Macquarie University’s official Acknowledgement of Country has been revised to reflect the recent renaming of our main campus to Wallumattagal Campus.

A version of the Acknowledgement will be embedded in new signage welcoming visitors to the campus and staff are encouraged to add the Acknowledgment to their email signatures.

Long and short forms have been developed, which can be adapted by staff to make it meaningful to them, as Walanga Muru’s Taylah Pearce explains.

“We’d encourage all Macquarie staff to add the Acknowledgement to their emails to respectfully pay tribute to Aboriginal Elders as the knowledge holders of culture and custodians of the land on which we meet,” she said. “It’s our way of recognising that this always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.”

“Staff might want to change ‘we’ to ‘I’ to indicate that they individually endorse the statement, and those who work from home might like to add an acknowledgment of the traditional custodians of the land where they live,” Taylah adds.

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Short version:

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Macquarie University stands – the Wallumattagal Clan of the Dharug Nation – whose cultures and customs have nurtured, and continue to nurture, this land since time immemorial. We pay our respects to the Elders, past and present.

Example for staff member working from home on Gadigal land in Sydney:

I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Macquarie University stands – the Wallumattagal Clan of the Dharug Nation – whose cultures and customs have nurtured, and continue to nurture, this land since time immemorial. And I acknowledge the Gadigal people, on whose land I live. I pay respects to Elders, past and present.

Learn how to change your email footer >>

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Taylah urges staff to check the spelling of Wallumattagal, which has existed in several different forms but was formally adopted this year in the form used in this story.

“Being a verbal rather than a written language, Dharug words often exist in many forms. After extensive consultation this spelling has been formally adopted.”

The Group Marketing team is managing a project that’s seen the Wallumattagal Campus name adopted throughout the Macquarie website, on maps and addresses.

Watch This is Wallumattagal Campus, featuring the Vice-Chancellor, the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy) and Macquarie staff and students: