This article by Senior Designer at Balarinji Manuela Strano and Indigenous Community Engagement Specialist at Balarinji Tessa Flick explores how, since the Government Architect NSW introduced its Connecting with Country framework in 2022, there has been a significant increase in the number of built projects and developments seeking to adopt this methodology.

Op ed authors.png — Senior Designer Manuela Strano and Indigenous Community Engagement Specialist Tessa Flick

While it is great to see an uptake in project teams interested in Connecting with Country, there remains a lot of uncertainty about what it means to connect with Country and how to create a Country-centred approach that influences design of better Places.

On the surface the concept is straightforward, valuing how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and culture can inform the planning, design and delivery of the built environment. Many in the sector have shown strong interest in the concept and accept its importance. Less certain is how to apply the relevant methodology.

Understanding Country

Country is an Aboriginal worldview with no Western equivalent. It represents nature at a deeper level, where all things are interconnected and the spiritual underlies the physical.

Country is much more than the physical land we are standing on. It encompasses all living things. It is not owned, but lived with and understood as a sentient presence, speaking through landforms, waters, skies and Ancestors. It is a relationship that has been formed and nurtured for tens of thousands of years, handed down the generations through song, dance, ceremony, art and land management.

A central pillar of Aboriginal culture is a collective responsibility for sustaining Country for the generations to come, and the philosophy that “if we care for Country, Country will care for us.”

Aboriginal peoples have a deep and interconnected relationship with the physical and spiritual elements of Country. Their lives are entirely integrated with the Places where they belong, where language, culture, knowledge, Law/Lore, and ceremony are interdependent and one with Country. A change in one of these elements affects all the others.

Connection to Place

In Australia, there are hundreds of unique Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders language groups, each with their own unique, deep history and story to tell.

Understanding the significance of Place in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture is imperative. Place ties into spirituality, knowledge, story, identity and sovereignty.

Understanding the Aboriginal historical and cultural significance of the site where a project is being built is a tangible act of reconciliation and one that acknowledges community’s presence in sovereignty, memory and enduring connection.

It is this holistic relationship with Country that has nurtured Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for over 65,000 years and continues to do so.

Deep listening and co-design

Indigenous knowledge is diminished if only considered in theory. Embedding it into practice needs design-led engagement and collaboration with locally-connected Indigenous knowledge holders and creative practitioners.

Instead of past approaches that merely reflected on Indigenous knowledges, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples rightly expect a shift towards genuine co-design and partnership. This approach ensures initiatives are developed with Indigenous peoples, not just about them. The design result is exponentially richer.

A best-practice co-design process establishes the cultural narrative of the project by drawing out Place-based knowledge, spirituality, protocols, history, culture and contemporary stories to be interpreted for design thinking.

This style of co-design is groundbreaking and goes beyond traditional methods of consultation for approvals or endorsement. Instead, it deeply engages Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge holders in the design process and centres their voices as co-authors. It translates authentic, cultural narratives from Country into contemporary design that celebrates a unique Australian identity.

Designing with Country

Simply put, designing with Country is integrating knowledges, values and narratives of Country into design outcomes.

It is a transformational approach, one that challenges us to reflect on deeper meaning. It’s taking the themes and narratives co-designed with Aboriginal knowledge holders and embedding them into urban planning, infrastructure masterplans, public art strategies or major branding campaigns.

This approach is a shift from human-centred design to Country-centred design, a reimaging of how Place, story and identity intersect. It expands the definition of Place to include ecosystems, kinship, spirituality and culture in a uniquely Australian framework.

Connecting with Country is only the beginning. The next step is to embed knowledge into structure, meaning into form, and culture into Australia’s identity. As designers it allows us to acknowledge history, celebrate diversity and envisage a future built on originality, respect and reconciliation.

Image: Eucalypt canopy sculpture along M12 Motorway, created in co-design by Balarinji and the M12 Aboriginal artist cohort for Transport for NSW, 2025 / supplied

Architecture News & Editorial Desk

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