Chapter 5: Preserving a Legacy

It is too easy to see our history as one big block of vanished time. But history is layered and ongoing. The University’s collection of items and artifacts serves as a series of landmarks that guide us through our past. Each shows us, in its way, how legacy has led us to where we are today.

In the University Library, we find four precious incunabula: books printed in the first 50 years of the printing press. Among these is an edition of the Digest of Justinian from 1482, which was itself a republication of the ancient writings of Justinian I, who wrote to reinterpret laws even more ancient. This edition of the Digest was donated by Sir Samuel Way in 1916, alongside 16,400 other books. With just one artifact, we see in microcosm the layers and layers of legacy that run throughout the University.

Every day presents an opportunity to set new layers down. Of the five known documents written by the Kaurna people in their language in the 1800s, three are in the University’s care. But nearly two hundred years later, in 2021, the hard work of the Kaurna Warra teams resulted in the publication of Kaurna Warrapiipa, the Kaurna Dictionary. This document is part of an ongoing effort to reclaim Kaurna language and space. It gives future generations the means to reconnect with this land’s first culture.

Our legacy goes beyond the items in our collection. It goes to what those items represent. Each is a reminder of the past’s influence on the future. We have inherited the legacy of those who went before us, and we will leave legacies of our own. May those who follow us find that we rose to the occasion.

The University of Adelaide: 150 Years of Making History.  Preserving a legacy.  p.175