Professor Peter Coloe

VCE Sponsor of RMIT’s New Academic Street, RMIT University

Wurrunggi Biik: Law of the Land represents many things. It embodies a spirit of Country and place. It reflects Aboriginal knowledge and Indigenous peoples status as First Nations people.

It also represents RMIT’s commitment to reconciliation and building a shared future with our Indigenous staff, students, and community. As a University, and a community of thought-leaders and world-shapers, we are passionate about continuing our journey towards sustainable and genuine reconciliation. This commitment is outlined in our Dhumbah Goorowa Reconciliation Plan 2019–2020. This plan articulates how we will progress Indigenous self-determination by developing strong bonds with Australia’s First Peoples through our institutional values, policy and practice, and supporting staff and students in their personal understanding of and connection to Indigeneity.

As the VCE sponsor of RMIT’s New Academic Street project, I am particularly thrilled to see Wurrunggi Biik take up its place in the heart of our city campus.

I have been engaged with the New Academic Street development from its inception. Back in 2011, a team of RMIT staff led by the Property Services met to discuss how to transform and activate the city campus, and our presence on Swanston Street. These discussions morphed into the New Academic Street project which, in 2012, saw Carey Lyon, Director of the architectural practice Lyons, lead a consortium of architectural practices of RMIT alumni to reimagine the centre of our City campus.

The resulting design has rejuvenated our University and created inspirational, collaborative and colourful spaces for students and staff. RMIT’s New Academic Street officially opened in 2017. Spanning 32,000 square metres of indoor and outdoor spaces, it has fast become a precinct where thousands of students study, socialise and collaborate every week. It is appropriate that Wurrunggi Biik: Law of the Land takes its place in the centre of this precinct on Bowen Street.

Thank you to all of the RMIT funding bodies that supported this public artwork—the New Academic Street Project, Property Services Group, the RMIT Art Fund and RMIT University Art Collection and our Vice-Chancellor Martin Bean.

Thanks also to the immensely creative people who brought Wurrunggi Biik to life: artist Vicki Couzens, her collaborators Jeph Neale and Hilary Jackson, and curators Grace Leone and Jessica Clark.

My hope is that this stunning artwork will draw people together, spark reflection, and signify RMIT’s commitment to building a shared future, one that reflects the reality that people, custom and Country are inextricably linked.