UWA Cultural Heritage Mapping
This mapping project was about integrating ancient and place-based knowledge of the Crawley area, in a way that could then inform and guide the development of the University of Western Australia campus and surrounds.
“I think this is a great foundation for other universities around Australia and not only Australia but around the world to identify and connect to the past so that they can understand the past, develop the future and accept what’s happened. We need to move forward and through art and through story telling with the guidance of the Elders, we can create a better understanding for future generations.”
- Shane Hansen, Noongar Artist, 2019
This project is based on a process of research, revealing, mapping and linking Cultural Heritage as ‘living’ spatial knowledge in order to meaningfully enrich our cultural ways of knowing and inhabiting space.
The process focused on a specific area of Noongar Country with the understanding and shared knowledge from the Elders that the Crawley area where the University is located is only a small piece of Noongar Country. Everything in Noongar Country is connected. “It’s one paragraph of a full book,” says Farley Garlett, Noongar Elder.
At the heart of the UWA Cultural Heritage Mapping project was a 5-day mapping and painting workshop facilitated by cultural mapping artist Kim Mahood together with prominent Nyoongar artists Barbara Bynder and Shane Hansen.
With leadership from Noongar Elders and leaders, a ‘living’ document and cross-cultural map was created. This means that the information included is not static - it can be continually reviewed and updated in order to maintain its strength and relevance not only to the Crawley campus, but to all of Noongar Country.
This project led to the development of the UWA Cultural Heritage Framework, a document intended as a high-level guide to provide direction to all future development on UWA’s Crawley Campus. It also led to the creation of a richly-layered and collaboratively-created cross-cultural map of the campus, possibly a first for urban Australia.
Awards:
2020 Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) WA Award of Excellence for Cultural Heritage
2020 Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) National Landscape Architecture Award for Cultural Heritage
Details:
Client: University of Western Australia
Aboriginal Country: Whadjuk Noongar Country
Location: Crawley, WA
Dates: 2019
Landscape Architect: UDLA
Collaborators: Artists- Barbara Bynder (Karda Designs), Shane Yondee Hansen and Kim Mahood as facilitating artist; Noongar Elders and Leaders- Doolann-Leisha Eatts, Margaret Culbong, Vivienne Hansen, Morten Hansen, Farley Garlett, Noel Nannup, Sandra Harben, Richard Walley, Herbert Bropho, Michael Ogilvie, Len Collard, Karen Jacobs; School of Indigenous Studies and Cultural Advisors - Jill Milroy, Richard Walley; Photography and Videography- Jason Thomas; Facilitation- Brave & Curious
