Reckoning with Macquarie's Legacy

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following article contains content that may cause distress.

Macquarie University, like many places and institutions across Australia, takes its name from the fifth governor of NSW, Lachlan Macquarie.

Recent debates around the colonial place-names and the legacy they represent, have brought forward calls to reframe the way Australian colonial history is remembered and taught.

Reflecting on the name Macquarie and what his legacy echoes in higher education has, in recent years, sparked some long overdue conversations around the truth of Macquarie’s governorship.

Lachlan Macquarie was born in Scotland and died in England, in fact, he spent only 12 years of his life living in Australia.

So why is his name so thoroughly embedded throughout Australian landmarks, suburbs and institutions?

Why is his grave in Scotland inscribed with the phrase “The Father of Australia”?

Popular narratives of Macquarie’s leadership position him as a humanitarian with a strong moral conscience and a strong desire for equality. Macquarie is remembered for many achievements during his time as governor, including the formal adoption of the name “Australia”, the establishment of the colony’s first bank, and making significant improvements to Australia’s transport and government infrastructures.

However, like much of Australia’s colonial narrative, the memory of Lachlan Macquarie’s leadership conveniently falls silent on matters regarding his treatment of First Nations people in Australia.

In a recent interview with Emeritus Professor Richard Howitt, or Richie as he prefers to be called, he noted that "nobody who was involved with the establishment of the university proposed that name. The name came from the State Government of New South Wales… so it was originally supposed to be the University of North Sydney or something along those lines, and the government named it against the wishes of the interim council”.

“Macquarie probably has more names on the map than almost any other figure in Australian history, he put many of those names there himself. So he was an arrogant prat, whatever else he was he was an arrogant prat.” Richard Howitt

Howitt, who is non-Indigenous, was appointed to Macquarie in 1992 and  his work focuses on Indigenous rights and the interface between Indigenous communities, natural resource development, governments and corporations, the community, the landscape and the nation .

When asked about Macquarie University's attitude towards the legacy of Macquarie's name, Howitt said "it was worsened in the graduation speech when our chancellor extolled the virtues of Lachlan Macquarie as Australia’s greatest colonial administrator. Whose lasting contribution to Australia was to remove the consequences of class in lots of ways. So that there was no distinction between the free and the freed, as he put it.”

“I can’t disentangle [those contributions] from the actions of a genocidal autocrat who exercised power in a way that was directed against Aboriginal people, against Dharug people, in the most violent way." Richard Howitt

Some people in the community have voiced the preference for the name to be changed, including University of New South Wales' Associate Professor and artist Tess Allas, said in an interview with the  Sydney Morning Herald  "I'd love to see it renamed, I'd love to see Macquarie Street renamed. I'd love to see the Lachlan River, Macquarie Fields, Port Macquarie, Macquarie Harbour, Macquarie Rivulet, Macquarie Pass, the Macquarie Bank, etc., etc., etc., renamed."

However others believe the path towards meaningful engagement with Macquarie's legacy requires more than the changing of a name.

"It privileges the coloniser with the same invisibility cloak that created settler privilege and risks absolving contemporary multicultural Australia from an obligation to recognise, respect and respond to the claims, experience and knowledge of Indigenous Australians"  ^{Holt, Locke & Howitt .1} 

In 2016, Macquarie University launched a 10-year Indigenous Strategy. In 2020, a NameSake Working Group, which included Indigenous staff, non-Indigenous academics and representatives of the Dharug communities, was established by the Vice-Chancellor to explore how to respond to challenges related to its namesake’s legacy.  The working group proposed these recommendations:

• renaming its northern Sydney campus to reflect the Dharug Nura it is located on;
• naming Macquarie University Library using Dharug language to be negotiated with Dharug representatives, or an appropriate Aboriginal person;
• reframing graduation and other ceremonial speeches referring to Lachlan Macquarie to clearly address the true histories, past, and current impacts of his legacy;
• delivering a compulsory learning module for all students that will include truth telling relating to the Macquarie namesake;
• working towards an environment without racism, the value of respect, reciprocity, and relationships from an Aboriginal perspective;
• investing in a research centre that reimagines a new future that privileges truth telling; respects and acknowledges the past journeys of Aboriginal peoples and their interactions with the colonisers; celebrates the contributions of the many past and current Aboriginal scholars, activists, and leaders; and empowers future generations to be proud of their place as the First Nations People of this country;
• allocating financial resources for a major annual Aboriginal scholarship fund that would acknowledge the 14 recognised deaths in the Appin Massacre under the instruction of Lachlan Macquarie; and
• promoting Aboriginal languages and cultures at the University.  ¹ 

In 2022, the University renamed its main campus in Macquarie Park to Wallumattagal Campus, recognising the Traditional Custodians of the land on which the University is situated, the Wallumattagal Clan of the Dharug Nation.

As an institution, Macquarie University has begun to take the necessary steps towards reconciling with it's namesake's legacy. Whilst these preliminary steps are being taken, the process of re-learning and remembering Australia's shameful colonial history is only the beginning of a journey towards reconciliation.

Macquarie University is located on Dharug Nura. For more information about the traditional owners of the land, see link below.