Member Spotlight - Dr Cybèle Locke.

Dr Cybèle Locke (tangata Tiriti) is a senior lecturer in History (Te Kura Aro Whakamuri, Rapunga Whakaaro, Matai Tōrangapū me te Ao School of History, Philosophy, Politics and International Relations) at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. She has been a delegate and the women’s rep on the Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington branch executive.

What do you love about your work?

There is deep meaning in having a job where I can research, create, connect with and give voice to the histories of everyday extraordinary people who live and have lived in Aotearoa New Zealand. As an oral historian, my work focuses predominantly on working-class peoples’ collective efforts — through trade unions (including unemployed workers’ and housewives’ unions) and all kinds of social movements to bring about social justice and transformation. It is a real privilege to build relationships with students, engage them where they are at and introduce them to all kinds of amazing historical writers who teach them about where they come from.

It can also be a challenge because learning about what creates and sustains ongoing processes of colonisation (and other oppressive systems of power) in this place can engender despair and cynicism. It is important to keep threading through historical stories of love and hope, peoples’ everyday acts of defiance and resistance, speaking truth to power and building collectives to shatter bigotry and corruption, bringing about a Te Tiriti-centred future.

What is challenging about your work?

The ongoing neoliberalising of tertiary education has always been hard but it has become increasingly challenging of late. I got my first temporary lecturing gig in 2001 and spent the next eleven years in and out of short-term academic work. I got to know people at different universities and learned about the deep scarring of continuous restructures and layoffs. It is terrible both for those who lose their jobs and for those who keep them. I always joined the Association of University Staff (old name for our union) – I believe all workers should belong to a trade union – but when I worked in the United States, contracted as an adjunct or visiting lecturer, there was no union to belong to (that was rough – I had to return to work with a two-month old baby to fulfil my contract).

Returning to Te Whanganui-a-tara and gaining my first permanent academic job (job security!) at Te Herenga Waka in 2012 was a wonderful thing; it has been a joy getting to know and work alongside many amazing colleagues. I joined the Tertiary Education Union and the living wage movement; having a work collective at my back fed my energy to participate in anti-poverty campaigns. I was part of the same old under-funded user pays university system, with VCs paid exorbitant amounts to increase student numbers, manage staff and produce a surplus, but the cracks in the system weren’t quite so obvious.

Why is it important for you to belong to your union?

Since Covid, lockdowns and border closures exposed the reliance on fees from international students, restructures, ‘voluntary redundancies' and layoffs have been a constant. Being told some of us would be laid off if our teams at Te Herenga Waka did not make a 40% profit for the university in 2023 made the commodification of our work abundantly clear. It was brutal. So many people lost their jobs here in 2023; in History, we lost two jobs and were given two years to increase enrolments to prevent a third person from losing their job. We didn’t reach our target and a third layoff was actioned in February. I don’t think I would still be here, doing what I do, without my union. It is where I go to find community, to share experiences (have a moan and a laugh), dream up innovative ways to take collective action to save our jobs, demand our worth and bring about a future where education is a common good and accessible to all, paid for by a progressive tax system that ensures the wealthy pay their dues. I am so proud to belong to a Te Tiriti-centred union. When my students ask where they can find hope in history, I can point to the history of our union and say: this is what decolonisation work can look like.