Balarinji’s Designing with Country framework informed the initial design and construction phases of the redevelopment project. The framework aimed to deepen the connection to Country within the CIT campuses by integrating Ngunnawal culture within the various multi-purpose spaces to encourage engagement and understanding of the site’s Aboriginal cultural, physical and spiritual contexts.
Balarinji undertook comprehensive Aboriginal community engagement with locally-connected Ngunnawal elders, knowledge holders, artists and community members to inform and co-design the Designing with Country framework.
Workshops and individual interviews with the locally-connected Aboriginal community cohort explored the Ngunnawal narrative of the Woden Campus and the Bruce Yurauna Centre. This included a Creative Thinking Workshop co-facilitated by Ngunnawal and Wiradjuri woman Mary Mudford.
The Designing with Country framework included recommendations for the continued co-design of the Yurauna Centre with the Ngunnawal community. A key theme for the Yurauna Centre was the story of the Ngunnawal totem, the wedge-tailed eagle, Maliyan.
