Global classroom and research hub in our own backyard: $30.2M project now open
THE First Nations-led educational centre, the Munarra Centre for Regional Excellence, is a nation leading initiative addressing parity and placing First Nations Australians at the forefront of higher education.
Munarra, which means thunder in Yorta Yorta language, resonates with the Centre’s aspiration to significantly impact the empowerment and education pathways of Yorta Yorta communities and broader Goulburn Murray region.
The state-of-the-art building incorporates Aboriginal knowledge into its design and programs, symbolising decades of efforts to place First Nations at the forefront of higher education. The project involves a partnership between the Victorian Government with an investment of $30.2M, Rumbalara Football Netball Club, the Kaiela Institute and the University of Melbourne, which contributed $6.65M.
Professor Barry Judd, deputy vice-chancellor (Indigenous) at the University of Melbourne, said, “Munarra represents much more than a physical space; it is laying the foundation for a future where First Nations Australians’ history, culture, and potential are not just acknowledged, but integral to our nation’s programs. This is about true parity and prosperity for all.”
“It’s absolutely exciting. I have not seen a centre like this anywhere else in Australia and rarely anywhere around the world,” Professor Judd said. He also highlighted that the development of the Centre in the region addresses the tyranny of distance when it comes to education.
“People who live in regional and remote Australia, and First Nations people make up a significant component of that population, are geographically disadvantaged at all levels of education,” Professor Judd explained. “To have a facility like this that links students based here in this region with the world is so important, and the technology allows that to happen.
“The classrooms in this facility can, in a literal sense, operate as global classrooms. They can, through the university’s IT system, link with classrooms in Melbourne, in other parts of Australia, potentially with our First Nations partners in northeast Arnhem Land, for example, but also with the world.
“We also have growing linkages here with people in Aotearoa, New Zealand. So, it’s extremely important that students don’t need to move away from home to get a quality post-secondary education, and they can do it all here.”
Professor Judd said, “Education will form a vital part of the excellence that the Munarra Centre will bring to the region. Munarra will also serve the educational needs and build the educational profile of the region in other innovative ways, as a research hub that will support industry and community research, as an incubator for ideas that will bring together champions of the Goulburn Murray Regional Prosperity Plan and other enterprises to plan and enact growth of this wonderful region, and as a place of learning to build the appreciation of all the region’s population on the beauty, ingenuity, and depth of Yorta Yorta culture and practices.”
