NAIDOC week may have just wrapped up on Sunday 13 July but local Robina’s Bond Indigenous Awareness Society (BIAS) will continue with their mission of educating our community, gearing up to roll out their Indigenous Perspectives Program at Varsity College next month.

Bond Indigenous Awareness Society (BIAS) are a group of volunteer Bond University students who have set out with the mission of broadening cultural awareness for both non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians, both at Bond University and in our Robina and Gold Coast City community.

During National Reconciliation Week (NRW) in June, BIAS executive members Emily MacDonald (Vice President) and Jessica Howe (Secretary) attended Varsity College to give a presentation to students about the reconciliation effort. Varsity College students received the presentation with enthusiasm, engaged and eager to learn and thanks to their overwhelmingly positive response, Varsity College staff asked BIAS back for a day of workshops with the children about Indigenous culture and inequalities faced in today’s society.

It was this workshop that fostered the partnership with Varsity College and the BIAS Indigenous Perspectives Program (IPP) was born.

IPP aims to connect Robina’s Bond University students with Varsity College students and the wider community in an ongoing relationship of learning about our contemporary Indigenous people.

The IPP key message is to acknowledge the inequalities Indigenous Australians face and through raising awareness of these inequalities and celebrating modern and traditional Indigenous culture, our community can come closer to achieving real reconciliation.

The learning is two-fold; Varsity College students will develop and enhance their understanding of Indigenous culture and volunteer Bond students who deliver the program will also improve their understanding of how we celebrate, recognise and honour modern Indigenous culture and why we must continue to strive to close the gap.

The next IPP workshop with Varsity College students is planned for 18 August 2014 and BIAS hopes to continue this valuable partnership into the future.

For more information about BIAS and their commitment to cultural awareness in our community, visit the BIAS Facebook page