Located on Birpai Country, the Port Macquarie campus is the first saltwater and freshwater campus in the Charles Sturt University footprint.
The Port Macquarie campus features an outdoor lecture space and yarning circle that allows for meeting and teaching around a fire pit.
The significance of the Yarning Circle is equity (all facing the center), for engagement and open communication. It's a safe space where everyone has an opportunity to be heard.
The Yarning Circle also extends beyond communication. It is a way of maintaining connection to cultural practices and traditions. Storytelling in this format preserves oral histories, language and ancestral wisdom, all of which are integral to the identity of First Nations peoples.
Country, clans, individuals and families have totems. A totem can be a natural object or element, plant, or animal.
Totems are one of the key features of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' kinship structure. This structure connects people to each other, the land, the ancestors and the Dreaming.
Through this kinship structure, the individual has roles, responsibilities and obligations to care for their Gimbay/Minigal/Bakuwi to ensure its survival.
