2022 Roberta Sykes Scholarship Recipient Announcement

Aurora and the Robert Sykes Indigenous Education Foundation are delighted to announce the 2022 Roberta Sykes Scholarship recipients. The Roberta Sykes Indigenous Education Foundation partners with the Aurora Education Foundation to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to undertake postgraduate study abroad.

Below you will find the bios of the three 2022 scholarship recipients, whom we are sending out a huge congratulations to, and we wish them all the best with their studies overseas.

Sara-Kate Goltz-Wharton, 2022 Roberta Sykes Scholar

Sara Kate is a descendant of the Kombumerri people. Sara-Kate will be commencing a Master of Science (MSc) Politics of Conflict Rights and Justice at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

Sara Kate is an experienced diplomat who has served overseas and in Canberra. Sara Kate was Deputy Head of Mission in Sweden from 2019-2022 and is currently the Policy Adviser in the China Legal Issues Section in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.  Sara Kate has dedicated her public service career to advancing the rights of Indigenous peoples both domestically in Australia and overseas. The Roberta Sykes Scholarship has provided Sara Kate the opportunity to further build upon her human rights experience and further equip her as a human rights practitioner. As an Aboriginal woman, Sara Kate is committed to strengthening Indigenous policy.

As Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy in Sweden, Sara Kate contributed to strengthening Australia’s standing as a credible partner on Indigenous issues in Sweden and Finland and built connections and exchanges among First Nations peoples and Sweden and Finland’s Sami peoples.

Sara Kate is a dedicated public servant who is passionate about shaping the Australian Governments Indigenous human rights policy. Sara Kate is excited to apply the deepened knowledge from her Master’s programme to her future career aspirations.

Hayden Ryan, 2022 Roberta Sykes Scholar, 2021 AAA Scholarship Recipient, 2020 Aurora Study Tour Participant

Hayden is a proud Yuin man, from Narooma on the far south coast of New South Wales. As a Roberta Sykes Scholar, he will be commencing a Master of Music in Music Technology at New York University.

Hayden completed a Bachelor of Arts (Music), Minoring in Contemporary Politics & Communication, at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, in 2021. Hayden is a 2020 Aurora Study Tour scholar and has since been awarded the American Australian Association ‘Aurora Indigenous Scholarship’, in addition to the 2022 Australia Council for the Arts ‘First Nations Emerging Career Development Award’.

At NYU, Hayden will build on his skills in multichannel audio, acoustic, and music programming, and explore how we are able to use these technologies to conduct and communicate research into Indigenous sound and acoustic spaces. NYU’s focus on the 3D, spatial and immersive audio fields is what drew Hayden to apply to this program.

Bronte Gosper, 2022 Roberta Sykes Scholar, 2021 AAA Scholarship Recipient

Bronte is a Wiradjuri woman. As a Roberta Sykes Scholar, Bronte will be continuing her Master of Arts (Oral History) at Columbia University, New York.

Bronte completed a Bachelor of Arts (History) at the University of Melbourne, where she graduated with First Class Honours. She has been awarded numerous scholarships, including the prestigious John Monash Scholarship in 2021 and the American Australian Scholarship.

Bronte is passionate about combining the knowledge she has gained on the inside of Australia’s political structures with her documentary-making knowledge in a professional setting to create a work that analyses the complex relationships of Indigenous peoples to their respective governments.