Charles Darwin University, Darwin
[ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OMITTED]
It's a great pleasure to be here today for the opening of this magnificent new centre.
Today we celebrate the hard work that has transformed a bold idea into reality.
And we mark another important moment in Australia's evolving appreciation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.
A significant new chapter in a story we can trace back to the man whose name graces this university.
It is 177 years since Charles Darwin visited Australia.
We were just one stop on his five year voyage on the Beagle.
A journey that inspired and informed his theory which changed the way we look at the world forever.
The Origin of Species proved that Darwin saw further and thought deeper than this peers.
But Darwin's description of Australia, published in The Voyage of the Beagle, reveals that he was also a creature of his time.
So the view of Australia which we see in Darwin's writing - and in particular of the First Australians - is a narrow one.
When he encountered the world's oldest living culture, Darwin could not rise above a benign Victorian curiosity - or express himself in other than faint praise:
‘In their own arts', he wrote, ‘they are admirable'.
For Darwin, and for so many of his peers, their assessments were limited by the common prejudices of their time.
For too long, the outsiders who documented Indigenous Australia did so with closed minds.
Where they should have listened, they judged.
Where they could have learned, they sought to instruct.
When they should have shown interest, they were apathetic.
This ignorance - what Stanner so aptly termed this ‘Great Australian Silence' - long diminished us all.
Today is one of those days on which we are reminded of that sad past - and reminded of how far we have come.
Australians everywhere now understand the central place that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture occupies in our national story.
We are embracing it with pride.
Just as importantly, we are beginning to realise how much there is to learn from the ways of Indigenous Australia.
New perspectives on the management of our natural resources, new understandings in language, art and music.
This is the real significance of places like the Centre for Australian Indigenous Knowledges and Education.
This is why today is so exciting.
Such places help us to see Indigenous society as a living guide to the continent and community we all share.
Alongside its cultural function, this Centre will be a home to the next generation of Indigenous leaders.
The specially designed Bachelor's Degrees will give students the opportunity to develop their abilities in governance, advocacy, community leadership and teaching.
The Preparation for Tertiary Success course will give those returning to the education system the skills and confidence to achieve the best possible results at university.
Every course works in partnership with the Learnline program so students in remote communities have access to class materials and discussions.
This Centre is a place filled with natural light and designed for group-learning and discussion, open-air conversations and classes. An ideal demonstration of the idea that the best design is a meeting of function and form.
This is a moment worth celebrating - you have created something which is an example for universities across Australia and around the world
I congratulate you all for your vision and courage in realising it.
This Centre is a symbol of all that Indigenous leadership can offer.
It is proof of how far Australia has come, and a marker for the road ahead.
With great pride - and in a spirit of Reconciliation and friendship - I declare the Australian Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Education officially open and wish it every success.