Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education opens at Bankstown City campus
Western Sydney University has celebrated the official opening of its newest Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education based at the University’s Bankstown City campus.
The ceremony, held on Thursday, 16 March, brought together Indigenous staff, students and elders onto the new campus which is located on the traditional land of the Dharug people.
The University’s Badanami Centres – based at the Campbelltown, Liverpool, Kingswood, Hawkesbury, Parramatta South and Parramatta City campuses and now Bankstown City campus – offer a safe and welcoming space for Indigenous students and the broader community to engage with cultural and academic activities.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Leadership, Professor Michelle Trudgett, said the Bankstown Badanami Centre reflects and celebrates the cultural heritage of the diverse student population.
“Western Sydney University is proud to open its newest Badanami Centre which will offer students, staff and the community an inspiring space to connect and share knowledge, while also supporting Indigenous students to succeed in their studies,” said Professor Trudgett.
Guided by the University’s Indigenous Elders Advisory Committee, the existing Milperra campus’ ‘Wall of Hands’, a 5-metre brick wall of Indigenous graduates’ painted handprints over the past 40-years, was carefully taken apart to allow its incorporation into Western Sydney University’s newest campus in Bankstown CBD.
All original handprints on the wall were carefully scanned and transferred to a new steel work in collaboration with industrial artist Anton Grimes. The new work has now been installed at the heart of the student hub in front of the new Badanami Centre on Level 3 of the recently opened Bankstown City campus.
All pieces of the original Wall of Hands will be used in the gabion walls forming a key component of the Yarning Circle on the terrace of Level 3. Construction work on the Yarning Circle is currently in progress.
For more information about the University’s Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education, please visit the web page (opens in a new window).
ENDS
30 March 2023
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