ADCET Webinar: Celebrating Student Success – Embedding Inclusive Practices into Graduation
This presentation, by Kylie Austin, explored how inclusive practices were embedded in the University of Wollongong (UOW) graduation ceremony. This initiative was led by Jaymee Beveridge and Kylie Austin.
In 2022, the University of Wollongong (UOW) reimagined their graduation ceremonies by connecting these celebrations with their rich Indigenous history and ensuring that Graduation practices were inclusive of gender and disability. Three elements came together to shift their graduation practices:
- transformational leadership
- engagement with community
- fostering trust and collaboration.
Aboriginal ceremonial practices were authentically woven into graduation processes to create new traditions. Aboriginal culture was embedded into all aspects of graduation, commencing with Aboriginal community members leading the academic procession with a smoking ceremony, singing, and playing the Yidaki. This was followed by a Welcome to Country and the academic procession wearing the Aboriginal flag on their gowns. Some long-held practices, such as the traditional procession music, were discontinued, and instead replaced with music developed by our Indigenous Alumni, that captured the sounds of the Illawarra and South Coast.
“I bare witness to the academic procession every graduation now, because it is one of the very few occasions where I get to see two of my worlds together, done the right way. I don’t get that often, and it shifts and fixes things for me every time” - Traditional Custodian and Aboriginal employee, 2024.
Over 20,000 students, together with their parents and supporters attend Graduation each year at UOW. Since 2019, the representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student attendance at Graduation has grown from 0.94% to 2.49%. Staff shared that “…this Graduation ceremony made me feel proud to work at UOW” (UOW Staff, 2022); with students also reflecting that:
“The smoking ceremony and welcome to country was beautiful and very powerful, it had great cultural connection and I loved that the elder was one from our field and could speak on the importance of respecting, learning and engaging with the Aboriginal community and culture in health care.” - Student, 2023.
In addition to this, UOW has redesigned Graduation to celebrate their diversity. This has included working closely with their Pride Network to review the language utilised in Graduation, activities for children attending Graduation, using diverse languages in their printed and online materials, encouraging cultural dress, and ensuring the universal design of Graduation.
Presenters
Kylie Austin has over fifteen years’ experience in Australian higher education and is currently the Associate Director, Student Equity & Success at the University of Wollongong. During this time, Kylie has led institution wide initiatives aimed to increase the representation and participation of underrepresented cohorts at university. She is also the current President for Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia, providing sector-wide advocacy and professional development to student and staff equity practitioners. Kylie has recently completed her PhD, with research interests in partnerships and equity, and has led national research projects to investigate the experiences of underrepresented cohorts with higher education.
Jaymee Beveridge is a proud Aboriginal woman from far north Queensland with family ties to the Torres Strait Islands and Palm Island. Jaymee embraces her mixed heritage, stating she is richer culturally for being jointly raised in a Greek and Indigenous Australian family environment. Jaymee was appointed as the Vice-President, Indigenous Strategy and Engagement in 2023. For the 2 years before the Vice-President role, she served as the Executive Director (Indigenous Strategy) while continuing her position as the Director of Woolyungah Indigenous Centre at UOW, which she had held since 2018. With over 17 years of experience in the Australian public service sector, Jaymee specialises in Community and Family Services. She has successfully led and managed multidisciplinary teams within the non-government and not-for-profit sectors. Throughout her career, Jaymee's focus has been on assisting the nation’s most vulnerable, high-needs, and complex individuals and families.
(August 2024)
ADCET is hosted by the University of Tasmania