Video and audio transcripts

Video transcript

My name is Alison Page and I'm an interior designer.

So in a sense, you're seeing your identity manifested in a large building which isn't done very often, I suppose. Most large buildings, commercial buildings are designed not to exclude anybody so they're actually devoid of any meaning at all. So, they're basically just four walls and a roof and it's all about the functions of the building. How does it work? Rather than seizing that opportunity to add another layer to it, another level to it, a level of experience for people who use it. Which is actually about our spirituality and our psychology, how it makes us feel, how these colours make us feel and all that kind of stuff. Some of the projects that I've been on have been really powerful in terms of making the community feel proud of who they are. We go into the community and they're already proud, but they all of a sudden just get to shout it to the world via this building.

We've had enormous support from the Government Architects to start with. Because Merrima was basically started within what was the old Department of Public Works. And the Government Architect, I suppose, recognised that he had an Indigenous architect working for him, Dillon Kombumerri, and that there was an opportunity there for Dillon to be starting an Indigenous group and for us to be doing projects for Aboriginal people. It's a little bit like Bangarra Dance Company, it's so easy to see that it's a living culture when you're looking at contemporary Aboriginal dance. It's a simple idea. It's about old stories done in new ways. Really, Indigenous architecture is about our old stories and our ancient traditions but expressed in new ways. And so, I think the wider community really want that. What we're feeling is that perhaps we're having a bit of an identity crisis in Australia, perhaps we really are almost like a 14 year old that's just coming into itself. Hey! Who am I? What am I about? And we're looking at Aboriginal culture as a sort of base for that, as almost our heartbeat, our spiritual core, if you like. We're not looking overseas for it anymore. It's coming from this landscape, which is really exciting and I suppose that's why Merrima really is positioned in a really good place for that. Because, we're expressing that spirituality to the wider community. We're expressing a new Australian identity which is really exciting.

Audio transcripts

Alison talks about why she became a designer.

I became a designer because I wanted to be in the creative arts in some way. I wanted to be an artist but I actually also really liked maths and things at school so I wanted something that was a bit technical and a bit creative. So design seemed to be the right thing for me.

Alison talks about meeting indigenous architects, Dillon and Kevin.

Basically it was these two guys that I met by chance at a conference. And I thought, wow, these guys are Aboriginal, they're totally proud of who they are and where they've come from but they've studied architecture and they're going to express their spirituality and their culture through architecture. And so for me, the idea of expressing my Aboriginality through interior design was just bizarre. And also, the penny really dropped for me, I thought everything started making sense to me in my whole life. Because, I suddenly thought, in my community you have to be a dancer, or make boomerangs or paint didgeridoos in order to be spiritual.

Alison?s advice if you are interested in a career in design:

Design is a fantastic area to get into because you can pretty much put design with any other interest that you have, whether that be sport, or dancing or Aboriginality or your cultural heritage or anything like that, and go into a niche area of design that looks at that kind of thing. So you might be designing sports halls or that kind of thing. Whether it's fashion design, interior design, industrial design or graphic design, it's a really good training to have because its about basically a creative industry, it's about communication really, communicating ideas, which is pretty much a fantastic skill to have in any instance, no matter what area you end up going into. One of the guys that I studied with is actually doing stop-motion photography, so special effects essentially for film. So he's really used his design training as a base platform for that.

Alison talks about working with communities.

When we get a project to design a building for a community, we like to include the community in all processes of the design. So right from the very word go: What would you like in your building? through to: What should it look like? What shape should it be? all the way through to it actually being built and finished. So, having a set up a community consultation, working with a specific group through that process, through the whole, is really important to us. We conduct workshops and we hold regular community meetings to generate ideas from the community. So that we're not actually going into a community and forcing our ideas and our style onto other people. We're actually asking them what they would like and what is their style and a little about their identity and who they are. Because they've been involved from the very beginning right through to the very end, so they feel a stronger sense of connection to the building when it's finished.

Alison talks about her design inspiration.

We look at a lot of Aboriginal art as inspiration for our designs because we don't really have an Indigenous architecture or a traditional architecture with which to draw from. So, building buildings is sort of a new thing for Aboriginal people. But you could say that our buildings are almost an extension of the landscape if you like, because we like to blend our buildings into the landscape. Perhaps there's a totem that the community would like to represent.

Alison talks about working on the Wilcannia Hospital project.

This was the first time that our process in its entirety was applied to a project. One, yes it's about consulting with the community and making sure that the community are informed all the way through the project. Basically what we do is, well the community sets up a working party committee. So it was a group of people that basically stayed with the project the whole time . The other things that that project had as well was employment and training programs. The community actually started an earth brick company that made these amazing earth bricks that were tested by CSIRO and they found these bricks to be as good as Roman bricks which have been around for 2000 years. And they're just sun-baked bricks but there's something in the soil out at Wilcannia that just hardens like anything. So these bricks are just a fantastic product. One of the aims was that this three million dollar hospital would be built out of these bricks but the community are also building their houses out of them as well.

Alison talks about cultural sensitivities on the Wilcannia project.

In the project in Wilcannia, well the Government says that we need to have mortuaries in the hospital, which is a health regulation. But Aboriginal people have a lot of superstitions about death and the bodies and things like that ? and grieving and that kind of thing. So we have to find a happy medium with that. So what we did in the project in Wilcannia was that it was seen as a part of the building because it was under the same roof, but we actually split the two buildings apart so that the mortuary was out here on its own and the main part of the building was here. Just so that there was air -flow in between, so there was a sense of separation. So that the people living in the hospital, because there were permanent residents there, elderly people and things like that, don't get windy because there's bodies over there.

The other thing is we had to provide a camping ground around that mortuary because Aboriginal people can mourn for their family and their loved ones for up to three months. You can't just say, you're not allowed to any more. You've got to provide for that. I mean, it's just a piece of grass. And just providing that space, it goes a long way in the community and if you recognise some of their protocols and some of their wishes in terms of what they value and what they see as important then ultimately the building is going to be more of a success.

Alison talks about the kinds of people that are part of a project team.

We definitely work with a huge team of people when we do projects. We can never really do it on our own because architects and designers are usually one tiny little part of a huge team that actually gets a building up and running. So, you might have project managers, but you'll also have landscape designers and lighting designers and engineers and all these different types of consultants that come together on a project. You might even have different artists that you are bringing in. So on every project that team of consultants is very different. For instance, in the exhibition process, you've got a whole other set of people that you just think, wow, somebody actually does that as a job ? sorts out the conservation issues around objects and things like that, which is thoroughly interesting. It expands my knowledge as well because I get to work with other people and see how they do their jobs. They get to see how I do my job. But it's fantastic that you work in a huge team of people.

Alison describes a typical day at work.

A typical day at work for me would definitely be organising travel to somewhere. Because I never have projects ? well, I suppose, the communities are usually out in remote areas. So, we usually have to organise travel to go there. And that can sometimes mean even chartering a plane if they're really remote, or hiring cars to get to places. But I'm also on the phone to a lot of people. I suppose I communicate the most really. It's less drawing and more communication in my line of work because the community, hopefully, will be doing a lot of the drawings. And then we just take all those ideas and things back to our design office and we just start drawing them up. So it could be anything from a big workshop day where we're organising that in the community which seems to be quite regular or a nice quiet day and I don't talk to anyone. I put my headphones on and listen to music and do drafting.

Alison talks about the skills needed to be a good designer.

First and foremost, design is the business of communication, communicating ideas. So definitely being a good communicator and being able to express ideas very simply so that the person who is viewing whatever you've created, gets that idea, gets that message that you're trying to convey. That's probably first and foremost.

Yes, you do need to know a lot of technical things. You need to be up on, I suppose, building technologies and how things come together and join together. What the constraints are with materials. So you have to understand a lot about materials. You have to be able to see the big picture, I suppose. To be able to think outside the square and perhaps go into territory that hasn't been gone into as well and have the courage to do that. Perhaps bring in a whole lot of other skills as well. I mean, I've worked with projects where we've had archaeologists working with us on different projects as well. You have to be able to get your head around other people working on the project as well and what their role is and how they fit into this big picture. But you've just got to be able to stand back and have a look at: ok what are we trying to do here? And what is the best way to do it? What is the most creative way to do it even if its never been done before.