It was a graduation ceremony for the books, with university staff, students and Djiringanj community members coming together to celebrate.
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On January 23, students from University of Wollongong Bega campus, gathered at the Bega Civic Centre to celebrate their graduation.
The graduation ceremony was opened with an Indigenous ceremony led by Djiringanj women and children.
Djiringanj elders Glenda Dixon and Ellen Mundy said the Indigenous ceremony had been the first of its kind at a university graduation ceremony in the Bega Civic Centre.
"It was historical in itself because it was the first time we've ever done anything like that," Aunty Ellen said.
UOW Bega Campus manager Sam Avitaia said UOW's new vice chancellor, Patricia Davidson, had instigated a change in how graduations operated and encouraged various campuses to weave in local Indigenous culture into the graduation ceremonies.
To that end UOW Bega campus Indigenous student support advisor, Emma Stewart, had worked closely with Djiringanj community members leading up to the graduation.
Collecting ochre and creating traditional necklaces and armbands with the local Indigenous women to present to the three Indigenous graduates after the formal proceedings in the Bunaan ring located within Littleton Gardens, Bega.
"We're very grateful to the local Indigenous community for how much effort and heart they put into the ceremony and it was wonderful to have both types of ceremony join as one to celebrate our local graduates," Ms Avitaia said.
Ms Avitaia commended all of her graduating students in her celebratory address, by saying she'd rarely seen such "awe-inspiring courage and resilience" from her students.
"This special cohort commenced just after the devastating Black Summer bushfires and two weeks later were all promptly sent into lock-down as our world changed forever," she said.
The UOW Bega Campus graduating class of 2022, demonstrated the ongoing popularity of health studies being taken up in regional areas, with 20 of 29 graduating students majoring in nursing.
Bega resident and UOW nursing graduate Ellie Grant said she and her fellow students had been faced with unprecedented events, in the year they began their degree in 2020.
"We really supported each other and the staff at UOW were very encouraging and supportive, I was also grateful that I could study from home and be close to my family and friends during this time," she said.
Ellie said she was delighted to see so many of her fellow nursing students secure jobs in the local community, straight after graduating.
"It's super exciting to be involved in the community and to be able to increase the amount of health care that the area provides," she said.
Eden resident and fellow nursing graduate Lilly Seymour said she and her two friends Ellie Grant and Anneliese Hughes, also shared added challenges of living on farms while they studied, where they experienced periods of drought, fires and floods which deeply impacted them.
"We had so much going on and Anneliese got flooded in quite a few times and couldn't come to campus," she said.
Lilly added that her friends Ellie and Anneliese also delivered babies in the last year of their nursing degree, which she said served as an inspiration that "you really can achieve anything if you set your mind to it".
Lilly said she'd encourage future students to make the most of the local campus and know that they'd be incredibly supported by all the staff working there.
"Everyone says oh my god university is so hard, but if you want to do it you can and you need to know that no one there wants you to fail, they'll do all they can to help you," she said.
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