Meeting Details

Meeting Date: 20 Aug 2025
Time: 5:07-5:44PM
Chair: Aleesya Amirizal
Minute-Taker: Saira Afridi
Attendees: Aleesya, Saira, Angel, Aria, Ariq
Apologies:

Acknowledgement of Country

The ANU BIPOC Department acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, and pays respect to their Elders past, present, and emerging.

BIPOC Officer Report

2 major topics to discuss
o Chalk Mural
o White Supremacy Stickers Meeting for Friday

1. BIPOC Chalk mural

   • Meeting with Deputy VC Joan Leech tomorrow 1pm
     o Aleesya and Will Burfoot to attend
     o BIPOC reps welcome – to meeting with Joan - Anenya, Princess

   • ANU not providing consistent reason for chalk mural removal
     o Discriminatory language
     o Wall outside Base is Anu property -
     o Poster policy
     o Unapproved mural – approval required by National Capital Authority

   • Aleesya to tell Joan –
     o diff reasons used by Grady and Joan – lead us to believe the uni will lock onto anything to not have the mural ip
     o Explanation for why reasoning is inconsistent - wasn’t OG deputy VC to make these rules
     o Discrimination hasn’t been brought up since Grady but why has it not been brought up again

   • Also to discuss – permanent mural

   • Aleesya read out another email received from Joan leech

   • Will B has also responded to Joans email

   • ISSUE WITH EMAIL
     o Anu will give a permanent mural if collaborative with exec
     - Issue: will this stifle BIPOC depts free speech and political expression
     o How much of a say will BIPOC have
     - how much will BIPOC students discuss political expression
     o If ANU wants to approve everything what does that process look like

   • Opportunity for permanent mural that was discussed –
     o Who was it discussed with? And when?

   • Aleeysa to ask –
     o National capital authority – is ANU in discussions with them – have they said our past Murals were wrong? How did they determine that our current Mural be removed?

   • Aleeysa went through past emails to see if anything was missed –
     o was it said in person b/c it wasn’t over email

   • Cover our basis what has previously been told/ past correspondence – that could rebut our arguments in that way

   • Going forward we demand – direct communication about all maters about BIPOC base
     o Speak directly with BIPOC department
     o Clear/transparent outline of university process and rationale of removal of the mural

   • If it was the poster policy?
     o Broader discussion needed – ANUSA – impediment to advocacy

   • ANU recommitment to protecting BIPOC students political expression

   • Why haven’t the National capital authority – made comment/responded to other chalk murals all over campus
     o what have they said about other displays?

   • Mention at the meeting
     o the example that socialist have their posters up around campus/near the base – that haven’t been removed or take down?

   
   

2. White supremacy stickers

• Meeting with Bell – Friday 11.30AM
  o At Tjabal Centre
  o ISD, Indigenous Officer and Aleesya to attend
  o VC Bell, Joan and other execs to be in attendance

• Tjbabal centre and Melville hall targeted

• SRC next week – putting forward a motion in regard to this
  o Got an extension for Friday 5pm from Sam –
  o Can change around the motion for SRC depending on what happens at meeting with VC Bell

• Address the rise in white supremacy not just b/c of the upcoming march but also happening in Residences
  o Kids from families with connections to power; universities sweeping incidences under the rug – university doesn’t know how to address it

• Not just stickering – racist incidents happening in other places on campus

• Motion in ANUSA SRC
  o Not be platforming the group/their name but the behaviour
  o Preamble is fine
  o Action items – could be better – feel free to edit

• Aleesya went through action points
  o University wide email from Genevieve Bell**
  o Could ask Felicity head of halls to make the statement
  o Why ANU security failed to notice why someone was putting this up

• More security doesn’t stop the culture of these beliefs that is taking place on campus.

• Behaviour perpetrating white supremacy address this as a core issue

• Going into the meeting with different notes and arguments

• Go in with demands and what is happening with the motions

BIPOC Department – Priority Demands

Strategy

• Present the same unified demands in both meetings (VC + Deputy Provost) → message consistency.
• Leave behind:
o Printed racism reports (2021, 2022, 2023 documentary – can leave behind the pamphlet that is on the kitchen bench in the Base).
o 1-page handout with top 5 priorities → avoids cherry-picking.

1. Implement Racism Report Recommendations

• Reports represent years of research and lived experiences.
• No progress: stickers documented in 2021 are identical to those plastered this week.
• Demands:

o Formal adoption of all recommendations.
o A public accountability statement: what has (and has not) been actioned.
o Recognition that ANU’s duty of care extends to protecting students from external extremist threats, not only internal actors.

2. Protect BIPOC Autonomy & Safe Space (including the Mural)

• Consultation first: no decisions about BIPOC students, spaces, or events without the Department’s input.
• Past actions by leadership (Grady Venville, Joan Leech) show systemic disregard for BIPOC voices.
• ANU must weigh alleged “discomfort” over phrases like From the river to the sea against the real, ongoing safety threats to BIPOC students (neo-Nazi harassment, vandalism).
• Commitment: recognise the BIPOC mural as permanent community artwork, exempt from poster policy.

For over four years, BIPOC students have raised the same issues. Continued racist attacks, mural removals, and unimplemented recommendations show ANU has not treated racism as a serious institutional issue.

We are asking for concrete commitments, not acknowledgements.