The Uluru Statement from the Heart is a gracious invitation, amplifying the expressed wish of Indigenous Australia for Voice, Treaty and Truth. Potentialities well beyond the political, call for a ‘Total Reset’. Yet how do architects authentically “Walk With” and “Listen Deeply” to the ancient wisdom of Country and the Traditional Custodians? When sovereignty has never been ceded.
We have Co-envisioned with Twofold Aboriginal Corporation, Jigamy on the far South NSW Coast. We acknowledge the lived experience of the Monaro and Yuin People and all Indigenous people in the local community and deeply appreciate the mutual reciprocity and exchange.
Relational processes create opportunities to explore a deeper self-awareness of existential values which move us within the metaphysical, informing the physical. Co-designing with community and honouring the creative relationship with the sentience of country, through architectural activism. Enables spaces of hope and transformation.
Abandoning the assumed ‘known’, we engaged in reflexive opportunities to address the tension and complex ecologies, internal /external, macro/micro, visible and invisible, personal/ public. The design explorations become contributors to the collective consciousness through a holistic awareness of systemic principles located in this contemporary movement of transition.
The project called for the conceptualisation of catalytic cultural hubs including and not limited to; education, creative, gallery and exhibition spaces for engaged community dialogues and embodied regenerative propositions. The studio explored the critical role of inspired agency in the co-creation of spaces for collective futures.
