PVC- Indigenous Strategy UNSWIS_Final_SIGN OFF_18 October 2018 low res for | Page 6

The key themes of the
UNSW Aboriginal study
An ancient land – the dunes which underlie the
campus, and form its topography, connect the area
to a broader environment across eastern Sydney,
with a long history of Aboriginal occupation.
A ‘barren’ land – Aboriginal people survived for
thousands of generations in a supposedly ‘barren’
dune landscape by adapting to the changing
environment and creating new technologies.
A place of learning and innovation – there is a thread
of learning and innovation that ties the earliest
Aboriginal occupation in the shifting environment to
the adaptations of Aboriginal people in relation to a
growing colonial city, and through to the pursuit of
knowledge through the university.
A connected land – the university has reached out
to many Indigenous people across the country for
nearly half a century, through institutions such as the
Aboriginal Legal Service and the Indigenous Law
Centre. Many Indigenous students from across the
country have also come to study or work at UNSW.
The dunes under the campus represent Aboriginal
connections to land in this part of Sydney, just as the
red dust of the centre or the rainforest of northern
Queensland connects Aboriginal people from these
areas. The many stories of these linkages, between
the university and Indigenous communities around
Australia, are a rich and undocumented part of the
university’s history.
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