Womin(d)jeka

Architecture plays a major role in creating memories of a place. However, urban development in Australian cities post settlement blanketed Indigenous lands with their values, placed layers of concrete, steel and glass over the Country with little understanding of its relation toward people.

It is not just the built environment that has become a vessel of memories, but also the water, land and sky that contain the memories and connection we have to this place. But much of the current built environment honours the memories of other places far away, with different climates, plants, cultures, and animal species overriding over the land. This has led to a layered tapestry of memories from places elsewhere, but in doing so, has also obliterated any links to our First nations peoples and cultures.

This major project is a project of reconciliation, an architecture which wrestles with multiple layers of history and memories of place.

Using the Immigration Museum of Victoria as a testing ground, it proposes an architecture which celebrates the knowledge and cultures of both Aboriginal and non-Indigenous people. This site is significantly crucial for both immigrants and First Nations peoples.