THE UNIVERSITY of Newcastle will embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and perspectives into all its courses and curriculum; build its number of Indigenous PhD students and research; investigate dual names for its spaces and structures; and increase its patronage of First Nations businesses, as part of its new Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
UON unveiled the new 120-point RAP on Monday at its Wollotuka Institute, where attendees also helped restore Mandy Davis' Birabahn Eaglehawk artwork.
UON executive support officer reconciliation and Bandjin woman Loren Collyer - who chaired the RAP steering group, led consultation with staff, students and the community, and helped develop, design and write the plan - said it had been 18 months in the making.
"It's great to have our vision and our goals down on paper, but I think the work we do in reconciliation is always going to be much bigger than a document," Ms Collyer said.
"So yes, while it's fabulous we have launched our RAP, the real work begins now."
Ms Collyer said RAPs were frameworks that helped organisations and businesses to embed reconciliation action throughout their organisation in a sustainable and strategic way.
The plans are tied to one of four stages: reflect, innovate, stretch or elevate. UON's current plan, spanning 2022 to 2025, is its second overall and is a stretch plan.
It outlines UON's priorities as embedding its Cultural Capability Framework across the university; being a leader in reconciliation; supporting economic independence and innovation; and the Indigenisation of the curriculum and development of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Graduate Attribute, which "will mean that all courses and curriculum will include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and perspectives".
"At its heart our RAP is about that education piece," Ms Collyer said.
"So the university's responsibility for education in terms of our shared history, so all students that come to our university will have the opportunity to develop cultural understanding, all staff that work at our university will have that opportunity through cultural capability training, but also the role that our university has in our communities to be a leader in that space in terms of truth telling, conversations about our shared history that we haven't had as a nation... you can see that through the event we had in January, Ngarrama."
Ms Collyer said reconciliation was "essential".
"It's part of who we are," she said.
"It's about the relationship between Aboriginal people and non Aboriginal people in this country and strengthening that, but that that relationship has to be built on truth and respect... at its core it's about healing as well. We know we've had this dark history and we need to own that so we can move forward and heal from that and the only way to do that is through building understanding and being honest about it."
She said the RAP showed that reconciliation was a UON priority.
"It says to people that this is a place where reconciliation is important, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture and knowledge are valued, respected and that this is a culturally safe place, so people that come here feel safe and feel they belong here."
UON Vice Chancellor Professor Alex Zelinsky said reconciliation was "everybody's business".
He said 4.1 per cent of its students and 2.9 per cent of staff were Indigenous and it had graduated more Indigenous doctors and teachers than any other university.
