Indigenous leaders honoured by Macquarie University for ‘bush uni’

Macquarie University has honoured indigenous leaders behind the innovative ‘bush university’ it established in Arnhem Land.

Arnhem Land indigenous leaders Kevin Guyurruyurru Rogers and Helen Gabibi Rogers at Macquarie University. Picture: John Feder

Macquarie University has honoured three Indigenous leaders who were pivotal in setting up its “bush university” in Arnhem Land, a unique institution which prepares local students for tertiary study.

Last Friday husband-and-wife educators Kevin Guyurruyurru Rogers and Helen Gabibi Rogers received honorary doctorates at a Macquarie University graduation ceremony, to mark their role in establishing the Wuyagiba Study Hub, set in a bush camp on the Gulf of Carpentaria coastline.

At the same time Cherry Daniels, another Indigenous leader who was the original driver of the study hub, received a posthumous honorary doctorate which was presented to her daughters, Annette and Geraldine Daniels. Ms Daniels died in 2019.

Wuyagiba, which was set up in 2018, has now enrolled 106 students, mainly from the Ngukurr community in Arnhem Land which was home to Ms Daniels and is where Mr Rogers and Ms Rogers live.

Ms Rogers said the purpose of the hub was to teach young people “not only our way but your way too, the Western way, both ways”.

After a year’s study at the hub, in which students do two university units and two units in Indigenous heritage and culture, they are able to transfer to continue study at Macquarie University in Sydney with credit for half of their first year of a bachelor degree.

The program is about to graduate its first student to complete a degree. Melissa Wurramarrba, who is in her last semester of a bachelor of arts majoring in educational studies, plans to return to the Wuyagiba Study Hub after graduation, where she will be one of the teaching staff.

Emilie Ens, a Macquarie University associate professor in environmental management, has worked closely with the hub since it began as a trial project in 2018.

She said it grew out of an environmental project, funded by The Nature Conservancy, in which Ms Daniels worked with young people from her community.

But Ms Daniels wanted to do more to educate the next generation of young Indigenous people and prepare them for leadership roles.

“Cherry had long talked about a bush uni,” Professor Ens said.

Macquarie University was also interested and successfully applied for Commonwealth funding that was available for regional study hubs, which gave Wuyagiba its start. The hub mainly serves the remote Ngukurr community of about 1500 people in southeast Arnhem Land, but is about a two-hour drive away on the coast. The hub is also available to students from the Numbulwar community, about a two-hour drive in the opposite direction.

Mr Rogers and Ms Rogers, who both have teacher qualifications and have long been community leaders, believe it is critical for their young people to have both a traditional and a Western education.

Mr Rogers said his community needed to maintain its cultural heritage and pass it on to young people “because it’s ours and it’s the oldest in the world”.

But he said it was also very important for Indigenous young people to have a Western education and gain the benefit of what he and Ms Rogers had. “We had the advantage of study,” he said.

Ms Rogers said they wanted to see young people get university degrees and then return to their communities and take leadership roles in health, education, administration and business which were often held by white people.

“We want them to come back and take control, to run their own business or help assist families, to be a leader,” Mr Rogers said.

Leanne Holt, Macquarie University’s pro vice-chancellor (Indigenous strategy), said the university’s relationship with the Arnhem Land communities was “respectful and reciprocal”.

“We’ve been able to learn from each other and learn together,” she said.

Dr Holt said that at the end of a year’s study at the Wuyagiba hub, students came to the Macquarie campus in Sydney for a week of interviews and workshops so they could decided if they wanted to enrol in a degree. To support their study they can get help from Commonwealth equity scholarships, the Abstudy scheme and the Origin Foundation. Dr Holt said there was interest from other communities in Arnhem Land in duplicating the hub.