Honi Soit: May 3rd 1929 - May 2007
Editorial of the Commemorative Edition, Published October 2006
by Nikolas Kirby and Evan Williams, Editors-in-chief, Commemorative Edition 2006
This year Honi Soit celebrates almost 77 years of continuous publication. As Australia‘s oldest weekly university newspaper, this milestone represents over seven decades of student journalism (but not quite eight), and this commemorative edition is a testament to that feat. Contained within is but a small sample of the volumes of material contributed by students throughout the years. There is the wit and wisdom of ministers, poets, actors, intellectuals, judges, academics and journalists before they had even moved out of run-down, cockroach-ridden, share accommodation in Glebe. There are also the contributions of many ordinary students that just had interesting things to say at university. In this way, we hope that this edition of Honi Soit might be a unique tribute to those students both famous and unknown who have sustained our student community throughout the ages.
This being said, we also hope that this edition might be a tribute to the vital role that student media has played and continues to play on campus. The very fact that we can turn back the pages of our own publication all the way to 1929 reflects not only our own humble place within a continuing tradition, but also the power of print to record and remember the unique lives of university students the power, the passion, and the protests. It is often taken for granted that youth is a time of freedom, creativity and expression. By perusing through these pages one might appreciate the contingency of that experience and the role that university organisations, and their publications especially, have played in creating it.
Honi Soit commenced publication in 1929, under the auspices of the then Sydney University Undergraduates' Association (now the Students Representative Council), to counteract the mainstream Sydney press who had set about demonising Sydney Uni students after one Commemoration Day got a little out of control, (it was only the Cenotaph. after all). Commem. Day, a fine University tradition that ran up until the mid 1970s, involved a grand parade from the University grounds up to Town Hall in which different faculties and societies manned their own floats, and young rapskalions waged havoc upon conservative Sydney with bold pranks of varying tastefulness. The day was not only a celebration of youthful exuberance but also a lynchpin in the nascent University community. Ever since its inception as a defence of this day, Honi Soit has continued to be a reflection of this community, both in its successes and times of trial.
Read the Commemorative Edition of Honi Soit to catch up on the latest scandals as Tony Abbott once again locks the Honi editors out of their office, and Malcolm Turnbull proposes a motion to pay the Union President a wage. Michael Kirby is galavanting in the Congo and Geoffrey Robertson is handling the Commem. fall out again. The Sydney University Jay Society has been busted but Honi has provided a full guide to marijuana cultivation, right next to the smack review.
Honi remains the propaganda platform of our current big men on campus with fan-mail for Bob Ellis and free electoral advertising for the Chaser boys. Around campus,Germaine's Greers Mother Courage was a bit of a flop, but luckily John Bell and Bruce Beresford have managed to get alternative funding for their new film. Richard Walsh is running as the SRC's candidate for State Parliament in the elections this year, Tania Verstak has taken out the Miss University Quest, and Mungo MacCallum let's everyone know what he thinks of last week's rally.
In world events, TV is about to hit Australian shores, Vietnam continues and Whitlam has sent in a telegram about education reform. Labor has denounced student fees, intoduced student fees and then denounced student fees again. John Howard, however, has consistently been a fuckwit since 1987. Although he was doing a fine job of editing Hermes in 1960. See inside for a full report on VSU, from 1929.
The University Administration has been under pressure as the Philosophy department has split and Political Economy fights for survival. The new look Fisher promises the best of fashionable brutalist architecture, and plans are going head for the construction of a new building called "Wentworth," which promises space-age student services. Talking of literature, young poet Les Murray has penned us a few lines this edition and Clive James has written yet another tale.
Finally, thank you very much to Amanda Le May, our publications manager, Michael Holgate, diligent DSP, and Richard Ratajczak, master of Rare Books, for all their help, and understanding.
Yours,
Nikolas Kirby and Evan Williams, Editors-in-chief, Commemorative Edition