Indigenous students share their life-changing ANU experience
Education is such a powerful thing. As an Indigenous student, the opportunities that education can give has meant a lot and will change the path of my career.
Taliah King and Pete Swanton have chosen very different academic pursuits at The Australian National 51³Ô¹ÏÍø (ANU). What they have in common is their profound experience as Indigenous students at the national university.
Ms King, from the Yuin and Waanyi people, came to ANU from a regional town to study a Bachelor of Arts specialising in psychology - she is in her final year.
Mr Swanton, a Gamilaraay/Yuwaalaraay man, has been working closely with ANU astronomers Dr Brad Tucker and Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt, searching the night-sky for connections between modern scientific discoveries and ancient Aboriginal knowledge.
The pair spoke publicly about their life-changing campus experiences at the launch of the ANU Reconciliation Action Plan (2021 - 2022), known as the RAP, at Kambri today.
"The support I've had from the Tjabal Centre and the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, more broadly, has been amazing," Ms King said.
"Education is such a powerful thing. As an Indigenous student, the opportunities that education can give has meant a lot and will change the path of my career.
"I think the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø's Reconciliation Action Plan is about giving Indigenous students and staff and other people at ANU an instrumental voice to make a difference."
Mr Swanton gave part of his speech in his Indigenous language at the RAP launch.
"It was quite emotional for me to be able to share a little bit of my language," he said afterwards.
"That shares something personal about me, who I am and my identity, but it also shares an important part of my experience here at ANU - being able to learn my language, as part of my education here, which was an opportunity that my mum never had."
Mr Swanton said he loves doing cutting-edge astrophysics at ANU, "but there is no connection between black holes and my cultural identity".
"I am in the middle of setting up a project to bring a scientific lens to the oral traditions of my people, and actually looking at how Aboriginal people were able to use what they saw in the night-sky to inform decisions about navigation and to tell them what was happening here on Earth," he said.
"We now know, with our Western understanding of astronomy, that there is a connection between the Moon and the tides. There's a connection between what stars we can see at night and what the seasons are doing on Earth. I want to explore how Aboriginal people were able to make these connections for 60,000 years."
