A highly significant painting and sacred artefacts from Yolngu people of East Arnhem Land were presented to Vice-Chancellor Professor Barney Glover during a recent ceremony on the Casuarina campus.
The presentation signified the formalisation of an academic partnership between CDU, which now offers a Masters program in Indigenous Knowledge, and the Mawul Rom Project, a cross-cultural mediation and leadership training organisation based on the Dhurali Clan Nations of the Yolngu people.
The painting, entitled “Sacred Molk of Wakilak Sisters”, is the highest formal academic accreditation for people who have completed their educational journey from initiation in their youth through to graduation in Dhurali Clan Nation law.
The sacred artefacts were those gathered by men and women at significant phases throughout their educational journey.
They were presented to CDU by Mawul Rom Project Co-Chairs, Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra and Patrick McIntyre, who said that they had been given in recognition of the unique partnership which the two educational traditions had established.