What does it mean to be a university on Aboriginal land?

Did you know that many places on campus were designed to reflect our connection to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and Country?

For example, the planting of Gadi trees across campus, or the artwork on the façade of the Social Sciences building that displays the word garabara, meaning ‘corroboree’ or ‘dance’, or the sculpture of a dilly bag which recognises Aboriginal woman who gathered food and bush medicine for their communities.

From its earliest days, the University was proudly in and of this land. As Australia’s first university, it is important to consider our social responsibility and leadership in embracing the values and principles of the world’s oldest continuous culture.

The Walanga Wingara Mura Design Principles (pdf, 3.1MB) inform how the University belongs to this country, and what it means to be on and learn from lands that to Aboriginal people, have always been places of learning, knowledge exchange and wellbeing.

Here are more examples you might have seen around the Camperdown and Darlington Campus:

Gadi, known as the Xanthorrea, or grass tree, have been planted at the front entrance of the University from City Road and throughout the campus to acknowledge the land and people of this place. Gadigal, meaning Gadi people, is derived from the word Gadi and they used the tree for a range of purposes. The Gadi are unique to this continent and not too long ago, Sydney’s landscape was defined by their presence.

Garabara, an artwork in the new Social Sciences Building, is the first project in the University’s history to integrate public art into the fabric of a building. The work, by Aboriginal artist Robert Andrew, acknowledges the Gadi peoples of this Land. The work displays the Sydney language word for corroboree or dance – Garabara, which is eroded into the surface of the building.

There are Indigenous references in plantings across public spaces – for example, here illustrating the natural creek that once ran across what is now Eastern Avenue.

“The work is an acknowledgement of the Great Dividing Range – the sandstone country that rises and falls along the spine of eastern Australia. Many of the University buildings have been built from this sandstone.” Dale Harding, artist, 2018.

Of more than 2000 trees, approximately 1400 are native. There are more than 500,000 native plants, shrubs and grasses. Landscape areas are developed using symbols and patterns to reflect Indigenous gathering places and original natural environments. 

The Transient garden is an intercultural space that tells a visual story of Aboriginal peoples' past, present and future, and creates a space for deep listening, sharing and learning.