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High Notes, Vol 23 No 21, July 22 2022

From the Principal

High Talent

Congratulations to our Target Rifle Shooting Team. During the holidays they won the Fiona Reynolds Memorial All Schools match.  Jackie Wu (12F) was named King of the Range. The boys also won the Prorak Trophy. In the inaugural David Rose Snap Trophy match, the High team was also successful, with Jackie Wu placed equal first in the contest. This week the team were named GPS Rifle Shooting Champions, winning every competition they contested.

Valè Anthony Hannon (1939-2022)

The Magnolia Chapel at the Macquarie Park Crematorium was filled with High community mourners on Monday for the funeral of a High Legend – Tony Hannon. Great tributes were paid to Tony, who died recently at age 82 after a protracted illness. Luke Mann (SHS-1994) spoke fondly about Tony as a rugby coach and teacher. Con Barris (SHS-1971) delivered a heartfelt and witty eulogy as Tony’s former Head Teacher of History. There was much admiration for Tony as a gentleman and scholar of history, photography and rugby. My eulogy is reprinted below:

"Our wider High community was saddened by the news of the loss of our revered former first grade rugby coach and history teacher, Tony Hannon. As a true legend of High rugby, we all felt that something important to High’s culture and legacy had gone with his passing.

"Tony joined High in 1974, thus beginning a continuous, distinguished and passionate association with High that continued directly for over 40 years and indirectly until his passing. He retired from full time teaching at the end of 2014. He told me that High was in a ‘golden age’ and that he saw a bright future ahead for the school. That was Tony’s way. He wanted to find the positives in life and be optimistic. The school was so much more to him than the rugby program. I remember him fondly for his report comments. They were always insightful, aphoristic, and descriptive of character. More importantly, they were uniformly positive. In his first year with accelerating Year 10 modern history students, he commissioned a class tee shirt with a cartoon character and a ‘Kick in the door’ slogan to inspire the class.

"He told me that his game was tennis and that he had been a skilled and dedicated player in his youth. He loved to talk about sport and history. In my experience, he was one of a kind – accomplished, knowledgeable, humble.

"Tony made an impact in his first season as a rugby coach with the 14s squad in 1974. From 1975 to 1977 he coached the 15s until given the first XV in 1978. The next year, in a curtain raiser at the SCG, High beat King’s two tries to one in front of 33,00 spectators. Tony was appointed Rugby Master in 1980. From then on he was a fixture at High – a name synonymous with hard, running rugby built around disciplined forward play. He was highly respected by his colleagues in the GPS rugby fraternity.

"In my first year at High as principal in 2000, Tony was still there, as keen as ever about the game and a perennial student of its nuances. His video edited game highlights were popular with players at lunchtimes. He spent many hours constructing them. Our only win that year was against Hurlstone Agricultural High School. Tony described the following 2001 season as ‘a lot of fun’ – a word Tony used often in reference to the game. He often exhorted his players to go out there and have fun. The team won five trial games quite convincingly but only held on grimly to beat Grammar in the last game of the GPS season thanks to Simon Manetti’s desperate but self-destructive tackle. That was the first and last game I watched at GPS first grade competition level where we had a win. Tony described this team as ‘fine people, brave, constantly reinventing themselves for the next game…a joy to coach’.

"The 2002 season for the first XV has only the picture of the team in The Record. It was a sad year. After a century thumping by Joeys we had only eight players fit to play. Margaret Gencur, our team doctor, recommended that the next game against King’s should be forfeited, on duty of care grounds. Tony and I felt that we had to follow her expert recommendation and we forfeited the game – a decision occasioning much derision by the press. Not only did that season signal the demise of an era of first grade competitiveness for High in rugby, but also the end of Tony’s long stewardship of High’s first XV teams.

"In succeeding years, Tony coached the 13As, 14As and 15As. He was still a devoted coach who inspired students to play the game, but he no longer wanted to manage the stresses associated with coaching the first XV and getting them prepared psychologically each week. He kept on teaching until the end of 2014. By then he was into his 70s and was suffering some health issues, particularly around maintaining his balance.

"In recent years, Tony kept to himself a lot. Always a private man, he saw out his end game stoically. He left a powerful and positive impression on people and helped forge the character of dozens of cohorts of High boys. He was a man who made a difference. He will be sadly missed.

NAIDOC Week Assembly

This week we held a belated NAIDOC week assembly. My speech is reprinted below:

"Special guest, Jared Smith, staff and students, welcome to our assembly, held on Gadigal land. Our purpose today is to celebrate NAIDOC week retrospectively as it occurred during the holidays (3-10 July). NAIDOC week gets its name from the group responsible for organising the celebration – the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.  It has organised the week of events since 2005.  The day is set aside in the calendar as a national time to reflect upon and celebrate the history, culture and achievements of First Nation Peoples and to recognise them as the Traditional Custodians of the land we share. Its premier celebration is the NAIDOC Week Awards Ceremony which showcases the achievements of First Nations people. This year’s theme is ‘Get up! Stand up! Show up!’ It is a rallying cry for First Nations peoples to get involved in the struggle for political recognition, truth telling and treaty.

"NAIDOC Week arose out of the civil rights movement of indigenous people in the 1930s, culminating in the Day of Mourning held at the Australian Hall in Sydney on January 26, 1938, marking 150 years of white occupation of aboriginal land. Aboriginal people in Australia have struggled for a long time to be recognised and to have their grievances heard respectfully. Their key concerns relate to the absence of closure to the invasion of 1788 by way of a treaty, and to the shameful historical treatment of indigenous people in our national story. 

"Full citizenship and equality of treatment were the pillars of their long campaign. The Day of Mourning was held from 1938 to 1955. It was then moved to the first Sunday in July and recast as a day of remembrance and a celebration of cultural heritage. The second Sunday in July was nominated as a day of remembrance for Aboriginal people and their heritage. In 1975, it was decided that the celebrations should continue for the entire week. In 1991 the celebrations were expanded to include Torres Strait Island people.

"Aboriginal people have had the right to vote in Federal elections since a 1962 Amendment to the Commonwealth Electoral Act. Apart from being counted as citizens for the first time, the main achievement of the 1967 referendum for aboriginal people was to raise their expectations regarding civil rights and welfare. Bringing Them Home: The Stolen children Report was tabled in Parliament in May 1997. It made 54 recommendations, many of which are still awaiting implementation. The Uluru Statement From The Heart (2017) had three objectives: a constitutional change establishing a first nations voice in parliament; a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement making with the Australian Government and Makarrata commission to oversee the process of truth-telling about Australia’s history and colonisation. Progress since 2017 has been slow, despite the efforts of the former Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt and his counterpart in the current Labor Government, Linda Burney. Having a real voice is proving to be a constant challenge for indigenous people. Prime Minister Albanese has pledged support for the Uluru Statement and has promised long-awaited recognition of First Nations voice in national political decision-making.

"We have to ‘Get up! Stand Up! Show up! To address our underlying racism by education, by assemblies such as these, by recurring conversations with aboriginal people, but more tangibly, by finalising the long invasion with a treaty and by public truth-telling about the massacres, the stolen generations and aboriginal deaths in custody. We have avoided seriously confronting our past for too long. In this term of Federal Government something tangible really needs to happen. We need to start living the values that we espouse, not just for the colonisers, but for all people of Australia.

"At High, we have a policy to engage with indigenous culture through our curriculum, our Na Ngara art collection, our 19-year cultural exchange with the Kamilaroi children of Boggabilla Central School and our annual assemblies celebrating Sorry Day or NAIDOC Week. We cannot make a serious claim to being a fair and just society until we have addressed the issues raised so often around voice, treaty and the need to tell the truth about our past. We have to shed our historically paternalistic, if not overtly racist, approach, and adopt a genuine spirit of collaboration, to work together to address the historical recognition and wellbeing issues and legitimate claims of our First Nations citizens. We have a lot to learn from them about managing and maintaining the land sustainably. They have 60,000 years of experience we can draw upon to help us. NAIDOC Week is an important time for us all to reflect upon the issues surrounding the future of our First Nations peoples’.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal