The University of Sydney, Australia

Mapping, protecting and enriching Aboriginal Cultural Heritage landscapes

The mapping, protecting and enriching Aboriginal Cultural Heritage landscapes project seeks to enhance existing relationships with local Aboriginal communities and Elders, and recognise the tangible and intangible cultural heritage embedded in landscapes at regional and remote campuses. At Narrabri New South Wales (NSW), scar trees and axe grinding grooves were noted to be on site by local Gamilaraay community members, which formed the foundation of the project to map and assess cultural assets, and to guide future planning to best preserve, acknowledge and protect sites.

This project is significant as it is facilitating exchanges of knowledge by prioritising local values and people in the cultural heritage mapping process, and is creating a safe space for sharing knowledge, generating recommendations and action plans, and hosting community days to implement tree planting days (involving staff and students). 

Finally, this project has enriched the implementation of sustainability initiatives to encompass social, governance, and enhance operational endeavours.  

What the Judges Thought

Integrating the Sustainability Strategy with the One Sydney, Many People Indigenous Strategy has given a very strong foundation for this application. It combines good environmental outcomes with good cultural outcomes and it has clearly been managed effectively with commitment from key stakeholders. 

Top 3 Learnings

1. Enriched the implementation of sustainability initiatives to encompass social, governance, and enhance operational endeavours.
2. Community-led, reciprocal and co-designed projects with local communities creates safe spaces for sharing knowledge and leads to better informed decision-making.
3. Benefit from not just the output (the what), but the process (the how) – the project provides a methodology and ongoing legacy for operational, engagement and project processes that can be employed at other university campuses for sustainability strategy implementation.