Design possesses a unique opportunity that many other industries do not – the opportunity to help change the space we occupy, the visual media we consume, and the messaging we receive through those environments and communications.
In the last few years, a shift has occurred in the industry, thanks to changing race relations, a growing support of the Indigenous community, and a newly-released document – the Indigenous Design Charter.
Until now, there has been limited direction to help lead the design community in how to engage in collaboration with Indigenous people and culture in a respectful and mutually beneficial manner. “While I was studying my PHD, I worked to develop protocols for appropriate representation of Indigenous culture,” says Deakin University’s Dr. Russell Kennedy. “There was a greater demand for representation of Indigenous tradition in design projects, particularly in place branding. However I noticed that there was often awkwardness in the industry – and there were two approaches that were taking place: non-Indigenous designers were either appropriating by designing in an Aboriginal style, or they were avoiding it because they didn’t want to go about it the wrong way. And neither of those are ideal scenarios.”
In response, Kennedy and a team of experts from Indigenous Architecture and Design Victoria (IADV), the Design Institute of Australia (DIA) and Deakin University’s Institute of Koorie Education (IKE) and School of Communication and Creative Arts (SCCA) put together the Indigenous Design Charter, a freely available and simple set of protocols that guide non-Indigenous designers in how to appropriately engage with Indigenous collaborators. The Charter was released in 2017,and won the Premier’s Design Award the following year.
Since its launch, the Charter has guided numerous projects and companies, providing them with direction on how to correctly engage Indigenous collaborators and peers. And the guide has taken off, changing the industry on its way. Management and consultancy business WSP is using it to complement its Indigenous policy within business practice, while ENESS, an immersive art and design practice, has been using the Charter to inform its current projects. Meanwhile, Deakin, Melbourne and Monash Universities are all implementing the document into their curricula, using it as a resource guide for design students and helping shape the way they work for years to come.
As we see the use of this Charter spread, along with the understanding it brings, we are seeing the design landscape reform. A decade ago, many designers were hesitant to include Indigenous culture in their work, however we now occupy a space in which conversation and collaboration is actively encouraged and supported. This, in turn, morphs the industry into one that shares the history and tradition of Aboriginal culture with the wider community, laying its own brick in the road to reconciliation.
Weaving Indigenous art into a contemporary fitout
This year, GroupGSA and Schiavello’s own People and Culture Consulting team concluded work on a fitout for an electricity distribution company. The job included teaming with the organisation’s Indigenous Representative Group and engaging Aboriginal artist Lucy Simpson – who was deeply involved in the process of the fitout – to create a piece of art that told a story about the elemental forces in nature and how they can connect to us through energy.
Peter McCamley, Director of GroupGSA, explains the meaning behind the art. “It was based off a Yuwaalaraay term – baayangali – which means ‘the system in the natural world by which everything connects’ and explores what comes after lightning strikes the Earth. That was something beautiful that responded to the brief but also was personal to Lucy and her Indigenous background and heritage.”
The strength in sharing stories
So what effect does this kind of collaboration have on the people who are using these spaces, the designers who are being commissioned, and the wider Indigenous community?
“There is a lot of learning and enrichment to come with those relationships,” explains Kyle Vander Kuyp, Indigenous Engagement Manager at Schiavello Ganbu. “It’s not just a normal business relationship; I would argue that an Aboriginal person values it differently. These kinds of respectful collaborations are a chance to share our history and stories, to represent who we are, our language groups, our tribal groups, and connect people to that ancestry. I think most Aboriginal people are enthusiastic to get those stories out and to work them into design and collaborative pieces, and share them.
“It’s always in the back of my mind that these opportunities were never around in previous generations. We have that chance now to create a new kind of space, educate and get people talking.”