University celebrates 25 years of Indigenous education
Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney
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Wednesday, 28 March 2012
The University of ÐÂÀ˲ÊƱ will celebrate 25 years of Aboriginal education this Friday 30 March with a ceremony to mark the calibre of Indigenous graduates and the impact they are having on society.
Since the appointment of the University's first Aboriginal Liaison Officer in 1987 to recruit more Indigenous students to tertiary study, a number of milestones have been achieved.
These include Indigenous anthropology student making history in 2010 as Australia's first Aboriginal Rhodes Scholar in its 108-year history, and the University's acknowledgment of the Kaurna people as original inhabitants of its land.
Other notable Indigenous alumni include:
- , the University's first Indigenous postgraduate student who was awarded the Bonython Law School Prize for her PhD in 2000;
- Yvonne Clark, the first Aboriginal student to be awarded a Master's degree in Psychology in 1997;
- Sonny Flynn, the first University of ÐÂÀ˲ÊƱ Indigenous undergraduate student who completed his BArts (Honours) in 1986;
- , PhD Creative Writing graduate who in 2011 won the $20,000 Arts Queensland David Unaipon Award for an unpublished Indigenous writer
The establishmen