Emma Williamson, co-founder of The Fulcrum Agency, says architects are uniquely placed to contribute to the national conversation in the lead up to the Voice referendum on 14 October.
In 2021, eight new performance criteria focusing on the engagement of First Nations Peoples and understanding and respecting Country were added to the National Standard of Competencies for Architects.
“The connection to Country framework that’s being adopted is really important,” Williamson said, “but having deeper and more sophisticated conversations might see the response to design [that includes] deeper, earlier engagement and doesn’t end up being a public artwork response.”
“And [a successful] referendum would reinforce that and open the door for deeper and better conversations.”
Williamson is among a group of architects who have banded together to encourage their peers to show their support for the Voice on social media.
“Within the profession, probably the majority of people are in support of the Voice, because we’re already professionally working within this framework that recognizes the Indigenous occupation of the land prior to colonial settlement,” Williamson said.
“This is an opportunity to do a very small thing, which is to state why are you voting “yes” because those declarations are examples of simple ways that people have considered what’s important to them.
“The Indigenous population is only 3 percent so it’s the non-Indigenous population that really need to do the work now.
“I recognize the incredible toll that it’s taken on First Nations people to do all of the work to this point and I think we all need to pitch in to do some of the lifting.
“All of us if we believe in this need to consider how we can have a small amount of influence on that.”
Carey Lyon, director of Lyons Architecture said that architects have a responsibility to engage in “the most important public debate to be had in Australia for many, many decades,” adding that a “yes” vote would be “the most practical way for design professionals to, in the future, acknowledge what First Nations, Indigenous and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have to say about their built environment.”
Jefa Greenaway, Victoria’s first Indigenous registered architect, said, “This is a nation building opportunity. It is time for architects and the design profession to step up.”
“Australia has the oldest continuous culture in the world – this is an extraordinary fact,” added Rachel Nolan, founding director of Kennedy Nolan.
“I feel so lucky that we are being offered an opportunity to walk and work together and have this Voice embedded in our Constitution.”
For information and resources see the Voice and Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
