Column piece: Professor Nick Klomp

By CQUniversity Vice-Chancellor and President' Professor Nick Klomp

At CQUniversity' we value and celebrate Australia's First Peoples' and we proudly hold a strong commitment and vision for reconciliation.

That is why we have just recently recommitted to this mission by launching a new Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) that will provide a clear direction for the next phase of the University's reconciliation journey.

The Plan' formally endorsed by Reconciliation Australia' was developed by the University's Office of Indigenous Engagement following consultation with Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff and students' as well as with Elders and key stakeholders from community and industry.

The new RAP is an important strategic document for CQUniversity and sets the priorities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander related education' research and staff training in the next two years.

It also forms part of the University's broader social commitment to actively address inequality and offer a range of opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples to lead' access' participate in' and benefit from' higher education and research.

In preparing this RAP we wanted to make it clear that everyone within our university community has a responsibility to address injustice and provide equality of opportunity: and to play a part in developing a tertiary education sector that truly embraces the knowledges' leadership and strengths of First Nations peoples.

Our aim is to support First Nations people's empowerment by delivering access to world class education' training and research' and to do this we want to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives are increasingly part of CQUniversity governance' and that our teaching and research engages communities and stakeholders and leads to mutually beneficial outcomes.

The delivery of the RAP commits CQUniversity to wider engagement and provides a framework for developing meaningful and beneficial partnerships with Traditional Owners' Elders' leaders and peoples from across the University's many campuses.

As well as providing a direction for the next two years of our reconciliation journey' this RAP will help to build capacity within the University and will give people the confidence to engage.

CQUniversity's Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan 2022 – 2024 can be accessed at cqu.edu.au/about-us/about-cquniversity/reconciliation-action-plan.