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The University of Western Australia has been declared overall winner of the 13th National Indigenous Tertiary Education Student Games held in Perth last week, with Newcastle University second and Griffith University placed third.

More than 200 indigenous students from around Australia competed in the games, hosted by the Western Australian Students Aboriginal Corporation together with UWA's School of Indigenous Studies and The University of Western Australia.

The event ran from Tuesday 16th to Friday 19th September and attracted 14 teams representing four WA universities and nine interstate tertiary institutions. UWA won the basketball and netball competitions while Newcastle University took first place in touch rugby and Griffith University won the volleyball.

Six NSW universities took part, including University of New England, University of Wollongong and University of Newcastle, as well as Queensland University of Technology and University of Canberra.

Jeromy Harvey, from UWA's School of Indigenous Studies, said the Games provided a rare opportunity to bring together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students from around the country to participate and compete at a national level and exchange cultural knowledge and experience from different regions.

"The aim of the gathering is to promote unity, a healthy lifestyle, positive interaction and friendly competition between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tertiary students, while also giving them the opportunity to develop and maintain national networks," Mr Harvey said.

"The Games allow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture to be seen in a positive light and produce role models for the community."

Media references

Jeromy Harvey (UWA School of Indigenous Studies) (+61 8)  6488 7030  /  (+61 4) 33 882 353
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716