Project Context and Objectives

Grace Leone and Jessica Clark, Curators, RMIT University

The New Academic Street (NAS), a capital works project completed in 2018 was a project that transformed the heart of the RMIT University City campus; creating laneways, gardens, new student spaces, better library facilities, and public art opportunities.

RMIT University aspires to be an organisation whose community recognises the inherent value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditions, cultures, knowledges and perspectives to the University—as outlined in the RMIT Reconciliation Action Plan (2016).

In 2017 the New Academic Street commissioned a permanent public art work by Dr Vicki Couzens in collaboration with Jeph Neale and Hilary Jackman. The aim of the Commission was to provide an invaluable legacy that would live beyond the project, engage meaningfully with Aboriginal cultures, and contribute to the lifeblood of RMIT’s diverse community—reflecting on the past, acknowledging the present, and aspiring towards a future Sovereign recognition. The Commission engaged with the idea of a shared future for Australia, a future founded on Sovereign recognition, one that reflects the reality that community, culture and Country are inextricably linked, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.