Next month, the BLAKitecture forum at MPavilion will bring together Indigenous built environment practitioners to explore Indigenous architecture.
The forum forms part of MPavilion’s new regional program, which, through the prism of design, questions how Australia’s Indigenous past, present and future can be integrated within the country’s multicultural, technological, agricultural and industrial developments. In particular, BLAKitecture will address questions surrounding the definition of Indigenous architecture, and ask how we can empower the A&D industry to work with Indigenous communities.
The inaugural forum will also look at how, as a country, we can encourage young Indigenous people to take up a career in the built environment; an issue that is of particular importance when we consider the extremely low number of Indigenous architects currently practicing in Australia.
“Everything built in Australia is built on Aboriginal land. However, there are currently only five practicing Indigenous architects in [the country],” says Sarah Lynn Rees, a Palawa, Plangermaireener woman, Indigenous Architecture and Design Victoria (IADV) director and coordinator of MPavilion’s 2017 regional program.
Chaired by Rees, the forum will feature architect Kevin O’Brien, Kaurereg and Meriam, Torres Strait; architect Andrew Lane; architect Dillon Kombumerri, Yugembir; landscape architect and visual artist Paul Herzich, Ngarrindjeri/Kaurna; designer Linda Kennedy, Yuin, Dharawhal; architect and IADV founding director Jefa Greenaway, Wailwan/Kamilaroi; and Rueben Berg, Gundijmara, founding director of IADV and commissioner of the Victorian Environmental Water Holder.
BLAKitecture will take place at MPavilion on Tuesday 5 December. More information here.
