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Professor Alison Page (Tharawal, Yuin), Matte McConnell (Wiradjuri), Marni Reti (Paluwa, Ngāti Wai), and Mackenzie Saddler (Wiradjuri)
DESIGNING WITH COUNTRY is sited on Wareamah (Cockatoo Island) in Sydney Harbour. Wareamah is a place of exceptional cultural, historical, and social heritage value, layered with complexity, and is an iconic destination within Sydney Harbour. With a UNESCO World Heritage status, the Island has a unique cultural landscape from its deep time identity as a mountain within a freshwater valley 7000 years ago, to an island that was used by the early colonists as a jail for convicts, frontier war soldiers and later for reforming girls. It became a staging area for the biggest naval shipyard in the British World War effort and to build Australia’s maritime industry. Layered with so many complex stories, this site is a microcosm of Australia’s true history, which is both painful and triumphant.
This immersive studio engages with these histories and invites learners to participate in their interpretation through various disciplines of design: architecture, landscape architecture, interiors, fashion, graphic design, industrial design and construction management. They develop studio projects over 12 weeks, exploring principles of DESIGNING WITH COUNTRY with First Nations teachers.
The studio includes an immersive ‘on Country’ cultural experience where students learn how to make traditional watercraft (Barranga / Nawi) with Aboriginal teachers, staying on Wareamah (Cockatoo Island).
