Connect and Design with Country, a webinar held by GroupGSA last Thursday to coincide with Reconciliation Week, saw 60 people tune in to discuss how Indigenous customs can become further intertwined with the built environment.

The esteemed panel included Sydney Water’s Veronica Murphy, a proud Kamilaroi woman, WSP Technical Executive Michael Hromek; Old Ways, New founder Angie Abdilla and GroupGSA Director Lisa-Maree Carrigan.

Carrigan says that the webinar went well overall, with some planned questions going unasked due to interactive and thought-provoking discussion between the panellists.

“The goals set (for the webinar) were about broadening the awareness within our collective team and with some invited clients for whom this might be a new discussion and project consideration. Certainly from an awareness perspective we achieved the goals,” she says.

“The deeper issues that were mentioned of cultural appropriation, and how we can be genuine and appropriate in our engagement on projects certainly could have been much lengthier discussions.”

Michael Hromek, a descendent of the Yuin People and proud Budawang man, believes authentic Indigenous engagement enhances the sense of place within a development or project.

“By co-designing with Elders and knowledge holders, we’re including voices that historically have been pushed to the side, but are now important to our society. It brings more community ownership over these private spaces which in turn get looked after better and have a cultural connection.”

Carrigan believes the 2022 theme for Reconciliation Week applies to the built environment on both a personal and communal level.

Lisa-Maree Carrigan GroupGSA

“The theme of ‘Be Brave, Make Change’ aligns well with our values and to the journey that each practitioner must go on, i.e. being brave and making change. It starts with individual responsibility, engagement, learning and action.

“As a practice we support, but we all have a responsibility to take this discussion and act towards reconciliation personally.”

Veronica Murphy, Sydney Water’s First Nations Inclusion Specialist, says a fundamental understanding of heritage is required to fully respect and comprehend the context of a site.

“It's important these conversations with land councils, native titleholders and Elders or their representatives start early in the initial planning stages of a project,” she says.

“It provides a clear demonstration of respect for First Nations people by recognising their ongoing connection to Country, but also brings a different perspective to how we design for the built environment. What did the land look like before colonisation? What was it used for? If it's a waterway, we know that along many of our waterways there are burial sites, some birthing sites, some areas where some initiation practices happened. It’s finding out as much information as you can before you put pen to paper and ensure that communities are always involved in those discussions.”

To watch the webinar in full, click here.

Images: Supplied

Jarrod Reedie

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