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$20,000 private donation for Aboriginal scholarship

September 28, 2005

Bruce StandenThe University of New England has received a $20,000 private donation to pay for one young Aboriginal scholar to study natural resources at UNE.

Dr Bruce Standen of Pymble, NSW presented the cheque for $20,000 to Anne Roczniok, director of UNE's Development Office, at Booroongen Djugen Aboriginal College in Kempsey last week.

The scholarship will be known as the Booroongen Djugen Scholarship in honour of the college, whose work Dr Standen said inspired him to make the donation.

Dr Standen is a former managing director of the Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation and the current chair of the UNE Foundation, a charitable body that raises, invests and distributes funds to provide ongoing support for initiatives, scholarships and research at UNE.

Dr Standen told a gathering of about 70 people he had decided to donate the money to UNE after working with the Booroongen Djugen Aboriginal Corporation to develop a business plan for an Aboriginal natural resources consultancy to service landowners in the Northern Rivers area. He said while government agencies and private corporations were keen to tap into Aboriginal knowledge about land use and native plants and animals, “it quickly became apparent that the Aboriginal community was not yet organized well enough to provide those services”.

“It occurred to me that one way I could make a contribution would be to provide a scholarship for a Koori person from New South Wales to undertake study in natural resources at UNE,” he said. “The more an indigenous person could understand the academic and government agency approaches, the more it would enable the achievement of what we had been talking about in terms of a natural resources consulting facility.”

Dr Standen said the need for more Aboriginal people to undertake formal study in natural resources as well as personal experience had motivated him to make the donation. He said as a young man living on the North Coast he had received a “leg up” from the government to attend university and it was “time to return the favour”. He said he hoped his donation would close the gap between a young Aboriginal person's desire to go to university and their capacity to do so.

Dr Standen completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics at UNE in 1965 and went on to study at the London School of Economics.

Ms Roczniok said she was very happy to accept the donation on behalf of the university.

“I look forward to working with the Aboriginal community to choose a student to take up this scholarship, and assisting them to bridge the gap between the academic perspective on natural resource management and traditional aboriginal knowledge and wisdom.”

For more information contact Leon Braun (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3771. A photograph is available to accompany this story.

Posted by Leon Braun at September 28, 2005 09:58 AM