was the first university. 

When I walked in these doors in, I think it was 1993, I was a country boy from Queensland, and if anyone you see me out generally, it’s not normally the suit – I’m more comfortable in a t-shirt and jeans, and that’s kind of where I conduct most of my meetings and that. And so, when I actually came to the university, it was my first experience with a university. In fact, it was one of nearly my first of my family’s experiences with any of us going to university. And it was [inaudible] based on the fact that no one had actually ever said to me that university was an option. And so, in 1993, as I hopped off at Central Station and walked over to the university buildings – in fact, I didn’t even know where the buildings were; I just followed this crew of young people that actually had bags that looked like they were students. In 1995, the boy from the bush graduated and I know a few of you are probably doing the maths there – yes, 93 I went in, and I graduated in 95. I was in a bit of a hurry. It was about that same time that I found out that Aboriginal male life expectancy was about 50, and I thought, jeez, if I’m going to do something, I’d better do it in a hurry. So, I missed my graduation, because I’d already worked out that I wanted to move into sectors and I wanted to get things done. And so, whilst the graduating ceremony was happening here, I was actually already working in the field. And one of the things I gained from UTS was the recognition of diversity, but also for me, that career and passion did not have to be exclusive to one another. And it’s one of the things that I’d actually say to you guys, that as you graduate now and the excitement of graduation, is that remember that your career and your passion don’t have to be mutually exclusive. And so, I headed off to change the world, and some of it is what you actually heard – so in 95, I’ve busied myself with founding two start-up not-for-profit organisations. I’ve personally been responsible for raising 30 million dollars in the not-for-profit sector for those organisations. I actually sit on the board of five not-for-profits that vary in their purpose from saving the environment to doing economic development. 

Kofi Annan, the seventh Secretary General of the UN, actually said, ‘Education brings equality.’ And this is certainly something that I’ve found with education – so, having a degree not only brought equality, it brought empowerment and it brought opportunity. So, when I sit on those not-for-profit boards or I sit in roundtables that industry or government have actually commissioned, I don’t sit there as the token Aboriginal person. I sit there as an equal to everyone else sitting at the table, and that is what education brings for me. But UTS and the experience of UTS, because some of you will go out and you’ll go into your career modes that you’ve already trained for, or some might be like me – I graduated and never taught a day in the classroom after I walked out of the university. I did two years whilst I was actually training at the university, I did teaching, but once I graduated I never actually worked out. But what I realised is even within that, you have transferability of skills. The endless assignments that we actually did, and I’m sure you guys did them, you did them as well, and wrote papers, is that allowed me to articulate my thoughts, facts and arguments. 

The 30 million dollars that I raised in writing applications, I only ever had two applications that weren’t successful. It taught me about communication, about how to engage people at the level that they operate at, and that you need to be able to communicate to people and the discussions that I would have with a finance corporate CEO would be a different level of conversation than I’ll have with a community person. And what it taught me was to be able to vary my level of communication, and it’s a unique skill to be able to do that, but this is the sort of thing you actually learn by coming to a learning institution, and you apply your skills as you graduate now in your direct fields or in related fields. And a little tip that they actually taught us when I was doing my teacher degree was about if you’re talking to large groups, don’t look at individual people; look over their heads so you don’t get caught and lose your track of thoughts. That’s pretty much been solved for me because my eyesight’s gone now; I have to take my glasses off, so all I really see now is a blur of orange and green in front of me. 

But lastly, what of your journeys? So, you know, you’ve worked hard, and that’s an amazing achievement, and in terms of the notes the university sent me, they said, ‘Say something inspiring’, and I find it difficult because I look at you guys and I said, ‘How can you inspire someone who actually inspires you?’ And as I sat there and watched person after person walk past me as I looked at how much potential now sits in this room, to change any situation that we would face as a country or a world. So, some of you will go on to be captains of industry, some will actually focus in the community sector, like myself. Some may become academics and end up there. But what I can say, what the future lies and I grabbed this from the discussion, and I was fortunate to be at the Barack Obama dinner in Sydney, and when asked about what did he see as the future, and he says, ‘It’s innovation.’ And so, what will be the future? The future is innovation. And the people to bring that future and that innovation is you guys. My advice? Celebrate your success, and I’m sure many of you have got plans to celebrate pretty well tonight. And you should do that, because we don’t celebrate success as well and as often as what we should. Because success is the evidence of achievement, and the success is the evidence for you tonight is what you’ve achieved now, and you should be rightly proud. But success also builds greater aspirations, so as you succeed in one area, you then take that to the next area and your aspiration actually increases. To give you an example, so when I started Ganbina is my aspiration was to actually set up an organisation that would actually create opportunities for Indigenous youth. 

My vision then was that it would be an organisation that would probably need about 3 million dollars over three years, and that when I moved to establishing First Australians Capital, my vision is – and it’s actually in its second year of operation – is that this is an organisation that needs 100-million-dollar corpus to actually work with 100 Aboriginal businesses across Australia every year. And so, the success that you actually achieve then builds the aspiration for bigger successes, so celebrate your successes and have bigger aspirations. And when you walk out of this door, and tomorrow you’re going to start thinking about the challenges of the world and how are you going to take your big aspiration and turn it into a reality, is remember that you’re now one of 200 alumni members in 120 countries. And if they can’t help you, look me up on First Australians Capital and I will. Thank you.