Background
As part of the University’s Northern Transformation, new campuses will be built to support increased educational attainment levels and improve economic, social and health outcomes in the North. There will be a visible connection with the city and opportunities to engage with the community, industry and businesses. To be a truly place-based university we need to ensure that our new campuses honour the value and history of our first people. We have an opportunity to inform our new campus design by meaningfully embedding our first peoples’ ancient connection to the land and reflecting the current and emerging Aboriginal practices informing teaching, learning and research. A working group was convened to discuss the ways in which the University can meaningfully engage with Tasmanian Aboriginal history and presence on the Inveresk site. The group was made of representatives from Riawunna, the wider Aboriginal community (Aunty Patsy), the Northern Transformation Project and ISD. A collaborative process continues to consider what this will mean for the Inveresk campus, and how we can work together to create a landscape for our campus that is all the richer for its resonance with the deep history of our first people.
Aerial of the Inveresk Precinct
To date the workshops have:
Developed a series of Design Drivers that have been distilled from the ‘Knowledges of Country’ philosophy – consideration has been given to how these Design Drivers can be meaningfully applied throughout the precinct ensuring that design processes will be informed by our first peoples’ ongoing connection to the land and that the design outcomes will have a tangible relationship to the ‘Knowledges of Country’ philosophy.
Considered the motivations and values that informed the current Riawunna ‘building and landscape’ at Newnham and how they could be translated to the Inveresk site as a whole.
Developed the ‘Knowledges of Country’ - this underlying philosophy will continue to have a direct impact on how cultural, and historical linkages manifest ‘in place’ be they physical, visual and spiritual (this is referred to as Aboriginal Knowledges)
Mapped the current Riawunna garden to locate the Guardian and Nation Stones and reflect on their meaning and placements.
Determined that this philosophy would be key to informing how the Inveresk site is developed, how connections between ancient and recent histories may be formed.
Conceptualised how Tasmanian Aboriginal ‘presence’ could be physically represented on the Inveresk Precinct utilising a practical visual exercise that applied the design drivers to map: • Connections and movement through the site • Materials and landscape
Considered how the University can take a place-based approach to the landscape. The term ‘landscape’ was used in the workshops in a holistic manner, informed by the unique Inveresk environment including the river’s edge, distant mountain views, and the city fringe. The purpose of the place based approach was understood to create a unique and lively quality to the whole of site that is energised by cultural histories and the environment.
• Gathering spaces • Cultural Calendar • Enlivening seams and pockets
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