Ngargee Djeembana is a research-led design exhibition by Senior Boonwurrung Elder Dr N’arweet Carolyn Briggs AM and JCB Associate Sarah Lynn Rees (Palawa). It was the keynote commission for ACCA’s Who’s Afraid of Public Space? exhibition presented across Australian summer 2021/22.

In partnership between Monash Art Design and Architecture and JCB, the exhibition explores the question, ‘If our public spaces were made from the materials of Country, what would those materials be?’

Implemented within an exhibition context of First Peoples’ philosophical knowledge and design thinking, the exhibition considers the identity and materiality of Country and provides a conceptual and material palette for future design of the built environment.

The design forms a topography through 55 material elements that are Indigenous to the region now called Victoria, ranging from their natural to modified built environment forms.

Awards:

AIA Victorian Architecture Awards: Small Project Architecture Commendation
2022