Our national higher education webinar co-hosted by MindTribes and Watermark Search International was a success. With around 85 registered attendees spanning universities, research institutions, and the broader sector, the session was a genuine and generous exchange between senior leaders, operational practitioners, and researchers.
Below is a snapshot of the key themes and insights from the conversation.
Setting the Scene: A Sector at a Crossroads
Dani White, Partner at Watermark Search International, opened with early findings from Watermark's 12th Annual Board Diversity Index, produced in partnership with Deloitte and the AICD, ahead of its official release on 10 June. While progress on gender diversity has continued, with more ASX 300 boards now exceeding 30% women directors, the picture on cultural diversity is far more concerning. Representation of directors from non-Anglo-Celtic backgrounds has declined from last year. The Index makes clear that these outcomes are not simply board-level failures. They are the result of long-term pipeline effects, and universities play a critical role in shaping who progresses into executive and governance roles.
Div Pillay, CEO of MindTribes, framed the session around the surge of inquiry MindTribes has received since the Australian Human Rights Commission's Racism@Uni report was released, with its 47 recommendations, 28 of which are directed at universities. The MindTribes Anti-Racism Framework (please click here to download) anchored the conversation across four phases: Acknowledge, Understand, Respond, and Prevent.
Fireside Chat: Senior Leadership Perspectives
Alec Cameron, Vice Chancellor, RMIT University, and Michael Donovan, Pro Vice Chancellor (Indigenous), La Trobe University
Being visible and vocal is an anti-racist action in itself.
Alec Cameron spoke candidly about his own journey and increasing awareness and understanding of racism by having direct conversations with staff and students who had experienced racism, combined with evidence from the Australian Human Rights Commission report. His message to other Vice Chancellors was clear: stop waiting for more evidence and get on the “front foot”. MindTribes concurs with this senior leader perspective – the more leaders are vocal and visible, the more dialogues on acknowledging and seeking to understand racism improves. Alec described his role as creating an "authorising environment", empowering people with expertise to lead without interference or second-guessing from above. “Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
Michael Donovan reinforced this through La Trobe's long-term commitment to cultural safety, rooted in its Indigenous strategy developed with community. He referenced the AHRC’s finding that whilst, “81% of Aboriginal people talking about being affected by racism every day, only 6% of that population did make any complaints about it.” He emphasised that anti-racism cannot be a one-off exercise. “There is no greater weighted form of discrimination”. It requires continuous reflection, genuine engagement with affected communities, and sustained institutional commitment.
Key takeaways for VC and senior executive leaders:
Get comfortable with being visible and vocal about antiracism work - at a senior level, this in itself is an anti-racist action. It signals to staff that the work has real authority behind it.
The most powerful thing a VC can do is appoint people with expertise and empower them to act, without becoming a roadblock or managing optics at the expense of progress.
An anti-racism strategy is inclusive of everyone who experiences racism. Do not create a hierarchy of discriminations. Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Do not wait for more anecdotes or data. Having a senior leader genuinely listen and express accountability is cathartic for those who have been harmed, and is a prerequisite for trust.
Panel Discussion: Operational Leaders on Implementation
Tara Waller, Director, Employee Experience and Capability, RMIT
Sashi Nair, Senior Advisor Anti-Racism, University of Melbourne
Dr Alanna Kamp, Senior Lecturer and Researcher, Western Sydney University
Understanding and navigating resistance.
The panel moved from senior leadership sponsorship to the practical realities of implementation. A consistent theme was that resistance to anti-racism work is real, but is often not addressed in change implementation.
Key takeaways for operational leaders:
Understand where the resistance is coming from. Identify it before trying to dismantle it. Most people who push back have never had racism named for them or felt its impact. Meet them where they are, not where you think they should be.
Use stakeholder relationships to reduce resistance. Tara Waller, noted that, “the backlash intensifies when people feel shamed or judged. Use trusted relationships and allies to open honest conversations. Courageous conversations about race works best when people feel safe enough to say, "I've got no idea, I've never seen it, I don't know what to do." This signals a way to bring people with us.
Phase the work. Sashi Nair shared how the University of Melbourne's Anti-Racism Action Plan was governed through a steering group that became the ongoing implementation working group, reporting to the DEI Subcommittee of the University Executive. “A challenge of our work has been to make it clear that racism is about more than just a handful of racist individuals.” Governance structures sustain momentum when individual champions move on.
Move from interpersonal to systemic. The key maturity shift is moving from addressing interpersonal racism to interrogating the systems, processes, and policies that perpetuate it. RMIT applied racial equity impact assessments across academic promotion, succession management, and high-potential programs.
Racism as a psychosocial hazard. Dr Alanna Kamp, brought two decades of research on racism experiences, community attitudes, and anti-racism interventions across sectors. Her contribution reframed how we think about who is affected, what resistance looks like, and why narrative change matters. “There is the denial, the doubt, the downplaying of the very existence of racism. We know through our research that there are demographics who are more likely to deny the existence of racism.”
Representation cannot wait. We cannot be anti-racist institutions without lived experience at decision-making levels. Apply racial equity lenses to talent pipelines now. And when appointing people from marginalised backgrounds, ensure they are set up to thrive, not placed in culturally unsafe "first and only" roles without sustained support.
The MindTribes Anti-Racism Framework
The MindTribes Anti-Racism Framework provided a shared language throughout the session, centred on intersectionality and addressing racism at interpersonal, institutional, and systemic levels across four phases.
Acknowledge. Name racism explicitly. Create conditions for honest conversation and build the foundation of racial literacy.
Understand. Develop deep understanding of how racism operates across all levels. Use evidence and lived experience.
Respond. Implement targeted actions. Apply racial equity impact assessments to processes, policies, and systems and behaviours. .
Prevent. Embed anti-racism into governance, culture, and accountability structures so that progress is sustained beyond individual champions and prevents racism from happening in the first place.
Early Insights from Watermark’s Board Diversity Index
Gender gains mask deeper diversity gaps in Australia’s boardrooms.
As gender diversity advances, Australia’s corporate boards are becoming less culturally diverse, raising serious questions about who is missing from boardroom decision making.
Entire communities remain effectively absent from Australia’s biggest boardrooms.
The “average” ASX300 board still looks remarkably the same.
To watch the full recording of the webinar, please see below:
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