Lumen Winter 2023 - Flipbook - Page 25
“Aboriginal peoples’ health and wellbeing,
with protection of Country at the centre,
should be a priority within university systems,
but that’s not always the case,” she says.
“Yaitya Purruna has developed an Aboriginal
Governance Model that includes all of the
schools in the faculty. The Executive Dean
has approved this model, and the faculty
is supporting its further development by
Indigenous staff at the University through a
process of community consultation.”
This 2021 painting of Uncle Rodney O’Brien,
Kaurna Elder, now hangs in the University
of Adelaide Library. Painting by Thomas
Readett, Ngarrindjeri/Arrernte people.
(A.VA.2022.1031.jpg)
placements for medical students across
rural, regional and remote South Australia.
Currently the Chair of the Nukunu
Thura Corporation, and previous Chair
of Pika Wiya Health Service Aboriginal
Corporation, Kym believes the placements
are invaluable for the next generation of
doctors to better understand Aboriginal
patients and work with them toward
healthier futures.
“When I used to take the medical students
on cultural immersion trips to the APY
Lands, one student said to me, ‘I’ve
learned more in this week than I have
in a lifetime, when it comes to knowing
Aboriginal lifestyles and cultures’. If you
don’t understand your topic, if you don’t
understand the community, you’ve got no
way of being a doctor that’s going to fit in
and provide the right treatments, the right
referrals, the right advocacy.”
Dr Dylan Coleman, a Kokatha/Greek
woman from the far west coast of South
Australia, works as a Lecturer in the Yaitya
Purruna Indigenous Health Unit, which
sits within the Faculty of Health and
Medical Sciences.
“The improvement and maintenance of
Aboriginal health necessarily requires people
to be able to make decisions about their
own lives and that of their children and
grandchildren, to protect Country for the
future generations.”
Culture
The University of Adelaide prioritises
sustaining Indigenous cultures.
In 2022 as part of National Reconciliation
Week, a new portrait of Uncle Rod O’Brien
was unveiled in the Barr Smith Library.
The University has long collected portraits
of its leaders and great thinkers, and this was
the first portrait of an Indigenous leader to
join the University’s Visual Art Collection.
The portrait was created by Thomas
Readett, an artist and Ngarrindjeri/Arrernte
man who was born and raised on Kaurna
Country. Uncle Rod’s portrait acknowledges
his leadership in the University community
on its journey to reconciliation.
“I hope my portrait shows Aboriginal people
that I’m valued by the University, and I
hope to inspire other Aboriginal people at
the University, whether they be students,
academics, or professional staff, to reach for
the stars and achieve excellence. Maybe one
day there will be an Aboriginal Chancellor
or Vice-Chancellor,” Uncle Rod reflected at
the time.
Also in 2022, a mural was commissioned
as a permanent fixture of the University
of Adelaide’s North Terrace campus. The
mural, Kaurna Wirltu Tidna, was created by
Cedric Varcoe, a Ramindjerri yuraldi man of
the Ngarendjerri nation, and Narunga artist.
“The University of Adelaide strives to
increase Indigenous cultural affirmation by
raising the status and visibility of Indigenous
cultures. We also prioritise collaboration
with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
communities. By commissioning Cedric’s
artwork for the Hub, the heart of our
University, we are putting these principles in
motion,” Professor Steve Larkin says.
Uncle Rod believes the mural is important
for connecting people to Country when they
are on campus.
“If you connect to our Country, we believe
that you’ll care for our Country, and if you
care for our Country, the Country will care
for you.”
Professor Larkin believes sustainability is
twofold: sustaining the right things, while
leaving the wrong things behind.
“It requires robust interrogation –
sustaining what we value, want to retain,
maintain, build and grow while rendering
unsustainable those structures that actually
oppress, limit, and perpetuate inequality
and disadvantage. This requires us to be
quite introspective as an institution; for
Indigenous Australians it’s sustainability
of organisational commitment,” he said.
“Sustainability is much broader than just
key things to do to sustain a healthy physical
environment in society.
“We need to sustain the investment of both
material resources and of commitment
to closing the gap. We’ve got to sustain a
material investment that’s commensurate to
need, we need to sustain a social, political,
moral commitment to achieving equity as a
priority; it’s something that the University
breathes, it’s got to live its values.”
Eleanor Danenberg is Marketing and
Communications Coordinator, Faculty of Arts,
Business, Law and Economics.
LUMEN – WINTER 2023 25
