Scott Heyes | University of South Australia (original) (raw)
Books by Scott Heyes
The North is changing at an unprecedented rate as industrial development and the climate crisis d... more The North is changing at an unprecedented rate as industrial development and the climate crisis disrupt not only the environment but also long-standing relationships to the land and traditional means of livelihood. Memory and Landscape: Indigenous Responses to a Changing North explores the ways in which Indigenous peoples in the Arctic have adapted to challenging circumstances, including past cultural and environmental changes. In this beautifully illustrated volume, contributors document how Indigenous communities in Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and Siberia are seeking ways to maintain and strengthen their cultural identity while also embracing forces of disruption.
Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors bring together oral history and scholarly research from disciplines such as linguistics, archaeology, and ethnohistory. With an emphasis on Indigenous place names, this volume illuminates how the land—and the memories that are inextricably tied to it—continue to define Indigenous identity. The perspectives presented here also serve to underscore the value of Indigenous knowledge and its essential place in future studies of the Arctic.
Introduction to the History and Theory of Sub-Saharan Architecture - Vol 1, 2021
The Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous Architecture, 2018
In this chapter, we introduce the concept of ‘placemaking’ to the Canadian Arctic context, a term... more In this chapter, we introduce the concept of ‘placemaking’ to the Canadian Arctic context, a term frequently used in urban planning and architectural settings to describe and characterise how spaces are formed by organic and systematic activities, particularly in contemporary times. Our interpretations of placemaking in relation to the Arctic are made as non-Inuit researchers, who have lived, studied, travelled and worked alongside our Inuit friends and experts for over fifteen years in the Eastern Canadian Arctic region. Working in separate regions of the Arctic as ethnographers (Heyes in Nunavik, Arctic Quebec and Dowsley in Nunavut), we offer here our combined insights and observations on how Inuit generate, connect and derive meaning from the land and the sea. Our reflections provide critical perspectives on Inuit senses of place, and by extension, how tangible and intangible spaces on the tundra, water and sea ice are regarded by Inuit.
The Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous Architecture, 2018
By Grant Revell, Scott Heyes, David Jones, Daryl Low Choy, Richard Tucker and Susan Bird This ... more By Grant Revell, Scott Heyes, David Jones, Daryl Low Choy, Richard Tucker and Susan Bird
This chapter explores the critical importance of ethical Indigenous knowledge engagement in the knowing of living heritage landscapes and their associated built environment education, and professional practices across Australia. Recent pedagogical research undertaken by the authors across all Australian universities that teach in the built environment disciplines of architecture, planning and landscape architecture has revealed a lack of understanding of Indigenous knowledges in these professionally accredited courses (Jones et. al. 2013, 2017; Tucker et. al. 2016). We argue that the ethical incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems, through teaching strategies that are developed in partnership with Indigenous stakeholders, will contribute to scaffolding a transformation in intercultural built environment education in Australia, along with prospective changes to professional institute education policies (AACA/AIA 2012; AILA 2016; PIA 2016). Such genuine collaboration with Indigenous partners is necessary to ensure that Indigenous perspectives of ‘Country’ and living heritage are clearly understood and experienced by built environment students at the formal academic and professional career-building stages of their lifelong learning. Critically, this paper presents new ways of approaching Australian built environment education and practice, using environmental design relevant exemplars, that can elevate and progress Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. This research and associated applied practice contributes to a growing body of international literature indicating the potential of Indigenous pedagogy and epistemologies within the tertiary education and professional practice context.
The built environment disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture and planning are taught... more The built environment disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture and planning are taught in more than 25 universities across Australia under the tutelage of three important professional bodies: Australian Institute of Architects (AIA), Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) and Planning Institute of Australia (PIA).
This project is in support of the built environment professions. It researched the extent to which Indigenous Knowledge Systems were being taught at university built environment schools across Australia, and involved undertaking surveys on student and staff knowledge of Indigenous Australians in the built environment sector. The project was developed because the built environment disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture and planning, both academically and professionally, were not deeply engaging with Indigenous communities and the knowledge they possess of the land and sea and there were and are opportunities address this.
In this Report, the term ‘Indigenous’ encompasses Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and is a term applied with all Indigenous peoples around the world. The diversity in cultures, languages, kinship structures and ways of life of Indigenous peoples are recognised and use of these terms is not intended to homogenise Indigenous peoples.
Independent Indigenous and non-Indigenous peer reviews of this project, its findings and its associated deliverables have strongly supported the approach and findings forthcoming from this project (see Appendices F and G). This conclusion is confirmed by the Indigenous chair of the project’s Reference Group (Appendix D) and the Independent Referees (Appendices B and C).
In 1882 the Smithsonian Institution Arctic scientist, Lucien McShan Turner, traveled to the Ungav... more In 1882 the Smithsonian Institution Arctic scientist, Lucien McShan Turner, traveled to the Ungava District that encompasses Northern Quebec and Labrador. There he spent 20 months as part of a mission to record meteorological data for an International Polar Year research program. While stationed at the Hudson's Bay Company Trading Post of Fort Chimo in Ungava Bay, now the Inuit community of Kuujjuaq, he soon tired of his primary task and expanded his duties to a study of the natural history and ethnography of the Aboriginal peoples of the region.
His ethnography of the Inuit and Innu people was published in 1894, but his substantial writings on natural history never made it to print. Presented here for the first time is the natural history material that Lucien M. Turner wrote on mammals of the Ungava and Labrador regions. His writings provide a glimpse of the habits and types of mammals that roamed Ungava 125 years ago in what was an unknown frontier to non-Inuit and non-Innu people.
This book is the result of a landscape architecture investigation that involved studio based stud... more This book is the result of a landscape architecture investigation that involved studio based studies of counter mapping techniques, in addition to field-based studies of the Aboriginal history, knowledge, stories, and occupation
of the lower South-East region of South Australia. It is a project that involved the collaborative effort, sponsorship, and endorsement of many Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
community groups, government agencies, and landholders in the Mount Gambier region of South Australia.
Papers by Scott Heyes
SiteLines: A Journal of Place, 2020
Tertiary design students in Teeluk, South Australia, learning about Aboriginal culture as part of... more Tertiary design students in Teeluk, South Australia, learning about Aboriginal culture as part of their coursework on indigenous landscapes. Elder Doug Nicholls talks to students about his Country. All photographs by Scott Heyes.
Indigenous Knowledge in the Built Environment: A Guide for Tertiary Educators, 2018
The Guide is purposely intended as a teaching and learning resource kit for built environment (ar... more The Guide is purposely intended as a teaching and learning resource kit for built environment (architecture, landscape architecture, planning) academics, students and professional practitioners. Not exhaustive, it is a substantive starting point for aiding the formulation of units/courses/programs of study, as well as professional practice activities, that address, involve, and implicate Indigenous issues, topics, places, representatives and communities.
Increasingly, built environment professionals in Australia, including architect, landscape archit... more Increasingly, built environment professionals in Australia, including architect, landscape architect and planner practitioners, are becoming involved in planning and design of projects for, and in direct consultation with Indigenous communities and their proponents. Critically, built environment professionals must be able to plan and design, and demonstrate respect for Indigenous protocols, cultural issues and their community values. Yet many students graduate with little or no comprehension of Indigenous knowledge systems or the protocols for engagement with Australian or international Indigenous communities in which they are required to work. This paper reports on a recently completed Office of Learning & Teaching funded project that was
designed to improve the knowledge and skills of tertiary students in the built environment professions including proposing strategies and processes to expose students in the built environment professions to Australian Indigenous knowledge systems. This is a positive beginning in a long-term decolonising project.
This paper reviews the current status and focus of Australian Architecture programs with respect ... more This paper reviews the current status and focus of Australian Architecture programs with respect to Indigenous Knowledge and the extent to which these tertiary programs currently address reconciliation and respect to Indigenous Australians in relation to their professional institutions and accreditation policies. The paper draws upon the
findings of a recently completed investigation of current teaching: Re-Casting terra nullius blindness: Empowering Indigenous Protocols and Knowledge in Australian University Built Environment Education. Three data sets from this investigation are analysed: a desktop survey of Australian Built Environment curricula; workshops with tertiary providers and students, professional practitioners and representatives of three Built Environment professional institutes; and an online survey of Australian Built Environment students (of which their discipline could be isolated) ascertaining what is currently being taught and learned and what changes would be feasible within the constraints of courses from their perspective. Detailed descriptions are also provided of pedagogic improvements informed by the project findings. The findings suggest minimal current exposure of Architecture students to Indigenous Knowledge content beyond voluntary engagement in self-chosen
thesis projects and elective (including studio) subjects led by passionate but largely unsupported teachers championing Indigenous issues; a paucity of teaching echoed by practitioners and accreditors who acknowledge lack of expertise in this area across the profession. This paper discusses ways in which Indigenous Knowledge might be better
acknowledged, respected and introduced to Australian Architecture students’ education. Also discussed are teaching strategies with global relevance.
Refereed Proceedings of the ANZAPS (The Australia and New Zealand Association of Planning Schools) 2015 Conference: Translating urban planning research and pedagogy into practice.
Increasingly, Built Environment (BE) professionals, including planner, architect and landscape ar... more Increasingly, Built Environment (BE) professionals, including planner, architect and landscape architect practitioners, are becoming involved in the planning and design of projects for, and in direct consultation with Indigenous communities and their proponents. These projects range from inserting Indigenous cultural landscape analysis into planning schemes, including Indigenous protocols and aspirations in policy statements; designing cultural centres, information centres and housing; drafting cultural tourism strategies and devising cross-cultural land management plans. This entails working with Indigenous communities or their nominated representatives as stakeholders in community engagement, consultation, and planning processes. Critically, BE professionals must be able to plan and design with regard to Indigenous community's cultural protocols, issues and values. Yet many (domestic and or international) students graduate with little or no comprehension of Indigenous knowledge systems or the protocols for engagement with the communities in which they are required to work, whether they be Australian or international Indigenous communities. Contextually, both PIA and the planning academe have struggled with coming to terms with this realm over the last 10 years. This paper will report on a recently completed Australian Government Office of Learning & Teaching (OLT) funded research project that has sought to improve opportunities to improve the knowledge and skills of tertiary students in the BE professions through the enhancement of their competency, appreciation and respect for Indigenous protocols and processes that also implicates the professional accreditation systems that these courses are accountable. It has proposed strategies and processes to expose students in the BE professions to Australian Indigenous knowledge and cultural systems and the protocols for engaging with Indigenous Australians about their rights, interests, needs and aspirations. Included in these findings is the provision of a tool that enables and offers guidance to BE tertiary students and academics how to enhance comprehension, exposure to, and knowledge and cultural systems of, Indigenous Australians. While the scope of this report is cross-BE, this paper will focus upon the planning practice, policy and academe realms. INTRODUCTION Recent events in Australian history, including recognition of Native Title by the High Court in Mabo v the State of Queensland [no. 2] (1992) 175 clr 1, have heightened recognition of the rights, interests, needs and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia and internationally. despite this, little has changed in Australian Built Environment (BE) professional (planning, architecture, landscape architecture) education to integrate a better understanding of the need for engagement with Indigenous knowledge and cultural systems and relevant protocols, as distinct from cultural competency articulation. while aspirations of including a better understanding of Indigenous Australian's knowledge and cultural systems are embodied in the relevant agendas of the respective discipline professional institutes (PIA, AIA, AILA), little attempt has been made to realize this objective. This paper therefore reports on the summative findings of an Australian Government Office of Learning & Teaching (OLT) funded project that sought to redress this deficiency by providing Australian universities with tools to address practice realities and complexities through a nationally applicable cross-discipline educational module that will aid Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural literacy in this context.
This paper presents how a 2015 public space design competition, made available to students of lan... more This paper presents how a 2015 public space design competition, made available to students of landscape architecture in Australia and New Zealand, provided an opportunity for investigations to be carried out into the experiences, values, and the importance of hangout places in public settings. Following successful and enriching partnerships with Indigenous communities as part of previous design studio teaching and research activities we developed a brief for our current landscape architecture students from the University of Canberra and the University of Melbourne to explore the notion of hangouts, inclusive of Indigenous perspectives. With support from the Local Eden Aboriginal Land Council from the South Coast region of New South Wales (NSW) and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, we formulated a design brief that involved students spending five days camping at an Aboriginal site of significance known as the Haycock Point Culture Camp.
Located at the northern end of the NSW Ben Boyd National Park, the Culture Camp site is a space that has been, for some time, purposefully set aside for the local Aboriginal community to share, celebrate and transmit their knowledge. Consisting of a set of separate family camping sites, each connected to a central meeting place, the campground is located within walking distance of bush foods as well as fishing and diving spots that have been important to the local Aboriginal people for generations. And while the Culture Camp serves as a modern-day hangout, where Aboriginal families typically travel to on weekends and holiday periods, the archaeological record and oral accounts indicated that the site has been occupied for thousands of years. Indeed, the site represents an old hangout location.
Through the act of "hanging out" at the Culture Camp with our students, and by learning about the use and history of the site through the insights of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal knowledge holders, we explore in this paper how the knowledge gained through the experience helped to inform and inspire design thinking about hangout places in both regional and urban contexts. This paper features design concepts developed by students, along with critical reflections on how the fishing, sketching, bushwalking, storytelling, and other camp activities imbued their design approaches with meaning.
The Aboriginal people of the South East region of South Australia, together with local and state ... more The Aboriginal people of the South East region of South Australia, together with local and state government and universities, have recently embarked on a series of cultural revival projects to strengthen their community and to celebrate the rich heritage and connections that they maintain with the land. This paper charts the process and development of a participatory mapping project, spanning various Aboriginal homelands (but with a focus on the Boandik homeland) that was undertaken by landscape architecture lecturers and students with the collaboration and participation of the South East Aboriginal Focus Group, and non-Aboriginal groups and organisations. The paper highlights how mapping the «unseen» or intangible qualities of Aboriginal homelands in creative ways can help to communicate and educate the non-Aboriginal community about Aboriginal connections to and knowledge of the land. Through an exhibition of the maps, the project has helped to advance discussions towards the creation of an Aboriginal cultural centre in the region.
International Indigenous Development Research Conference (IIDRC) 2014 Refereed Proceedings, pg. 127-136, Apr 2015
The Aboriginal community of the South East region of South Australia has recently developed a num... more The Aboriginal community of the South East region of South Australia has recently developed a number of high profile cultural revival projects that have led to greater community awareness of their ancestral and ongoing connections to country. For almost 100 years the broader community
has incorrectly perceived that there is no longer any Boandik presence in the region. This paper explores how three cultural- survival projects led by the Aboriginal community of the region—a canoe building initiative, a cultural mapping project, and a Boandik language revival project— are helping to shape broader community understandings and beliefs of Aboriginal culture. This paper discusses the context and nature of these projects, the resulting positive partnerships with government, landholders, universities, and industry, and how the projects have led to the development of new economic pathways for the Aboriginal community such as filmmaking and curating. The three projects initiated by the Aboriginal community provide a model for other Aboriginal communities that may be seeking ways to positively and instantly connect with the broader community, and which provide new research and development opportunities for the advancement of Aboriginal self- determination.
IFLA Regional 2014 ConferenceProceedings, Sarawak, 2014
While many Australian landscape architecture programs can talk about their green 'credentials' an... more While many Australian landscape architecture programs can talk about their green 'credentials' and their ethical and design inquiry commitments to sustainability, this is a Western educational pedagogy and agenda. Since the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit (http://www.un.org.documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-1annex1.htm) the international policy shift towards sustainability theory and practice, few programs have shifted from nor sought to engage in alternate educational paradigms that offer a non-Western perspective. This paper considers current research that is reviewing the state and agendas of Australian landscape architecture programs, the obligations of their host Australian universities to reconciliation and offering respect to Australia's Indigenous communities, the role of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) as an accreditation body but also a future education agenda-maker, and the initiatives several of these programs are making in addressing these challenges. In particular, the paper reviews the innovativeness of several programs in re-charting Australian student perspectives about non-Australian and non-Western environmental and cultural knowledge systems and paradigms, and where this may chart Australian landscape architectural education.
Mammals of Ungava and Labrador: The 1882-1884 Fieldnotes of Lucien M. Turner together with Inuit and Innu Knowledge, ed. S Heyes and K Helgen, Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, Washington, D.C, , pp.xix–xx, 2014
Mammals of Ungava and Labrador: The 1882-1884 Fieldnotes of Lucien M. Turner together with Inuit and Innu Knowledge, ed. S Heyes and K Helgen, Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, Washington, D.C. , pp. xxvii-xlv., 2014
Fusion Journal, Special Issue "Studio", No. 3, Apr 2014
This paper explores the studio experience of a University of Canberra landscape architecture subj... more This paper explores the studio experience of a University of Canberra landscape architecture subject that was partially undertaken in the field at the Aboriginal community of Cherbourg, Queensland, Australia. The twelve week studio program, which began in March 2013, required fifteen senior undergraduate students to develop design concepts for a proposed material recycling facility on the fringes of the Cherbourg community. Working together with Aboriginal community partners, and based on a design brief provided by the local Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council, a design studio was formulated that was framed on the concepts of design as advocacy and entrepreneurship, and how the design process can lead to the development of a social consciousness amongst designers. This paper explains the context of the studio, experiences in the field, and the educational benefits of the design collaboration to the students and the Aboriginal community itself. Further, the paper highlights the challenges of maintaining field-based studios in the face of the academy leaning towards the delivery of landscape architecture design content online.
The North is changing at an unprecedented rate as industrial development and the climate crisis d... more The North is changing at an unprecedented rate as industrial development and the climate crisis disrupt not only the environment but also long-standing relationships to the land and traditional means of livelihood. Memory and Landscape: Indigenous Responses to a Changing North explores the ways in which Indigenous peoples in the Arctic have adapted to challenging circumstances, including past cultural and environmental changes. In this beautifully illustrated volume, contributors document how Indigenous communities in Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and Siberia are seeking ways to maintain and strengthen their cultural identity while also embracing forces of disruption.
Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors bring together oral history and scholarly research from disciplines such as linguistics, archaeology, and ethnohistory. With an emphasis on Indigenous place names, this volume illuminates how the land—and the memories that are inextricably tied to it—continue to define Indigenous identity. The perspectives presented here also serve to underscore the value of Indigenous knowledge and its essential place in future studies of the Arctic.
Introduction to the History and Theory of Sub-Saharan Architecture - Vol 1, 2021
The Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous Architecture, 2018
In this chapter, we introduce the concept of ‘placemaking’ to the Canadian Arctic context, a term... more In this chapter, we introduce the concept of ‘placemaking’ to the Canadian Arctic context, a term frequently used in urban planning and architectural settings to describe and characterise how spaces are formed by organic and systematic activities, particularly in contemporary times. Our interpretations of placemaking in relation to the Arctic are made as non-Inuit researchers, who have lived, studied, travelled and worked alongside our Inuit friends and experts for over fifteen years in the Eastern Canadian Arctic region. Working in separate regions of the Arctic as ethnographers (Heyes in Nunavik, Arctic Quebec and Dowsley in Nunavut), we offer here our combined insights and observations on how Inuit generate, connect and derive meaning from the land and the sea. Our reflections provide critical perspectives on Inuit senses of place, and by extension, how tangible and intangible spaces on the tundra, water and sea ice are regarded by Inuit.
The Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous Architecture, 2018
By Grant Revell, Scott Heyes, David Jones, Daryl Low Choy, Richard Tucker and Susan Bird This ... more By Grant Revell, Scott Heyes, David Jones, Daryl Low Choy, Richard Tucker and Susan Bird
This chapter explores the critical importance of ethical Indigenous knowledge engagement in the knowing of living heritage landscapes and their associated built environment education, and professional practices across Australia. Recent pedagogical research undertaken by the authors across all Australian universities that teach in the built environment disciplines of architecture, planning and landscape architecture has revealed a lack of understanding of Indigenous knowledges in these professionally accredited courses (Jones et. al. 2013, 2017; Tucker et. al. 2016). We argue that the ethical incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems, through teaching strategies that are developed in partnership with Indigenous stakeholders, will contribute to scaffolding a transformation in intercultural built environment education in Australia, along with prospective changes to professional institute education policies (AACA/AIA 2012; AILA 2016; PIA 2016). Such genuine collaboration with Indigenous partners is necessary to ensure that Indigenous perspectives of ‘Country’ and living heritage are clearly understood and experienced by built environment students at the formal academic and professional career-building stages of their lifelong learning. Critically, this paper presents new ways of approaching Australian built environment education and practice, using environmental design relevant exemplars, that can elevate and progress Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. This research and associated applied practice contributes to a growing body of international literature indicating the potential of Indigenous pedagogy and epistemologies within the tertiary education and professional practice context.
The built environment disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture and planning are taught... more The built environment disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture and planning are taught in more than 25 universities across Australia under the tutelage of three important professional bodies: Australian Institute of Architects (AIA), Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) and Planning Institute of Australia (PIA).
This project is in support of the built environment professions. It researched the extent to which Indigenous Knowledge Systems were being taught at university built environment schools across Australia, and involved undertaking surveys on student and staff knowledge of Indigenous Australians in the built environment sector. The project was developed because the built environment disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture and planning, both academically and professionally, were not deeply engaging with Indigenous communities and the knowledge they possess of the land and sea and there were and are opportunities address this.
In this Report, the term ‘Indigenous’ encompasses Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and is a term applied with all Indigenous peoples around the world. The diversity in cultures, languages, kinship structures and ways of life of Indigenous peoples are recognised and use of these terms is not intended to homogenise Indigenous peoples.
Independent Indigenous and non-Indigenous peer reviews of this project, its findings and its associated deliverables have strongly supported the approach and findings forthcoming from this project (see Appendices F and G). This conclusion is confirmed by the Indigenous chair of the project’s Reference Group (Appendix D) and the Independent Referees (Appendices B and C).
In 1882 the Smithsonian Institution Arctic scientist, Lucien McShan Turner, traveled to the Ungav... more In 1882 the Smithsonian Institution Arctic scientist, Lucien McShan Turner, traveled to the Ungava District that encompasses Northern Quebec and Labrador. There he spent 20 months as part of a mission to record meteorological data for an International Polar Year research program. While stationed at the Hudson's Bay Company Trading Post of Fort Chimo in Ungava Bay, now the Inuit community of Kuujjuaq, he soon tired of his primary task and expanded his duties to a study of the natural history and ethnography of the Aboriginal peoples of the region.
His ethnography of the Inuit and Innu people was published in 1894, but his substantial writings on natural history never made it to print. Presented here for the first time is the natural history material that Lucien M. Turner wrote on mammals of the Ungava and Labrador regions. His writings provide a glimpse of the habits and types of mammals that roamed Ungava 125 years ago in what was an unknown frontier to non-Inuit and non-Innu people.
This book is the result of a landscape architecture investigation that involved studio based stud... more This book is the result of a landscape architecture investigation that involved studio based studies of counter mapping techniques, in addition to field-based studies of the Aboriginal history, knowledge, stories, and occupation
of the lower South-East region of South Australia. It is a project that involved the collaborative effort, sponsorship, and endorsement of many Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
community groups, government agencies, and landholders in the Mount Gambier region of South Australia.
SiteLines: A Journal of Place, 2020
Tertiary design students in Teeluk, South Australia, learning about Aboriginal culture as part of... more Tertiary design students in Teeluk, South Australia, learning about Aboriginal culture as part of their coursework on indigenous landscapes. Elder Doug Nicholls talks to students about his Country. All photographs by Scott Heyes.
Indigenous Knowledge in the Built Environment: A Guide for Tertiary Educators, 2018
The Guide is purposely intended as a teaching and learning resource kit for built environment (ar... more The Guide is purposely intended as a teaching and learning resource kit for built environment (architecture, landscape architecture, planning) academics, students and professional practitioners. Not exhaustive, it is a substantive starting point for aiding the formulation of units/courses/programs of study, as well as professional practice activities, that address, involve, and implicate Indigenous issues, topics, places, representatives and communities.
Increasingly, built environment professionals in Australia, including architect, landscape archit... more Increasingly, built environment professionals in Australia, including architect, landscape architect and planner practitioners, are becoming involved in planning and design of projects for, and in direct consultation with Indigenous communities and their proponents. Critically, built environment professionals must be able to plan and design, and demonstrate respect for Indigenous protocols, cultural issues and their community values. Yet many students graduate with little or no comprehension of Indigenous knowledge systems or the protocols for engagement with Australian or international Indigenous communities in which they are required to work. This paper reports on a recently completed Office of Learning & Teaching funded project that was
designed to improve the knowledge and skills of tertiary students in the built environment professions including proposing strategies and processes to expose students in the built environment professions to Australian Indigenous knowledge systems. This is a positive beginning in a long-term decolonising project.
This paper reviews the current status and focus of Australian Architecture programs with respect ... more This paper reviews the current status and focus of Australian Architecture programs with respect to Indigenous Knowledge and the extent to which these tertiary programs currently address reconciliation and respect to Indigenous Australians in relation to their professional institutions and accreditation policies. The paper draws upon the
findings of a recently completed investigation of current teaching: Re-Casting terra nullius blindness: Empowering Indigenous Protocols and Knowledge in Australian University Built Environment Education. Three data sets from this investigation are analysed: a desktop survey of Australian Built Environment curricula; workshops with tertiary providers and students, professional practitioners and representatives of three Built Environment professional institutes; and an online survey of Australian Built Environment students (of which their discipline could be isolated) ascertaining what is currently being taught and learned and what changes would be feasible within the constraints of courses from their perspective. Detailed descriptions are also provided of pedagogic improvements informed by the project findings. The findings suggest minimal current exposure of Architecture students to Indigenous Knowledge content beyond voluntary engagement in self-chosen
thesis projects and elective (including studio) subjects led by passionate but largely unsupported teachers championing Indigenous issues; a paucity of teaching echoed by practitioners and accreditors who acknowledge lack of expertise in this area across the profession. This paper discusses ways in which Indigenous Knowledge might be better
acknowledged, respected and introduced to Australian Architecture students’ education. Also discussed are teaching strategies with global relevance.
Refereed Proceedings of the ANZAPS (The Australia and New Zealand Association of Planning Schools) 2015 Conference: Translating urban planning research and pedagogy into practice.
Increasingly, Built Environment (BE) professionals, including planner, architect and landscape ar... more Increasingly, Built Environment (BE) professionals, including planner, architect and landscape architect practitioners, are becoming involved in the planning and design of projects for, and in direct consultation with Indigenous communities and their proponents. These projects range from inserting Indigenous cultural landscape analysis into planning schemes, including Indigenous protocols and aspirations in policy statements; designing cultural centres, information centres and housing; drafting cultural tourism strategies and devising cross-cultural land management plans. This entails working with Indigenous communities or their nominated representatives as stakeholders in community engagement, consultation, and planning processes. Critically, BE professionals must be able to plan and design with regard to Indigenous community's cultural protocols, issues and values. Yet many (domestic and or international) students graduate with little or no comprehension of Indigenous knowledge systems or the protocols for engagement with the communities in which they are required to work, whether they be Australian or international Indigenous communities. Contextually, both PIA and the planning academe have struggled with coming to terms with this realm over the last 10 years. This paper will report on a recently completed Australian Government Office of Learning & Teaching (OLT) funded research project that has sought to improve opportunities to improve the knowledge and skills of tertiary students in the BE professions through the enhancement of their competency, appreciation and respect for Indigenous protocols and processes that also implicates the professional accreditation systems that these courses are accountable. It has proposed strategies and processes to expose students in the BE professions to Australian Indigenous knowledge and cultural systems and the protocols for engaging with Indigenous Australians about their rights, interests, needs and aspirations. Included in these findings is the provision of a tool that enables and offers guidance to BE tertiary students and academics how to enhance comprehension, exposure to, and knowledge and cultural systems of, Indigenous Australians. While the scope of this report is cross-BE, this paper will focus upon the planning practice, policy and academe realms. INTRODUCTION Recent events in Australian history, including recognition of Native Title by the High Court in Mabo v the State of Queensland [no. 2] (1992) 175 clr 1, have heightened recognition of the rights, interests, needs and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia and internationally. despite this, little has changed in Australian Built Environment (BE) professional (planning, architecture, landscape architecture) education to integrate a better understanding of the need for engagement with Indigenous knowledge and cultural systems and relevant protocols, as distinct from cultural competency articulation. while aspirations of including a better understanding of Indigenous Australian's knowledge and cultural systems are embodied in the relevant agendas of the respective discipline professional institutes (PIA, AIA, AILA), little attempt has been made to realize this objective. This paper therefore reports on the summative findings of an Australian Government Office of Learning & Teaching (OLT) funded project that sought to redress this deficiency by providing Australian universities with tools to address practice realities and complexities through a nationally applicable cross-discipline educational module that will aid Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural literacy in this context.
This paper presents how a 2015 public space design competition, made available to students of lan... more This paper presents how a 2015 public space design competition, made available to students of landscape architecture in Australia and New Zealand, provided an opportunity for investigations to be carried out into the experiences, values, and the importance of hangout places in public settings. Following successful and enriching partnerships with Indigenous communities as part of previous design studio teaching and research activities we developed a brief for our current landscape architecture students from the University of Canberra and the University of Melbourne to explore the notion of hangouts, inclusive of Indigenous perspectives. With support from the Local Eden Aboriginal Land Council from the South Coast region of New South Wales (NSW) and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, we formulated a design brief that involved students spending five days camping at an Aboriginal site of significance known as the Haycock Point Culture Camp.
Located at the northern end of the NSW Ben Boyd National Park, the Culture Camp site is a space that has been, for some time, purposefully set aside for the local Aboriginal community to share, celebrate and transmit their knowledge. Consisting of a set of separate family camping sites, each connected to a central meeting place, the campground is located within walking distance of bush foods as well as fishing and diving spots that have been important to the local Aboriginal people for generations. And while the Culture Camp serves as a modern-day hangout, where Aboriginal families typically travel to on weekends and holiday periods, the archaeological record and oral accounts indicated that the site has been occupied for thousands of years. Indeed, the site represents an old hangout location.
Through the act of "hanging out" at the Culture Camp with our students, and by learning about the use and history of the site through the insights of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal knowledge holders, we explore in this paper how the knowledge gained through the experience helped to inform and inspire design thinking about hangout places in both regional and urban contexts. This paper features design concepts developed by students, along with critical reflections on how the fishing, sketching, bushwalking, storytelling, and other camp activities imbued their design approaches with meaning.
The Aboriginal people of the South East region of South Australia, together with local and state ... more The Aboriginal people of the South East region of South Australia, together with local and state government and universities, have recently embarked on a series of cultural revival projects to strengthen their community and to celebrate the rich heritage and connections that they maintain with the land. This paper charts the process and development of a participatory mapping project, spanning various Aboriginal homelands (but with a focus on the Boandik homeland) that was undertaken by landscape architecture lecturers and students with the collaboration and participation of the South East Aboriginal Focus Group, and non-Aboriginal groups and organisations. The paper highlights how mapping the «unseen» or intangible qualities of Aboriginal homelands in creative ways can help to communicate and educate the non-Aboriginal community about Aboriginal connections to and knowledge of the land. Through an exhibition of the maps, the project has helped to advance discussions towards the creation of an Aboriginal cultural centre in the region.
International Indigenous Development Research Conference (IIDRC) 2014 Refereed Proceedings, pg. 127-136, Apr 2015
The Aboriginal community of the South East region of South Australia has recently developed a num... more The Aboriginal community of the South East region of South Australia has recently developed a number of high profile cultural revival projects that have led to greater community awareness of their ancestral and ongoing connections to country. For almost 100 years the broader community
has incorrectly perceived that there is no longer any Boandik presence in the region. This paper explores how three cultural- survival projects led by the Aboriginal community of the region—a canoe building initiative, a cultural mapping project, and a Boandik language revival project— are helping to shape broader community understandings and beliefs of Aboriginal culture. This paper discusses the context and nature of these projects, the resulting positive partnerships with government, landholders, universities, and industry, and how the projects have led to the development of new economic pathways for the Aboriginal community such as filmmaking and curating. The three projects initiated by the Aboriginal community provide a model for other Aboriginal communities that may be seeking ways to positively and instantly connect with the broader community, and which provide new research and development opportunities for the advancement of Aboriginal self- determination.
IFLA Regional 2014 ConferenceProceedings, Sarawak, 2014
While many Australian landscape architecture programs can talk about their green 'credentials' an... more While many Australian landscape architecture programs can talk about their green 'credentials' and their ethical and design inquiry commitments to sustainability, this is a Western educational pedagogy and agenda. Since the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit (http://www.un.org.documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-1annex1.htm) the international policy shift towards sustainability theory and practice, few programs have shifted from nor sought to engage in alternate educational paradigms that offer a non-Western perspective. This paper considers current research that is reviewing the state and agendas of Australian landscape architecture programs, the obligations of their host Australian universities to reconciliation and offering respect to Australia's Indigenous communities, the role of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) as an accreditation body but also a future education agenda-maker, and the initiatives several of these programs are making in addressing these challenges. In particular, the paper reviews the innovativeness of several programs in re-charting Australian student perspectives about non-Australian and non-Western environmental and cultural knowledge systems and paradigms, and where this may chart Australian landscape architectural education.
Mammals of Ungava and Labrador: The 1882-1884 Fieldnotes of Lucien M. Turner together with Inuit and Innu Knowledge, ed. S Heyes and K Helgen, Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, Washington, D.C, , pp.xix–xx, 2014
Mammals of Ungava and Labrador: The 1882-1884 Fieldnotes of Lucien M. Turner together with Inuit and Innu Knowledge, ed. S Heyes and K Helgen, Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, Washington, D.C. , pp. xxvii-xlv., 2014
Fusion Journal, Special Issue "Studio", No. 3, Apr 2014
This paper explores the studio experience of a University of Canberra landscape architecture subj... more This paper explores the studio experience of a University of Canberra landscape architecture subject that was partially undertaken in the field at the Aboriginal community of Cherbourg, Queensland, Australia. The twelve week studio program, which began in March 2013, required fifteen senior undergraduate students to develop design concepts for a proposed material recycling facility on the fringes of the Cherbourg community. Working together with Aboriginal community partners, and based on a design brief provided by the local Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council, a design studio was formulated that was framed on the concepts of design as advocacy and entrepreneurship, and how the design process can lead to the development of a social consciousness amongst designers. This paper explains the context of the studio, experiences in the field, and the educational benefits of the design collaboration to the students and the Aboriginal community itself. Further, the paper highlights the challenges of maintaining field-based studios in the face of the academy leaning towards the delivery of landscape architecture design content online.
Introduction in: Transects: Windows into Boandik Country eds. S Heyes and S Tuiteci, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra, p. 5-8. ISBN: 978-1-74088-384-9, Dec 2013
Introduction in: Transects: Windows into Boandik Country eds. S Heyes and S Tuiteci, Faculty of A... more Introduction in: Transects: Windows into Boandik Country eds. S Heyes and S Tuiteci, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra, p. 5-8. ISBN: 978-1-74088-384-9
Proceedings of the Australian & New Zealand Association of Planning Schools Conference Canberra, University of Canberra, 27th September – 29th September 2013 Innovation in Planning for Cities and Regions, Sep 2013
In 2008 Sarah Oberklaid reviewed the state of Indigenous knowledge systems in Planning Institute ... more In 2008 Sarah Oberklaid reviewed the state of Indigenous knowledge systems in Planning Institute of Australia (PIA)-accredited planning programs and found a fragmented and unfocused suite of agendas and attempts at addressing this increasingly important moral, cultural and land use management issue. While Oberklaid validated statistically what several authors have observed, and continue to observe, there appears to have been little action by programs and specifically the PIA to address this issue and re-position their education accreditation policies with the latter increasingly reluctant to engage with their professional responsibilities. This paper appraises this situation and fore-shadows continuing research that may better inform and support a change of perspective by PIA and these programs.
The Canadian Geographer, 2011
In the Canadian Arctic, where sea ice is a feature of purposeful and spiritual significance to the... more In the Canadian Arctic, where sea ice is a feature of purposeful and spiritual significance to the Inuit inhabitants, evidence suggests that traditional knowledge of the terms for sea ice is diminishing. This article presents the findings from fieldwork regarding the terms, and their definitions, that a group of Inuit from Kangiqsualujjuaq in Nunavik, Northern Quebec, use to describe sea ice. This case study, which explores their knowledge of sea ice phenomena, offers insights into the present state of Inuit knowledge of sea ice terminology in that community. Instruments used to elicit knowledge of and about sea ice terms are described in this article.Participant inclusion was based on gender and age groups, and an illustration was produced to demonstrate the disparity in sea ice knowledge across three generations of male and female hunters. It is suggested that future nomenclature studies of Inuit knowledge be based on the canvassing of all age brackets, if a realistic picture of the ways in which such knowledge is transmitted within and across generations is to be ascertained.
Landscape in Language: transdisciplinary perspectives, edited by David M. Mark, Andrew G. Turk, Niclas Burenhult, and David Stea, 2011
This chapter provides an account of how three generations of Inuit conceptualize the environment ... more This chapter provides an account of how three generations of Inuit conceptualize the environment in a spatial sense, and explores the extent to which this is bound up with Inuit belief systems. The discussions on Inuit notions of space are based on fieldwork and interviews that have been carried out with the Inuit of Kangiqsualujjuaq, a coastal community in Nunavik, Northern Quebec. With the support of illustrations and a spatial lexicon, I present how these Inuit conveyed to me the ways in which they discern, describe, and discriminate features within and upon the land and coastal environment.
ABSTRACT Inuit storytelling in the Ungava Bay region of Northern Quebec, Canada is a mode of com... more ABSTRACT
Inuit storytelling in the Ungava Bay region of Northern Quebec, Canada is a mode of communication that has rapidly decreased over the last decade. Many myths and legends which contain information about the natural, physical, and spiritual environments of the region are no longer being passed on to young generations. In an effort to revitalize knowledge that is embedded within Inuit stories, a virtual building has been designed, at the conceptual level, to serve two functions: (1) as a storytelling space for the Inuit residents of Ungava Bay and for those interested in the North; and (2) as a facility to communicate Inuit stories of the region that the Smithsonian Ethnologist, Lucien McShan Turner (1847-1909) documented between 1882 and 1884. A virtual storytelling space representing the Ungava Bay region is likely to be more accessible to Inuit across the North than is a physical space.
As non-Inuit and local Inuit pass through the virtual doors of the storytelling space they gain an appreciation of the mythological and spiritual importance of the surrounds of Ungava Bay. By engaging with the virtual storytelling space, non-Inuit visitors gain an appreciation of the Ungava Bay region as a living landscape where Inuit hunters and fishers are interacting with their ancestors through narratives and stories. The storytelling space captures the human and spiritual elements of the Arctic landscape and seascape.
This article explores the ethnographic and design processes that were undertaken to generate the virtual storytelling space. The design vision is based on fieldwork and interviews that have been carried out with Inuit experts on myths, legends and hunting knowledge. With the form and function of the building based on local stories, the proposed centre offers a way to mingle with the ancestors and for Inuit knowledge to be shared through design.
![Research paper thumbnail of Réveiller les récits d’un paysage arctique [Awakening the Stories of an Arctic Landscape]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/37158417/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Presses universitaires de Rennes, Rennes, 2010
This paper is a story about traditional stories, and how they are presently understood, communica... more This paper is a story about traditional stories, and how they are presently understood, communicated and internalised in the context of two Inuit communities in Nunavik, Northern Quebec. It is based upon fieldwork carried out in Kangiqsualujjuaq and Kangiqsuajuaq between 2002 and 2008, on Inuit knowledge and perceptions of the environment. This fieldwork incorporated a specific study of storytelling and Inuit mythology.
Book chapter in: Adelaide: Water of a City, ed. C. Daniels, 2010
This chapter explores the importance of water to the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains, South ... more This chapter explores the importance of water to the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains, South Australia
PhD Dissertation, Dept of Geography, McGill University, Canada, May 2007
The Inuit of Kangiqsualujjuaq have maintained functional and spiritual connections with the lands... more The Inuit of Kangiqsualujjuaq have maintained functional and spiritual connections with the landscape and waters of Arctic Quebec (Nunavik) for over four thousand years. While ethnographic studies about this ocean-going population have revealed their pragmatic relationships with the arctic milieu, less is known, however, about their perceptions of terrestrial and aquatic realms. Three fieldtrips to Kangiqsualujjuaq were undertaken between 2003 and 2005 to explore how three generations of Inuit perceived the land-water interface, a geographical setting regularly frequented and considered spiritually important to the Inuit. Surveys were carried out to determine whether Inuit regarded the sea as an extension of the “land”, a way of thinking about space that is common among indigenous islanders in southern latitudes. The research reported in this thesis involved the participation of thirty-four Inuit men and women from six families, whose ancestors once lived in separate hunting camps along the Ungava Bay coast. Using an intergenerational approach to explore whether perceptions of the land-water interface were consistent or inconsistent across and between generations, the cohort responded to questions about spatial concepts, travel patterns, traditional narratives, senses of place, and hunting knowledge. A series of drawing exercises, which were designed to understand how the cohort perceived the land-water interface pictorially, were performed by 13 Inuit participants and 14 Inuit adolescent students from the local School. Traditional methods of Inuit learning and transmitting knowledge about the land-water interface were also investigated to ascertain the extent to which pedagogical instruments underpin and mould Inuit perceptions of this setting. A series of knowledge-maps/trees were subsequently created for each family unit to illustrate the flow of traditional knowledge both among and across Inuit generations. The data derived from interviews and the drawing sets indicated that Inuit perceptions of the land-water interface are changing at a rapid rate. The ninety drawings offer a tangible view of the Inuit knowledge base of the land-water interface being wrought by changes to the physical landscape, to patterns of social interaction, and to new and non-traditional pedagogical methods. If efforts are not made by the Kangiqsualujjuamiut in the near or immediate future to resurrect traditional forms of knowledge that pertain to the land-water interface such as knowledge of traditional placenames, nomenclature and mythologies, then young and future generations will likely become spiritually disengaged from the land and sea.
Master of Landscape Architecture Thesis, School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, Adelaide University, Australia., Feb 2002
This work explores traditional Inuit and Western scientific ways of knowing and seeing the Arctic... more This work explores traditional Inuit and Western scientific ways of knowing and seeing the Arctic through a number of cultural expressions of landscape. Inuit and Western perceptions of the Arctic are analysed by examining a series of thematic and cognitive 'maps', drawings and satellite imagery. The study focuses on how these forms of landscape representation and methods of navigation shape the way in which the Arctic is perceived. Centred on Inuit coastal villages in Nunavik (Northern Quebec), Canada, the study illustrates different and converging ways of reading the landscape through maps.
The conventional four European seasons that impose order on the Australian landscape have long be... more The conventional four European seasons that impose order on the Australian landscape have long been perceived as an
inappropriate description of the environment. Unlike the Northern Hemisphere interpretation of seasons, Australia is riddled with particular regions that are affected by varying cyclic patterns and movements of natural systems. To
record the subtle patterns, processes and seasonal events of Australian bio-regions, indigenous knowledge has proved
imperative in establishing seasonal frameworks and calendars. Aboriginal 'local readings' of the landscape have been translated into seasonal calendars throughout the continent to accurately depict the differences between bioregions.
This paper stresses the need to abolish the European calendar in Australia and discusses the implications of understanding the inherent qualities of regional environments. A new calendar for the Adelaide Plains in South Australia is
proposed in this report, responding to indigenous Kaurna knowledge of the area.
This poster provides a graphic showing Inuit knowledge of sea-ice terms as related by three gener... more This poster provides a graphic showing Inuit knowledge of sea-ice terms as related by three generations (youth, middle-aged hunters, and Elders) of Inuit from the community of Kangiqsualujjuaq in Nunavik, Northern Quebec, Canada.
A poster presented at the 2010 Smithsonian Institution "Inside-out" Folklife Festival, Washington DC, Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History
2008
A poster presented at the Cultural Waters Exhibition, Curated by S Heyes, Faculty of Architecture... more A poster presented at the Cultural Waters Exhibition, Curated by S Heyes, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, the University of Melbourne
2008
Details of a timber Aboriginal fish trap A poster presented at the Cultural Waters Exhibition,... more Details of a timber Aboriginal fish trap
A poster presented at the Cultural Waters Exhibition, Curated by S Heyes, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, the University of Melbourne
A Poster presented at the ArcticNet Annual Scientific Meeting, Collingwood, Ontario, 11-14 Decemb... more A Poster presented at the ArcticNet Annual Scientific Meeting, Collingwood, Ontario, 11-14 December, 2007
A Poster presented at the Arctic Coastal Dynamics Symposium, Dept of Geography, McGill University... more A Poster presented at the Arctic Coastal Dynamics Symposium, Dept of Geography, McGill University, Montreal.
In 1882, the Smithsonian Institution Arctic scientist Lucien McShan Turner travelled to the Ungav... more In 1882, the Smithsonian Institution Arctic scientist Lucien McShan Turner travelled to the Ungava District – encompassing Northern Quebec and Labrador – where he spent two years as part of a mission to record meteorological data for an International Polar Year research program. While stationed at the Hudson’s Bay Company trading post of Ft. Chimo in Ungava Bay, now the Inuit community of Kuujjuaq, he expanded his observations to studies of the natural history and ethnography of the Inuit and Innu – the aboriginal
peoples of the region. His ethnography of the Inuit and Innu people was published in 1894, but his substantial writings on language and natural history never made it to print. His unpublished notes on the mammals of the region,
many derived from Inuit and Innu knowledge and stories, are finally presented in the book, Mammals of Ungava and Labrador: the 1882-1884 Fieldnotes of Lucien M. Turner together with Inuit and Innu Knowledge, edited by Scott
Heyes and Kristofer Helgen (Smithsonian Scholarly Press, Washington D.C., 2014). The map featured on this poster, which appears in the book, shows the journey that Turner took to reach Ungava in 1882.
Map generated by Scott Heyes and Phil Easson, 2014. Graphics by Phil Easson. Map exhibited at the National Library of Australia, 01 July, 2014 and the Smithsonian Institution's Arctic Spring Festival 8-10 May, 2015 at the National Museum of Natural History.