The Gawura Indigenous school, itself part of St Andrew’s Cathedral School in the city, recently celebrated the graduation of the first three secondary graduates at an event held at St Andrew’s House.

Ivor Rigney-Sebastian, who graduated in 2011, as well as Kas Mann and Sonny Green, who both graduated in 2012, have all been offered places or are currently at university.

Kas Mann, who is currently in the middle of a gap year working with a community service project in rural India, says she sees Gawura as more than a pathway to her own future.

“I am indebted to Gawura,” she says. “I don’t see it as a personal benefit; I see it as more than that. It has influenced my family so much. Also, having the younger Gawura kids here motivates you to stay on the right path; you hope they want to succeed like you... It’s the little drives and the little things that help.”

The founder of the Gawura school and current principal of Canberra’s Radford College, Mr Phillip Heath, was also at the event to give the keynote address.

At the school’s official opening in 2007, Mr Heath said, “How can we as a school and we as a community stand with hands in pocket and wait for governments to act while the original people of our land continue to be the most disadvantaged people in our country?”

The ceremony, attended by Cathedral School students, staff, family, friends, and other members of the local community, also featured musical items reflecting the mix of cultures within in the school.

Gawura, now in its sixth year of operation, provides fully funded scholarships for indigenous students, with the $800,000 annual expenditure coming mostly from corporate donors and other trusts and individuals.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported in 2012 that the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students completing their secondary schooling had risen beyond 50 per cent for the first time since records began.