Rhodes House welcomes first Indigenous Australian students to Oxford
Rhodes House today hosted a reception to welcome to Oxford the inaugural holders of the Charlie Perkins Scholarships to enable Indigenous Australians to study at Oxford.
Paul Gray, a graduate of the University of Sydney, will read for a DPhil in experimental psychology, and Christian Thompson, a graduate of RMIT University in Melbourne, will read for a DPhil in Oxford University's Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art.
Paul and Christian will be the first Indigenous Australian students at the University of Oxford. Paul's particular interest is in trauma to children and improving children's services, and Christian's is in performance art.
The Charlie Perkins Scholars will start their doctoral studies in October 2010, and visited Oxford in April, staying at Rhodes House, to visit their departments and to become familiar with colleges, the wider University, and the town.
Representatives of several colleges and other parts of the University were at today's Rhodes House reception to welcome Paul and Christian. They were joined by Rhodes Scholars and other postgraduate students, and representatives of the major sponsors of the Scholarships - Rio Tinto, the Australian and British Governments, and Qantas.
The Scholarships are named for Dr Charlie Perkins (1936-2000), the first Indigenous Australian man to graduate from a university, who dedicated his life to achieving justice for Indigenous Australians, and who served, amongst other roles, as Secretary of Australia's Department of Aboriginal Affairs.
The Scholarships have been initiated by the Charlie Perkins Trust, whose Executive Director, Richard Potok (New South Wales & St John's 1984), has worked tirelessly to bring them into being, and who spoke at the reception.
The Warden of Rhodes House, Dr Donald Markwell, said that, after Charlie Perkins's death in October 2000, he had welcomed people to a memorial service for him at Trinity College, University of Melbourne, of which Dr Markwell was then Warden; and he was honoured now to host a reception to welcome the inaugural Charlie Perkins Scholars to Oxford.
Rhodes House also hosted the Oxford launch of the Charlie Perkins Scholarships in November 2009.
