Creating with connection

What does a true partnership between designers and First Nations peoples look like? Here, Anne-Marie Pisani, First Peoples’ Partnerships and Design Lead, reflects on the Riawunna Garden project at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) and argues that genuine collaboration requires curiosity, generosity, and an equitable partnership that looks to benefit all.

We often begin new projects by asking questions: Do we understand the pre-conceived ideas we bring to our work? What happens when we try to understand these pre-conceptions and actively challenge them?

The Riawunna Garden project can provide some interesting answers. The garden formed part of the relocation of the Riawunna Centre for Aboriginal Education from Invermay to Inveresk. ASPECT Studios was engaged to undertake the full landscape design for the project with Wardle architects. As a starting point, we looked to the Centre’s past: In the late 1990s, when the landscape of the Invermay centre was designed, the community were actively involved by designers Urban Initiatives in association with Sinatra Murphy. We understood the significance of this relocation in the development of this new garden and important cultural protocols that would need to be followed.

Our approach therefore began with a genuine interest in building a relationship with staff and the community to understand how we could best help them. Previous Head of Service for Riawunna, Caroline Spotswood, was generous in sharing an understanding of the university and broader Indigenous communities from the local area, from other parts of Tasmania and from across the Country. We are conscious of the cultural load that communities carry and always consider how we can take responsibility and share this load.

We visited the community in Invermay, and talked about who they were, what the new place meant, and what they needed of it. By taking the time to have these conversations, we were able to understand the significance of the community’s connections to Country and develop a shared understanding of important cultural values and practices. We also spent time together on the new university campus – the future home for Riawunna – to provide an opportunity to explore and best inform the design from the very beginning. Outcomes of these on-site meetings informed the final location of the garden, which was moved, expanded and included the realignment of an easement in finalising its current location on the northeast side of the building. UTAS and Wardle Architects respected the outcomes of these conversations and worked closely with us to see the design to fruition, which ultimately lead to the successful outcome not only for the university, but also for the community.

At the same time, UTAS had formed a Tasmanian Aboriginal Reference Group to guide and embed First Peoples’ interests into the University’s overall Northern Transformation project. The outcome of several workshops resulted in the framework document ‘’Embedding Knowledges of Country at Inveresk (April to November 2019)’’. This framework identified a set of design drivers for how a Tasmanian Aboriginal presence could be physically represented across the campus, and this shaped decisions about some of the elements that were included.

Riawunna Garden is centred around a cultural performance and ceremonial space, which offers a place for education, contemplation and connection.

The cultural practice of weaving was used conceptually to tie together a series of spaces. It was important to ensure there was a strong visual and physical connection between Riawunna’s separate staff and community terraces and the central cultural garden.

Authentic local materials were selected and sourced based on local knowledge and used to build a new connections and a unique spirit of place. A community project was initiated and undertaken by Riawunna where community collected small shells from all coastal regions around Tasmania which were then screeded into the top layer of the concrete entrance path, symbolising a connection to Palawa people from all areas of Tasmania.

Our experience in working collaboratively with Indigenous communities is that, generally, the community shares so much of themselves and their knowledge with us, to the benefit of our understanding and work. Realistically, this can sometimes make our own contribution as designers feel less generous. We can, and should, aim to contribute more.

This has been an outstanding example of how landscape architects and designers can co-design and co-deliver projects with Traditional Custodians because collectively we understood that the design process is much more than developing the design on paper. Its shows that a designer's approach to the project can bring the community together, and how we can share our expertise and help those we work with beyond the boundary of the project.