Record and Preserve Cultural Heritage

In 2025, the University of Newcastle continued to record, preserve and share intangible cultural heritage through community-led research, oral histories, storytelling and cultural education. Our work supports First Nations knowledge and language, the histories of communities across New South Wales, and diverse cultural experiences, while respecting the authority of the people whose stories are told.

Recording Indigenous cultural histories across New South Wales

During 2025, the University’s Purai Global Indigenous History Centre advanced the project Truth Telling: A History of Indigenous Australian Education in New South Wales, undertaken with the NSW Department of Education and researchers from the universities of Wollongong and Sydney. The project brings together archival records, oral-history interviews and student yarning circles to preserve Aboriginal people’s own experiences of education, family histories, resilience and cultural continuity.

^{Unknown Ancestors: Adam Manning}

The research team conducted 71 oral-history interviews involving 90 people in 2024, capturing more than 119 hours of testimony from people representing 35 NSW Aboriginal language groups or Nations and two interstate groups. In 2025, Purai developed and submitted associated educational resources for departmental review, including oral-history profile booklets, a digital map, historical timelines, teaching materials and scripts for animations drawing on participants’ stories. These resources support the long-term recording and sharing of Indigenous experiences and knowledge across communities and generations.

Local cultural knowledge, storytelling and community participation

Nguraki Elders and cultural mentoring

Through our Wollotuka Institute, we operate an Elders in Residence program, where Nguraki (Awabakal term meaning Elder, Wise Person, Cultural Mentor) guide the transmission of lore, Dreaming stories, and cultural protocols within the university context.

The Nguraki council advises on cultural standards, educational activities and community engagement, helping ensure that cultural knowledge is shared appropriately and under the guidance of Elders and knowledge-holders. This ongoing cultural mentorship supports the transmission of local Aboriginal ways of knowing and strengthens connections between generations.

2025 Bird Opera and Ngarrama storytelling

In October 2025, University researchers held a community Bird Opera workshop with more than 120 school students from the Hunter, involving First Nations staff, artists and researchers. Students explored language, music, movement and their own stories in a community-led creative process. The workshop contributed to a continuing project, with a public performance planned for 2026.

At the Ngarrama event on 25 January 2025, the University and community partners also supported the sharing of Awabakal and Worimi cultural knowledge through traditional dance, music, storytelling and reflection on Country. Ngarrama provides an important public setting for living cultural transmission, complementing the University’s archival and research projects.

Preserving regional oral histories and archival memory

The University’s GLAMx Living Histories Digitisation Lab supports the preservation and accessibility of regional cultural records through digital archiving, oral histories and collection-based research. In an earlier community-history project, University students and researchers recorded 20 oral histories and digitised more than 300 archival items concerning Newcastle’s former co-operative department store, known as The Store. This project shows how everyday experiences, recollections and community traditions can be protected for future generations.

Cultural heritage of displaced and culturally diverse communities

The University has also supported the recording and public presentation of stories of people with refugee experiences. The 2024 Belongings – Distil Immersive exhibition at Watt Space Gallery presented interactive video narratives from six people who sought asylum in Australia, using treasured personal belongings to communicate experiences of displacement, cultural identity and belonging. The related 2024 Unity Project brought together hundreds of small ceramic houses made with participants from refugee and wider communities. These earlier projects remain important examples of preserving the stories of displaced communities.

The All Cultures Weave artwork, launched at NUspace in 2023, similarly brought together First Nations weaving knowledge with cultural practices contributed by international students from more than 30 countries. The University’s Arts and Culture Strategy 2025–2030 recognises this collaborative practice and its ongoing role in welcoming communities and sharing cultural traditions. This is broader cross-cultural heritage work, rather than evidence of a refugee-specific programme in 2025.

^{The All Cultures Weave artwork located at NUspace.}

Respecting community ownership of cultural knowledge

Our Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Protocol supports ethical recording, digitisation, use and sharing of Indigenous languages, stories and traditional knowledge. It helps ensure that heritage projects respect community rights, knowledge-holders and cultural protocols, alongside the University’s broader commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led research.

Through oral-history research, cultural mentorship, creative collaboration and community archives, the University of Newcastle helps sustain the stories and knowledge that give communities their identity. Our work in 2025 strengthened opportunities for First Nations and other communities to preserve their experiences and share them on their own terms.