“Even the stones seem to speak to you,” said Tony Abbott, describing Oxford’s ancient college buildings to this year’s Charlie Perkins/Chevening scholars. This sense of place would be very familiar to indigenous people. The Prime Minister takes a very close interest in indigenous matters. And Oxford, where he spent two very happy years as a Rhodes Scholar, is clearly dear to his heart. So he was delighted to welcome us at Parliament House yesterday and meet Jessica Buck, Jessyca Hutchens and Tamara Murdock who will all be shortly heading off to Oxford for postgraduate studies.
Later, at my Residence, Education Minister Christopher Pyne officiated at a formal ceremony to honour the three scholars. It was a very uplifting occasion, with proud parents beaming as Jess, Jess and Tamara gave acceptance speeches which fully demonstrated the personal qualities which had won them this prestigious scholarship. The event was attended by politicians, prominent educationalists including Tom Calma (the first indigenous University Chancellor) and the Vice Chancellors of UWA and Newcastle University, and business figures. This year we were joined by a number of distinguished Australian Chevening alumni to mark the 30th anniversary of the programme which has sent 43,000 young scholars from 150 countries to British Universities over three decades.
During my time here we have focused our FCO-funded Chevening scholarship programme on working with the Charlie Perkins Foundation, the Australian Government and Rio Tinto to support scholarships for indigenous Australians. During that time we have sent 11 Aboriginal scholars to Oxford and Cambridge – the first ever to attend each university.
In my speech I noted that whilst Oxford and Cambridge were both over 800 years old, they remained right at the cutting edge of the latest developments in Science and the Arts, which ensured that they continued to be two of the most prestigious universities in the world. This year’s scholars would not only benefit greatly from their experiences there, but would also add their own contributions to the life of the university. And, on return to Australia, they were destined to become future leaders in their chosen fields.
To see the full gallery of images from last night’s event, click here.