Research Abstract; Design and Education; Indigenous Cultural Survival

Indigenous Australians are not traditionally considered sedentary; rather aboriginal culture defines its people as responsible for the land such that they are obliged to continually traverse it in an almost cyclic nature – not unlike nomads. This new manner of habitation, forced sedentism, is a result of systematic social, political, economic, and even physical pressure imposed by Western society post European colonisation. However, having been separated from their land and denied cultural freedom, sedentary communities such as the Wakathuni community in the Pilbara region present an opportunity for cultural survival. Since they represent a concentrated centre of cultural connections otherwise not found in modern Australia.

Manifesto; Gnaraloo Station Upgrade Proposal

In my second year of architectural studies at Curtin University, our course coordinators took myself and fellow students on a trip to Gnaraloo Station, a coastal camp-site in northern Western Australia. The task was to investigate site and occupancy, and upon return, propose an expansion of the existing camp site;

The over-riding concept driving my design is the understanding of Gnaraloo as a temporary site from both an indigenous perspective and also a western architectural perspective.

When Australia was first colonised they didn't build permanent architecture immediately - they used tents. Which unbeknownst to them was the most vernacular way to approach the land and also the way in which the aborigines approached site.

The idea of temporary is also reinforced through the aboriginal understanding of Gnaraloo - a space not to be inhabited but to be visited. Which is not unlike the way it is used today, as a popular camping and vacation site.

So rather than adopting the mantra of “Touch the Earth Lightly”, I approached with the intention of “Don’t Touch the Earth for Very Long”.

With all this in mind I allowed the spatial arrangement of site to inform itself. I mapped the existing vegetation and nominated the least dense areas for construction opportunities.