An anonymous party has leaked a racist email sent by University of Melbourne Professor of Law Eric Descheemaeker in August 2023, reigniting scrutiny into the reported institutional racism at the Melbourne Law School (MLS). 

The leaked email from Professor Descheemaeker addresses then-MLS Dean Matthew Harding, the subject line indicating Descheemaeker had been responding to an ‘Indigenous Cultural Safety Review’.

In the email, which was physically posted on notice boards on the Parkville campus and subsequently spread online, Descheemaeker claims that ‘Celebrating the “noble savage” is already the main, if not exclusive, thing [the Melbourne Law School] appears to exist for – with just a bit of space to spare for every possible sexual or gendered minority vying for claims to victimhood.’

‘There is absolutely no end to where the “Blak” activists are meaning to take us – except destruction,’ he writes. He calls Acknowledgements of Country ‘ritual prayers’ and Indigenous claims to land ‘non-existing’. 

‘They want me to teach that Australian law is only “settler law” and that there exists a rich body of “indigenous law” alongside (what are indigenous private-law remedies, I wonder. Ritual spearings?).’

Descheemaeker proceeds to rhetorically question if disagreeing with Professor Marcia Langton would become a ‘sackable offense’.  

‘I certainly no longer feel “culturally safe”, or indeed safe at all, when I walk into our building. It feels like walking into a re-education camp taken over by activists. I am a scholar, a world-class one I believe, and have no desire to be re-educated in my thoughts, beliefs and ways of acting by anyone, let alone these people.’

The email was sent amid the resignation of several First Nations academics from the Law School, which Descheemaeker references by writing, ‘I don’t know who the “indigenous colleagues” who have left are - I have in fact no interest in categorising my colleagues into pure-blood and impure-blood ones, which to an old European like me is reminiscent of things too ugly to speak of’. 

Dr Eddie Cubillo, a prominent legal scholar descended from the Larrakia, Wadjigan and Central Arrernte peoples, resigned from his role as the Law School’s Associate Dean (Indigenous Programs) in 2023. His high profile departure sparked public concerns regarding the Law School’s embedded racism. Speaking to The Guardian at the time, Cubillo describes the MLS as the ‘most culturally unsafe place [he’s] worked’. This year, Cubillo left his position as Director of the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub and is currently Director of The Mabo Centre. 

UMSU Indigenous Office Bearer Noah Kellett has raised the email with the University Executive. 

Law Students for Refugees released an open letter to the Law School and University, condemning Descheemaeker’s comments and requesting his termination. 

‘The students and staff of Melbourne Law School understand the critical importance of academic freedom. However, when a person in a position of power at our University to advocate [sic] for fundamentally racist beliefs with real impacts on our students and staff, the University must intervene,’ reads the letter. 

Eric Descheemaeker’s Comments on Kanak people ‘Colonial propaganda’ and ‘legally indefensible’, says Black People’s Union, Crime Scene Australia and Free Kanaky Solidarity Naarm

Earlier this year, Descheemaeker was condemned for disparaging comments he made while speaking to French radio program Transparence regarding the indigenous Kanak people of French territory Kanaky/New Caledonia. 

Snippets of the French interview have been translated into English, revealing Descheemaeker, who is French, allegedly saying, ‘The French flag is the condition for the survival of the Kanak world … It is we who have allowed them to continue to exist.’ 

Alongside other comments expressing similar attitudes, the interview prompted a joint response by the Black People’s Union, Crime Scene Australia and Free Kanaky Solidarity Naarm.

The response denounces Deschee maeker’s comments as ‘colonial propaganda’ promoting a stance which is ‘historically false, morally repugnant, and legally indefensible.’ They emphasise that Descheemaeker’s sentiments contradict United Nations international law which protects indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination. The response has been signed by various groups and individuals, including U Melb for Palestine, Students Against War, Law Students for Refugees and Red Ant (Unimelb). 

Eric Descheemaeker joined Melbourne Law School in 2017 with degrees from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.