The two years that killed a First Nations University

This chapter is a conversation, an enquiry, a series of questions addressing an event 12 years after the fact. It analyses the 2004–2005 years at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (henceforth referred to in the text as ‘Batchelor’). A dedicated Indigenous, multi-tiered Institute offering programs from Certificate 1 through to PhD programs for First Nations people in Australia. Batchelor has its main campus located 110 km south of Darwin, Northern Territory in the township of Batchelor as well as a campus in Alice Springs, annexes in Katherine and Tennant Creek, and study centres throughout NT Aboriginal communities.