Reconciliation at Curtin
At Curtin, we are committed to embedding voices and perspectives of First Nations peoples at the forefront of our decision making to create an environment in which everyone thrives.
We have a long history of being at the forefront of reconciliation in higher education. Significant milestones in our journey include the opening of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in 1994, our public Statement of Reconciliation and Commitment in 1998 and in 2008, becoming the first teaching and research institution to have an endorsed Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
In 2019, we were one of the first Australian universities to publicly declare our support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Over time, we have learned to listen more deeply to First Peoples through the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the Universities Australia Indigenous Strategies and our RAPs.
Following the end of our most recent RAP, we are considering how we can best translate contemporary university reconciliation at Curtin and pausing before creating a new plan. We are guided by and will report on the Universities Australia Indigenous Strategy 2022-25.
Previous Reconciliation Action Plans
Professor Harlene Hayne ONZM, Vice–Chancellor, Curtin University
As a university community, we need to build on the aspirations we share with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
We must work with them to identify new ways of fostering academic success, and we need to learn from them as we tackle the big problems facing Australia and the rest of the world.
Reconciliation highlights
Moorditj Yorga Scholarship Program
Curtin’s Moorditj Yorga Scholarship Program is helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women gain a university education at Curtin.
The scholarship’s name, which means ‘strong woman’ in the Nyungar language of the Perth, Peel and South West regions of Western Australia, was created to support the pivotal mothers, sisters, aunts, teachers, colleagues and friends in our communities.
Carrolup Centre for Truth-telling
Curtin is the custodian of the Herbert Mayer Collection of Carrolup Artworks, an exquisite collection of artworks by young children of the Stolen Generations hand-drawn at the Carrolup Native Settlement near Katanning, Western Australia.
Curtin worked closely with Aboriginal elders to establish the centre as a public place of truth-telling, healing and reconciliation.
Cultural capability learning experiences
Our Nowanup Bush Campus is helping to develop an in-depth awareness and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and wisdom.
The campus encourages On-Country learning and teaching under the guidance of Aboriginal elders.
What does reconciliation mean to our students?
Our students explain what reconciliation means to them.
Stories of reconciliation
Learn how we’re progressing reconciliation, through news stories and podcasts.
Lotterywest support paves reconciliation pathway for Nyungar artworks
Curtin University’s new permanent home for historic artworks created by Nyungar children of the Stolen Generations has taken a major step forward with $1.76 million in Lotterywest funding.
Search for Nyungar children’s artwork goes global
A search is underway in the United Kingdom for hundreds of missing artworks created by children of the Stolen Generations in the south-west of Western Australia.
Global search uncovers historic Stolen Generations child drawing
Manjimup-based retired neonatal paediatrician Dr Patrick (Paddy) Pemberton recognised a piece in his own home that his father had purchased from the London-based Foyles Art Gallery in 1951.
From mission sites to healing centres
A close partnership between Bringing them home WA, WA Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation and Curtin University is transforming former mission sites into healing spaces for Stolen Generations.