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The importance of First Nations engagement

  • May 29, 2024
  • by Property Australia
The importance of First Nations engagement

Across the property industry, engagement with First Nations peoples is starting to become a vital part of any project.

Hannah Galloway has witnessed the heightening of this engagement firsthand. She is a Senior Associate Landscape Architect at Hassell, with her career spanning the East Coast and Western Australia, where she has been since 2010.

Ms Galloway said that when she arrived in Perth, the concept of engagement was still new, but there had been a shift in how companies engaged with First Nations peoples.

“Western Australia has really been at the forefront of this. It was a new thing when I arrived in 2010; there had been little engagement before that.

“I wholeheartedly support the progress that we’re making, and we can all do so much more.”

Her portfolio includes high-profile projects like Optus Stadium Park, Boola Bardip WA Museum and METRONET.

Ms Galloway emphasised the importance of understanding and respecting the history and cultural connections of place.

“At Hassell, we are committed to designing places people love.  To do so, we need to understand what place actually means to people, its history and the impact our designs will have socially, economically and environmentally.

“You need to understand place to respond and design in a responsible and respectable way.

“A core part of the history of place is our First Nations peoples culture and their unique understanding of the spiritual and cultural connections.

Ms Galloway said involving the voices of First Nations peoples early in the design process is crucial.

“Cultural engagement is part of our project bid process to ensure First Nations peoples’ voices and storytelling are embedded into our proposal right at the very start.

“For Optus Stadium, we hosted art workshops and invited Whadjuk Noongar artists to come along and engage with us during that process as part of our proposal. We listened to the stories, talked about ideas, and together created a site narrative.

“We then embedded all those things into our whole design narrative within the proposal.

“If you do it too late, it becomes less meaningful because you can’t change as much.”

Optus Stadium Park by Hassell. Photography by Robert Frith from Acorn Photo.

Ms Galloway said early engagement allows for the integration of cultural narratives that make the final design meaningful and truthful.

Ms Galloway said the input of traditional owners and elders in informing the design process is invaluable.

She said at Stadium Park and Chevron Parkland, the inspiration for the design to be inspired by the Indigenous six seasons came directly from discussions with Whadjuk Working groups which then informed the entire site – from materials to plants.

On the day of the interview, Hassell was undertaking an art working group with local Noongar artists to inform the METRONET level crossing removal program and the artwork that would adorn it.

She said  engagement can ensure a project is culturally appropriate, safe and informed by place.

“We shouldn’t be designing on Country without engaging the Traditional Owners of that Country,” she said.

“We should be doing it early, we should be doing it from the outset, so that we’re going on the journey together.

“It should affect the masterplan; it should affect everything that you do.”