Jack Beetson wins UTS FASS Alumni Award and Chancellor's Award

The 2022 UTS Alumni Awards in September was a night where the UTS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences was immensely proud to celebrate Prof Jack Beetson, Ngemba man and lifelong champion for Aboriginal rights, development and literacy, as the recipient of the faculty's Alumni Award. (See all the 2022 UTS Alumni Award recipients here.)

It was already a night of happy celebration, and then it was revealed that Prof Beetson had been selected by UTS Chancellor Catherine Livingstone as the recipient of the evening's highest honour, the Chancellor's Award for Excellence.

If you don't know Prof Beetson, or Jack, he is one of Australia's great forces of nature and has given decades of his life to action and advocacy to make Indigenous people's lives better. 

(The following is republished with permission - see original source.)

"Professor Jack Beetson has dedicated his life to Aboriginal rights advancement, with a focus on dramatically improving literacy rates for First Nations adults. A proud Ngemba man from Western NSW, Beetson strongly believes ending intergenerational illiteracy in Indigenous communities starts with empowering adults.

To accomplish this mission, Professor Beetson helped found the Literacy for Life Foundation in 2013. As Executive Director, he fights for funding so the Aboriginal-led charity can continue its vital work. Hundreds have graduated from the foundation’s programs – a testament to Beetson’s real-world impact. 

After an interrupted high school experience, Beetson returned to learning at age 28 at Tranby Aboriginal College. His unexpected move into teaching there cemented his belief in education’s power to create opportunities. Beetson would later become the Executive Director of Tranby.

Seeking official teaching qualification, Beetson enrolled at UTS in 1986. He and his classmates fought to ensure they remained owners of their Indigenous cultural work – an effort encouraged by their teachers. This willingness to challenge norms, fostered during his time at UTS, has remained a constant in Beetson’s work.

Spurred by the steadfast belief that learning is a fundamental human right, Beetson has worked tirelessly on a wide range of initiatives and programs since. As a consultant at Beetson & Associates, he’s advised some of the biggest governmental and corporate organisations in the country. He also spent time as a member of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) and was on the UTS University Council.

But Beetson’s influence expands outside Australia. In 1997, he represented the country at UNESCO’s CONFINTEA V conference in Hamburg, helping develop the organisation’s first Indigenous adult education framework. He was honoured with a United Nations Unsung Hero Award in 2001 for Dialogue Among Civilizations – one of 12 winners that year. And in 2019 he was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame."

Jack says:

The key to improving the next generation’s literacy rate is having literate adults to set a good example. It’s about making community-wide changes – taking them from low literacy to ones that value learning. 

Watch Jack's speech the UTS 2022 Alumni Awards:

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This award I think it's very humbling. 

Whatever I do, you never do it for awards. But I think aknowledgement is important when you put your life into a particular area of work, like I have in terms of Human Rights.

It's been a big part of my life so it does mean a lot. 

What I'd like to achieve in the coming years is, I'd love to see the campaign the literacy campaign model that I'm working with rolled out across the country and not just be available to Aboriginal people but to non-aboriginal people as well. Human rights are a funny thing they have no race if your human rights aren't being met or they're being violated it doesn't matter who you are.So I think that's critically important.

I believe that our life is full of defining moments but none of us should be defined by any one moment. 

You get so many knockbacks in your life you know. So many people say no, so many people say we can't afford it, it's not in the budget it's not this, it's not that. My answer to that is we can't afford to do nothing. That's the thing we can least afford is not doing anything.

I'm a great believer that if you're not passionate about something step aside and let someone who is passionate about that do it and go and find something you are passionate about. That's the advice I give my kids today. It's the advice I give any young people. You know if you find something you're passionate about you'll automatically be good at it because you're passionate about it and you'll never work a day in your life.

Watch highlights from the Alumni Awards event:

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Speech by UTS FASS Dean 

Hi Everyone, I’m Prof Alan Davison.

I also pay my respects to the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and to Elders past and present and emerging, and to all traditional custodians of knowledge here tonight.

It is my pleasure to introduce the recipient of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Alumni Award.

Professor Jack Beetson is a proud Ngemba man from Western NSW who given decades of his life in service to Indigenous rights, self-determination, community development, and adult education.

A teacher and lifelong champion for adult education, in 2013 Jack co-founded the Literacy for Life Foundation, an Aboriginal-run charity teaching Aboriginal people to bring literacy to their communities.

LLF’s education program is 100% Indigenous community-lead. Thanks to unstoppable force that is Jack Beetson and his team at the Foundation, who have already rolled it out across thirteen communities, so far the program has already graduated 300 students, over 60% of whom are women.

It was Jack’s own high school experience that showed him what an education experience should not be.

At 28, he gave study another shot, this time at Tranby Aboriginal College.

Around the same time Jack also came to UTS to get a formal teaching qualification. As a UTS student he fought to ensure he and his classmates retained ownership of their Indigenous cultural work, and he served as a member of the UTS Council.

While Jack was studying his UTS degree he was still with Tranby, teaching other Aboriginal adults business studies and Aboriginal cultural studies. Tranby was also where Jack learned how to organise and fight for Indigenous rights.

In the late 1980’s Tranby was the headquarters of the Committee to Defend Black Rights, which brought about the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.

Under the tutelage of other great Indigenous teachers and leaders, Jack would later become Tranby’s Executive Director.

Jack’s approach is community-led, collaborative, innovative, and energising.

Over the years he has worked with Local Aboriginal Land Councils to rebuild their governance; he has facilitated Aboriginal-led economic development initiatives, community consultations to ensure government policy reflected Indigenous perspectives, contributed to Aboriginal Education government task forces and advisory councils, and has provided policy advice to government and corporations across Australia.

Outside of Australia Jack has worked with too many organisations to name but enough so that in 1997 he was selected to represent Australia as part of a UNESCO collaboration to co-develop the world’s first Indigenous adult education framework.

He also contributed to the drafting of United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In 2000, Jack was honoured with a United Nations Unsung Hero Award in 2001 for Dialogue Among Civilizations for his work in Reconciliation.

In 2019 Jack was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame.

And tonight it is my pleasure to present the 2022 UTS Alumni Award for Excellence – Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences to Professor Jack Beetson.

Follow Jack's work at Literacy for Life Foundation