Research Fellow advances reconciliation and environmental awareness

Prominent humanitarian author Jesse Fleay has been appointed Research Fellow with Federation's National Centre for Reconciliation, Truth and Justice. A researcher on the 2023-2024 Roads to Reconciliation — Activating Multicultural Victoria project, which engages multicultural communities in reconciliation, he will begin the new five-year position with the National Centre in January.

Currently based in Western Australia, Mr Fleay will relocate to Victoria after working remotely on home country in Western Australia.

Mr Fleay says he has engaged with a research team around constitutional change and is committed to exploring regional and national understandings and engagements regarding reconciliation, truth, and justice across industry, academic and community settings. He was also recently appointed as a delegate to the United Nations Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7) and was a signatory co-author to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017.

He says he is passionate about doing research in regional communities and for the health and wellbeing of males.

"I'm excited about my new role within the National Centre for Reconciliation, Truth and Justice, working with Professor Andrew Gunstone and being a part of a team of academics who are all on country in Queensland, WA and also Victoria."

"I have travelled to regional communities and worked with Aboriginal people in northern Queensland, in the Gulf, Darwin, and regional WA." 

Professor Gunstone, Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor Reconciliation, says the appointment boosts the National Centre’s role as Australia’s leading academic think-tank on reconciliation.

“This strengthens the National Centre’s capacity to lead national and regional transformational changes in reconciliation, truth, and justice across industry, community, and academia settings,” he said.

“I am absolutely delighted to appoint Jesse to this important new position in the National Centre. Jesse has been an outstanding member of our multicultural engagement project, and I am looking forward to seeing him continue his transformational work”.

Mr Fleay’s says his appointment as a delegate to the United Nations Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7) will allow him to do the work he has always dreamed of doing.

The worldwide network of authors, fellows and partners is a collaboration to independently assess environmental conditions, evaluate policy effectiveness, and identify pathways to meet international environmental goals. It is the United Nations Environmental Programmes' (UNEP) flagship intergovernmental and expert-led environmental assessment.

His focus in the GEO-7 is a policy document focusing on Indigenous languages and local knowledge. It's an opportunity to put his work in reconciliation on the global stage.  

"Not just Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but also farmers and pastoralists who have local knowledge and methods to combat climate change and knowledge of areas which we believe can help form a better partnership and solution internationally," Mr Fleay said. "It's about having more regional-based approaches to climate, farming and agriculture." 

"This is something that I'm excited to take on and something that I've always dreamed of doing. You don't normally get to do a degree in international relations and expect to get into the field." 

Mr Fleay says work to combat global climate and social issues is particularly crucial amid the uncertainty and tensions in many parts of the world.

Earlier this year, he co-hosted the Global Citizen NOW summit with the Duchess of York, Julia Gillard and Hugh Jackman. The platform aims to end poverty, combat, fight climate change and support social justice. His contributions included how Australia moves forward after the Indigenous Voice referendum and how the country can approach reconciliation from an international perspective.

He was a signatory co-author to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017, which was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in 2021. At Federation, he leads national and regional transformational changes alongside a team of First Nations scholars. 

Since the Voice Referendum, Mr Fleay has reconnected with multiple networks where he is actively involved, including Reconciliation Australia, Australian Fabians, the Australian Republic Movement, and various multicultural communities.

He is passionate about constitutional change and has developed a model for a republic where Indigenous culture and ideas have a greater role – something he says all Australians can value, celebrate, and support in the Constitution.

"It's a directly elected model, focusing on land, peoples and cultures, and looking at a way to make sure that we care for the country that we all share and make sure that its limited resources are sustainable long into the future," Mr Fleay said.

"I feel like if we're going to replace the Crown with something else in the Constitution, surely it should be something that we can all celebrate and value but it doesn't diminish Indigenous culture going forward.

"So it's all about inclusion and making sure that we have a system that caters to everyone's needs. No rational person could deny that we need to take care of the country that looks after us."

He says it is important to ensure that everyone's voice is heard. 

"I'm really all about hearing the voices of dissent and listening to people and not trying to cut people out of the dialogue. Going forward, we need to make sure everyone's voice is heard, especially if we're going to make our case. We need the evidence of our case strengthened by having healthy debate."

"Shutting people out is probably causing more damage than people realise. I want to learn from other people and their perspectives, and maybe that helps me improve my perspective. Maybe they can learn something from me as well.”

Completing his degree in politics and international relations and later his master's at Edith Cowan University, he recently completed his PhD at Notre Dame in Fremantle. He has lectured in philosophy, social sciences and humanities at both institutions.

He will also use his role in the GEO7 to put Australia's case forward at the international level, including in Thailand where he will present at a face-to-face caucus with other delegates in January. He says recent global events amplified why Australia needs to get serious about sovereignty. 

"It's almost not even about the monarchy. It's about where we're headed in the future. The whole global order's changing now, especially with the outcome of the US election," he said.

"Things that we used to think were traditional or were a given are no longer that, and we need to make sure that our place at the international table is really strong and that our sovereignty and democracy do matter.

"If we don't maturely head into this debate about a Republic and about our sovereignty and about our Constitution — our nation's healing — then we're going to end up doing it on the whim of others and other countries making decisions.

"I don't think we can afford to do that anymore, especially in our region — we need to be a strong democracy in a very volatile Asia Pacific."