.jpeg)
This region has remained an active and culturally significant place for its Traditional Owners for over 80,000 years, where Indigenous Australians remain the world’s oldest living culture in the world.
About us
We are an Aboriginal owned not-for-profit charity organisation.
We are registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) since 26 October 2021.
ABN: 64 654 821 959
The Shara Clarke Aboriginal Culture and Education Centre is an Aboriginal-led organisation that advances, showcases and fosters the culture and language of the Kirrae Whurrong people through arts, music and cultural education programs.
The centre aims to address the over-incarceration of Indigenous Australians by using culture and the arts as a tool of reconciliation and healing and showcasing First Peoples culture to a broad and international audience. In doing so, it seeks to become an important tourist and cultural destination in its own right and contribute to a shared and reconciled future for Australia.
The Shara Clarke Aboriginal Culture and Education Centre offers a pioneering model that harnesses culture, music, the arts and education as a means of healing for Australia’s First People.
As an Aboriginal led and owned organisation, it serves as a vehicle to ensure Aboriginal people have voice, power & opinion in the decisions that are directly affecting us. The Shara Clarke Aboriginal Culture and Education Centre is located in the Western District of Victoria on Aboriginal owned land in Purnim on Eastern Marr Country, just a 20 minute drive from Warrnambool train station.
Music, education and culture can have significant impacts on the quality of life of First Peoples in Australia. These objectives look to improve both health and wellbeing as a form of prevention to incarceration.
About Shara
Honouring Shara Clarke
The centre is named after the late Shara Clarke to honour and commemorate her and all the other Indigenous people who have suffered injustices.
Shara Janelle Clarke (Gunditjmara / Kirrae Whurrong) was the late daughter of Uncle Leonard Clarke and Glenda Thompson and devoted mother of Levi, Kureen and Isabella.
Shara Clarke passed away on Thursday, February 19, 2015.
Shara had suffered at the hands of police brutality and a state government system that had failed her and her family.
People
Our team
Aunty Patricia Clarke
Principal, Kirrae Whurrong Elder, education officer
Kirrae Craddock-Clarke
Principal, Kirrae Whurrong cultural liason officer
Uncle Leonard Clarke
Founder & Principal, Kirrae Whurrong Elder, education liason officer
Tatyana Wenzel
Principal, Community engagement officer
Bianca Elliot
Principal, Community engagement officer