UQ Indigenous Engagement staff member Maria Waria recently earned a Leadership Award as part of the 2023 Research and Innovation Portfolio Staff Awards.
As Administrative Officer - Indigenous Researcher Development, Mary operates across the UQ Graduate School and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit.
She has spent the past two years building and modelling relationships between Indigenous students, ATSISU staff and the GradSchool.
Mary supported Associate Professor Stephanie Gilbert, Coordinator for Indigenous Researcher Development, to instigate the inaugural Smart, Fast Deadly 3MT competition.
She also guided Indigenous Higher Degree Research students to Aotearoa (New Zealand), to create valuable connections. This involved liaising with NZ organisers, making all travel arrangements, escorting the students and wrangling all the university systems to make this happen.
Part of this was a cultural element as the touring group was to enter the NZ workshop via the Marae (Māori meeting ground). This is a very structured process and the students (with Mary) had to culturally engage with the process by learning a song that they performed in response to the welcome.
Mary has taken on public speaking about her work at national conferences. She is well received and respected both within the University and across the other spaces she works in.
The award citation notes that Mary exhibits all the UQ values in her work.
"Going to work at UQ as one of very few Torres Strait Islanders, her work and actions are taken as representative in a way that ordinary staff members of UQ are not," the citation says.
"Her openness to hear and work without judgement with her colleagues in the GradSchool is hightly admirable. She has challenged herself greatly to speak and share with her colleagues about a life and a set of values they have only heard about. Her presence and contribution is everyday a gift to our organisation.
"Whilst Mary has climbed over many hurdles learning the UQ culture, her willingness to come back again and again has led to her great success, and appreciation from others.
"Mary is creative in coming up with new activites and ways to look at Indigenous support. She is respectful to all she deals with and inclusive to all around her. She shows integrity in her dealings and is happy to share her truth about the Indigenous experience."