Curtin University of Technology has achieved many of the aims set out in its Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) a year since its launch.
The RAP was developed in association with Reconciliation Australia, and sets out steps Curtin will take to continue to develop reconciliation and build relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
Curtin has achieved a significant number of its targets set out in the RAP including appointing an Indigenous person to Council, appointing four Elders as Adjunct Professors to the four Faculty Advisory Boards, exceeding the target for uptake of Indigenous research scholarships and increasing the University’s Indigenous related research projects from 29 in 2008 to 44 as at April 2009.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Jeanette Hacket said she was proud of Curtin’s leadership in this area.
“The development and launch of the Reconciliation Action Plan is part of the University’s commitment to the reconciliation process of turning good intentions into measurable actions,” she said.
“We developed the Plan to have measurable objectives, actions and targets which we have strived to achieve over the past year.
“I am proud of the work undertaken by staff at Curtin to achieve our targets for 2009 and am confident that we will continue to make progress.
“I am especially proud that we are still the only university to have a Reconciliation Action Plan in Australia.”
The planning of the Reconciliation Action Plan began in 2007 when the University signed a statement outlining its commitment to develop a Plan. The signing of the Statement of Commitment also coincided with the 40th anniversary of the landmark 1967 referendum which gave Aboriginal people the right to be counted in the census.
Curtin’s Reconciliation Action Plan was launched by the Director of Reconciliation Australia, the Hon Fred Chaney AO at a function at the University on 27 May 2008.
