Highlights
Engaging with arts and culture
The Gallery at Charles Darwin University is one of the leading contemporary art galleries in the Northern Territory. It hosts a number of exhibitions each year from local, interstate and international artists.
Northern Editions is the longest established publisher of limited edition prints in northern Australia. Northern Editions engages with communities through printmaking workshops on campus and in remote communities, through collaborative editions and exhibitions of Indigenous prints.
The CDU Centre for Youth Music (CYM) has a range of programs that provide opportunities for young people to develop the wide range of skills needed to perform effectively with other musicians.The ensemble or orchestral training program also provides an excellent forum for the development of musical and instrumental knowledge as well as increasing performance confidence.
Every two years, CDU plays host to the Darwin International Guitar Festival, a week long string fiesta featuring national and international artists.
The Darwin Symphony Orchestra (DSO) - the Territory's only resident symphony orchestra - is based at CDU’s Casuarina campus. The University provides a home for the orchestra, as well as free publicity for events and a rehearsal space.
The orchestra has 75 members, including a professional lead violinist and a woodwind tutor, and conducts up to eight public performances a year around the Northern Territory.
Engaging with science and technology
The Desert Rose project has a history dating back to 1987 and is made possible by the support of the CDU Foundation and government and industry sponsors.
The Electric Vehicle is the logical progression from solar car technology to real world applications. The new Desert Rose EV is a demonstration of technology transfer and innovation through engaged research.
Engaging Indigenous communities
CDU’s Yolngu Studies Program has developed over the past thirteen years and provides an opportunity for people from around Australia and overseas to learn about the language and culture of the people of north-east Arnhem Land.
The Yolngu Studies team comprises a group of senior Yolngu advisers from five major communities who guide the program. The Yolngu Studies program is unique. Indigenous teachers teach their languages and culture at vocational, undergraduate and postgraduate levels under the supervision of community elders. The Yolngu Studies Program won the Prime Minister’s Award in 2005.
Charles Darwin University is working with Indigenous communities to identify training needs in remote Aboriginal communities.
Mobile Adult Learning Units (MALU) are travelling classrooms that provide increased access to education for students in remote locations. Four MALUs operate out of the Alice Springs campus and can be located in communities for several weeks at a time.
CDU is working with Aboriginal co-researchers on a range of research projects of importance to Aboriginal communities. Indigenous knowledge is a key focus of research at CDU and collaborative research projects cross all of CDU’s research strength areas.
CDU coordinates the Garma Forum each year. The Forum is a central part of the Garma Festival held in North-east Arnhem Land in August each year. Speakers, policy makers and practitioners come from across Australia to sit down, talk and propose future directions for policy and practice. In 2006 the Forum theme was Indigenous Education and Training. For more information visit following websites
Find out more about CDU’s Indigenous programs