Signature project for the Reconciliation Action Plan 3

The New Student Precinct will be a signature project for the University's soon-to-be launched Reconciliation Action Plan 3 (RAP 3).

The Project will contribute to the RAP 3 vision to utilise the University’s expertise and resources to make a sustained contribution to Indigenous development.

RAP 3 will see a shift in focus from the current RAP's six University Action Areas (Partnerships, Cultural Recognition, Student Recruitment and Retention, Staff Employment, Teaching and Learning Strategies, Research) with 57 measures and targets.

As the first precinct-wide development of its kind on the Parkville campus, the New Student Precinct will set a benchmark for the way Indigenous cultural recognition and heritage is integrated into University infrastructure developments. The development of the new Precinct provides a unique opportunity to consider how built form can support reconciliation on campus.

Recognition of Indigenous cultures has played a pivotal role in the strategic planning of the New Student Precinct. Accordingly, the Project Team has actively sought to foster partnerships with the University’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) students, staff and communities to support the capacity of the Project and University more broadly, to build a reconciliation culture.

The Project’s co-creation activities have involved close collaboration with Murrup Barak, Melbourne Institute for Indigenous Development, to ensure that the University’s ATSI student population were well represented and meaningfully engaged in these activities.

The co-creation findings have informed much of the Project’s program of activations to date, which seek to provide students with opportunities to engage with students from different cohorts. The findings also supported the inclusion of the relocation of Murrup Barak to a central location close to other student-facing services and activities in the Precinct.

Images from left: Painting by Amba-Rose Atkinson, painting by Sam Harrison and Smoking Ceremony presented by Wurundjeri Elder Colin Hunt at the launch of the Outdoor Gallery in May 2017.