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Help us open doors for First Nations students in Victoria
Together We Walk Events
Join our 4th Annual Together We Walk Together event on the 4th of August 2025! Raise funds by coming up with your own fundraising activity or walk-a-thon. Your school community can empower First Nations students through education.
A Letter To My
Grandchildren
Some Words From Our Chairperson
Vicki Clark OAM reflects on her experiences and shared her thoughts on self-determination and the Voice to Parliament in a letter to her grandchildren.
Our Vision
The Opening The Doors Foundation is a 25-year old First Nations led organisation supporting educational opportunities for First Nations children. It provides First Nations children from regional, remote and urban communities across Australia, with educational opportunities within Victorian non-government schools - enabling them to participate fully and equally in education, by supporting families to make their own choices about their children’s future for their entire education journey from foundation to Year 12. It is the only First Nations organisation that supports a child throughout their entire13-year educational journey. The achievement of a successful and culturally appropriate education experience helps 'Close The Gap', radically altering the systemic and generational disadvantage currently being experienced.
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OTDF offers direct support to First Nations students and their families, ensuring they are able to choose the quality education they deserve, are retained and supported in education and have the same opportunities as any other Australian children, thereby reducing inequalities. We achieve these goals by providing families with the opportunity to self-determine their education. The Aboriginal self-determination policy introduced in 1972 replaced assimilation as the official government approach to Indigenous affairs. First Nations people gained the right to make decisions about matters affecting their
own lives, including their education. The cost of an Independent school education, because of the requirement to pay school fees, in addition to other education expenses like uniforms, in effect removes the self-determining choice. OTDF’s support closes the cost gap by supporting parents and guardians, reduces inequalities and reinstates self-determined education choice.
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Black and White Stories
Co-Founders of the Foundation - Vicki Clark and John Arthur, join the Black and White Stories podcast to share how Opening The Doors Foundation began and has grown over the last two decades. Listen to the full podcast below.
FIRE Carrier Program Friends Igniting Reconciliation in Education
The FIRE Carrier Program promotes reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Victorian Catholic Schools. FIRE stands for Friends Igniting Reconciliation through Education. FIRE Carrier schools commit to reconciliation actions in their school covenant through the core value areas of Cultural Recognition and Awareness; Spirituality; and Practical Reconciliation and Justice.
