Beyond Heritage

Written in collaboration with Michael McMahon, Beyond Heritage is a manifesto, highlighting the need for the inclusion of indigenous expertise, and peoples, in climate mitigation across the Australian continent. Beyond Heritage is a call to move beyond a purely historical interest in indigeneity, so that First Nations expertise can co-create the invariably technocratic future of our cities and continent. To move beyond an arms-length, referential treatment of Indigenous perspectives and people, towards the inclusion of First Nations knowledge and expertise, across all environmental management, built environment, and design based professions and practices.

Whilst interest in First Nations’ environmental design techniques — and their capacity to provide low-impact, high-yield approaches to environmental management — have gained traction in recent years, studies outlining their spatial, environmental, and socio-economic benefits are either difficult to access or, in some cases, conspicuously absent. Beyond Heritage seeks to ignite the debate, highlighting the need for the entangled fields of architecture, planning, and design to support indigenous involvement in climate mitigation across the nation. Read the full article here. 

Image: Sentinel-2A false colour image of the Gibson Desert, Western Australia showing the remnants of areas purposefully burned by the Pintupi people to encourage plant growth or drive game courtesy of ESA-Rosetta-NavCam

Collaborators

Michael McMahon - Beyond Heritage
Australian Institute of Architects