The 2024 SXSW Sydney Conference will be held 14-20 October. Ros and Johnny will present a Session on Designing with Country: Cultural design as driver of extraordinary contemporary places.
The philosophies of Aboriginal society, spirituality, and wellbeing, including the importance of looking after Country, have largely untapped potential to influence design thinking for technology, architecture, sustainability and the built environment.
As a nation we’ve only just started to understand and appreciate the richness and beauty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.
It’s early days in seeing these stories in public view. We have hardly touched the tip of the iceberg. Imagery, story, philosophy, technology, intellectual framing, language – the incredible sources of inspiration are both an opportunity and a responsibility. The responsibility lies in bringing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are local to Place to the centre of the co-design process.
This session will appeal to anyone wanting to understand how to celebrate, interpret or harness the beauty, richness and complexity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, stories, art and identity.
It will unpack the principles of co-design and explain place-based knowledges and narratives that connect with Country. It will consider how we can activate authentic voices to draw out knowledge, protocols, history, culture and the contemporary stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, for co-designed interpretation from the beginning to the end of multidisciplinary design projects.
There is much for everyone to learn from the deep, interconnected relationship Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have with Country. It is about belonging, where language, culture, knowledge, Dreaming, Law, and Ceremony are interdependent and one with Country.
It takes committed leaders, curious design teams and new paradigms and project processes in order to lift the roadblocks to making Australia’s foundational narrative more visible. This visibility is enormously powerful if we wish to build a richer, shared Australian identity that celebrates our unique place in the world.
