The School of Politics and International Relations was sad to hear that Professor Colin Tatz passed away on Tuesday 19th November. Colin completed his PhD thesis, entitled Aboriginal Administration, with the then Department of Political Science in the Faculty of General Science at the Australian National University in 1964. He went on to be a senior lecture in sociology and politics at Monash and a professor of politics at UNE and Macquarie University. Since 2011 he has been a visiting fellow and a visiting professor 2015 to 2018 in the School of Politics and International Relations, and has more recently been an honorary lecturer.
He was a prolific author with numerous books, journal articles and conference papers to his name. In particular he wrote on race politics, genocide, the Holocaust and antisemitism, racism in sport, and suicide. His areas of expertise included:
- Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Policy
- Jewish Studies
- Social And Cultural Anthropology
- The role of sport in society
- Comparative Genocide
His most recent books were:
The Sealed box of Suicide: The contexts of Self Death, 2019, co-authored with his son Simon Tatz
Black Pearls: The Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame, 2018 co- authored with his son Paul Tatz
Australia’s Unthinkable Genocide, 2017
The Magnitude of Genocide, 2016, co-authored with Wointon Higgins
Colin was born in South Africa in 1934 and emigrated in 1961. He was awarded an AO in 1997 'For service to the community through research into social and legal justice for people disadvantaged by their race, particularly the aboriginal community, and to promoting the equal participation in community life of all Australians.’
Other prominent awards include:
Awarded Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 10 April 1997.
Appointed Fellow of the Australian Society for Sports History, 2003.
Festschrift for Colin Tatz: Genocide Perspectives V: A Global Crime, Australian Voices, eds. Nikki Marczak and Kirril Shields, Sydney, UTS ePress, 2017
From Martin Heskins, Executive Officer, School of Politics and International Relations:
On a personal note I met Colin in 2014 and in the intervening years I became friends, both with Colin, and his wife Sandra. It was with great sadness that I learned of his passing and I will always remember our chats about his latest research and learning more and more about the ongoing need to keep talking about the Holocaust, genocide in general and racism in all parts of life, but especially in sport. This week we have lost a true scholar of social science and politics and I lost a friend. RIP Colin