Koorie Footprints to Higher Education

On show at Switchback Gallery, Monash Gippsland from February 11 to March 11 is Koorie Footprints to Higher Education, a wide-ranging survey of indigenous printmaking that has emerged from the innovative Monash access program over 2008 -  2009

The Koorie Footprints to Higher Education program, hosted by Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, won a 2008 Wurreker Award from the Victorian Aboriginal Advancement League for best University program.
Sponsored by the Victorian Education Association, the Wurreker Awards acknowledge strategies that support Koorie learners and encourage community development.

The program, devised and implemented by Robyn Heckenberg from Gippsland Indigenous Studies, Arts Faculty, aims to increase the education aspirations of Koorie learners by immersing them in a university environment. Participants study printmaking in the Gippsland Centre for Art and Design printmaking studios with GCAD printmaker Kate Zizys.

Said GCAD Director Rodney Forbes, “As a result of the program, an exciting body of printmaking work is emerging which features imagery from a range of indigenous communities and also highlights the powerful geometric motifs of the local Gunnai culture. We know that the program creates a more welcoming environment for indigenous scholars”