5.8 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Cultural and Ceremonial Leave

The University acknowledges the importance of cultural and ceremonial obligations to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Continuing or fixed-term Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander employees will be granted ten (10) days of paid Cultural and Ceremonial Leave each calendar year.

Cultural and Ceremonial Leave is granted either upon commencement or at the start of the calendar year and does not accumulate from year to year.

Cultural and Ceremonial Leave can be used to participate in activities such as:

1. Native Title and/or cultural heritage meetings (to support determination, family representative on native title body corporations);

2. significant events (e.g. NAIDOC Week Events);

3. undertaking a Welcome to Country;

4. initiation birthing and naming;

5. sorry business (funeral and related cultural and ceremonial activities that Compassionate Leave may not cover);

6. smoking or cleansing ceremonies;

7. sacred site or land, sea and sky ceremonies;

8. repatriation ceremonies, including the return of ancestors and/or artifacts; and

9. women’s and men’s related ceremonies and/or business.

When Cultural and Ceremonial Leave has been exhausted, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander employees can utilise their Community and/or Personal Leave for the purposes of attending to cultural and/or ceremonial obligations.

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander employees can also apply for paid Extraordinary Leave when all their Personal Leave and Cultural and Ceremonial Leave has been exhausted.