The School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle will create five new full-time Indigenous-only teaching positions.
The positions range from senior lecturer to lecturer and will cover the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, construction management, disaster management and environmental management.
The announcement of the new positions coincides with the 2021 NAIDOC week and follows the introduction of new national competency standards for architects, which prioritize engagement with Indigenous peoples, and sustainability
The University of Newcastle has the largest cohort of Indigenous students of any Australian university, at 4.6 percent of the student body, as well as the highest number of Indigenous academics. However, head of architecture Sam Spurr said participation in the field of architecture had lagged behind other disciplines.
“This demonstrates the commitment of the school to embed and develop Indigenous knowledge into the teaching of architecture and construction,” she said. “It recognizes the prevailing settler colonial assumptions of space and place in our curriculum and the extraordinary and unique opportunities that Indigenous thinking and practice brings to the making our of future built environment.
Sam Spurr, head of architecture at the School of Architecture and Built Environment.
Image:
Daniel Boud.
“We hope with these positions to create a respectful, meaningful and purposeful engagement with Indigenous knowledge – [an engagement] that is Indigenous-led and Indigenous-designed in collaboration with the passion and support of our current staff body.”
The positions are expected to be advertised on 9 July.
In March 2021, on Close the Gap day, the university launched an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education and Research Framework, bringing together a range of plans and policies aimed at making the university a “culturally responsive place of excellence” for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education and research.
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Indigenous Strategy and Leadership Nathan Towney said at the time that the framework placed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, staff and communities at its heart.
“We are determined to be a place where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and knowledge is woven into each aspect of the university – our relationships with communities, the way we teach, learn and research and how we foster reconciliation in our regions,” he said.
The announcement of the new positions has also comes at a time when cut-backs and redundancies are rife at universities around Australia. The University of Newcastle has itself made several rounds of cuts and revealed in July it would cut a further 150 full-time equivalent academic positions from the colleges of Engineering, Science and Environment (which includes the school of architecture); Health, Medicine and Wellbeing; and Human and Social Futures.
However, Spurr said the School of Architecture and Built Environment had suffered from understaffing in recent years and that university management was supportive of bolstering staff levels and encouraging greater Indigenous engagement. The positions are entirely new, with no current roles to be replaced.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
