Kullilli Traditional Owner, Leading academic, former diplomat, businessman and award winning author and filmmaker Dr Stephen Hagan has recently joined Batchelor Institute as the Senior Lecturer for Creative Industries. Dr Hagan has made the move from Brisbane to Darwin and will be working across Batchelor Institute’s wide range of creative industries VET courses including visual arts and media.
“If I can inspire students I come in contact with at Batchelor Institute to view success for our people, of gaining a trade certificate or graduating with a higher education diploma or degree as normal – as opposed to exceptional – I will be happy,” said Dr Hagan.
“Because then they too can, in their new vocational pathway, pass on those strong positive messages to their children, family and friends.”
Dr Hagan brings with him years of experience as a researcher, media professional and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activist. His documentary Nigger Lovers follows Dr Hagan’s fight for the removal of an offensive sign at a Toowoomba sports ground, which led him to getting a 2003 ruling from the United Nations that agreed the offensive name should be changed. It is a story of enormous determination and persistence in the face of numerous challenges.
He completed his doctorate this year, which explored judicial bias against Indigenous Australians. His studies came to the conclusion that harsher sentences can be given due to a lack of judges’ lived experiences and the lack of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders in the higher levels of the justice system. He has also worked as an editor and currently manages the Supply Nation Certified First Nations Telegraph.
Dr Hagan said that one of the things that drew him to working with Batchelor Institute was the desire to work in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the high representation of Indigenous people in staff.
“I’m very keen on a workforce that has senior Indigenous people working in it and Batchelor Institute ticks all the boxes there.”
“We do have a lot of good qualified Aboriginal people working here and that impresses me. Batchelor Institute has got all the right people”
He looks forward to working with the team in creative industries and sees a lot of opportunities moving forward.
“I think it’s wonderful. I see young Aboriginal males and females from all parts of Australia who are getting involved. For instance, in radio broadcasting I met this young lady studying media who is from the Kimberley, who runs her own radio show and does the administration. You see people wanting to enhance their skills, give knowledge back to their community, better themselves and provide better resources for their media stations”
“We’ve got excellent lecturers here. The lecturing staff is first rate. Some of these teachers have had 20 to 30 years experience in senior media positions, so we are quite lucky to have them”