Ngurra will be nationally significant in speaking to the central place that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples hold in Australia’s story.
Ngurra, meaning ‘home’, ‘Country’ or ‘place of belonging’ in many Aboriginal languages around Australia, will comprise a National Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Centre with new and expanded facilities for AIATSIS and a National Resting Place to care for repatriated limited provenance ancestral remains.
Ngurra will sit in the Parliamentary triangle on Country that is home to the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples.
Balarinji will work in close and continuous partnership with AIATSIS and its architectural and project teams through a co-design process to work with Ngunnawal, Ngambri and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders nationally, to optimise Ngurra’s physical, social, Country (environmental), cultural and spiritual design objectives.
For the Ngurra project, Balarinji will undertake and draw from deep, authentic community engagement to inform the co-design process.