Oxford firsts

Paul Gray and Christian Thompson will be the first Aboriginal students to attend Oxford, after winning scholarships honouring the activist Charlie Perkins.

Mr Gray (left), 26, will complete a doctorate in psychology, studying the effect of childhood trauma on later mental health. Mr Thompson (right), 32, will pursue doctoral studies in fine arts, combining a thesis and solo performance. The filmmaker Rachel Perkins presented the award, telling the pair to maintain the fire in their bellies that drove her late father to become the first Aboriginal man to graduate from university. "It's a big honour and also a big responsibility," Mr Gray said. "These are exceptionally, I think impossibly, large shoes to fill." There are 8500 indigenous people at universities in Australia. Yuko Narushima

Published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 March 2010.

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