Green Square Integrated Community Facilities & School Cultural Engagement and Heritage Report
Client: Department of Education & City of Sydney
Service: Place Strategy
With a design that fosters connection with the broader community, surrounding parks and community facilities, BVN architects won a design excellence competition to deliver the new Green Square Integrated Community Facility and School project. The facility will include learning spaces for a public primary school, several community and shared spaces, multipurpose spaces, a games court, an adjacent courtyard, and a hall.
The proposed Green Square Primary School and integrated community space by BVN.
Image: City of Sydney
Murawin was engaged by the Department of Education with the City of Sydney to examine, interpret, present and represent Aboriginal heritage and culture across the design of the facility to ensure the first stories were being told, that the facilities are connected to Country and are welcoming spaces for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In addition, Murawin was engaged to invite an Aboriginal artist to create an artwork for installation to the school’s rooftop play area.
Images source: Green Square Integrated Community Facilities & School Cultural Engagement & Heritage Report, prepared by Murawin for the Department of Education with the City of Sydney, October 2024
To do this, Murawin took a multi-pronged approach. First, a literature review addressed written background knowledge of the area to document local First Nation’s history, culture and geography. Next, Murawin undertook community engagement to ascertain the perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders and members of the local and broader community. The findings then informed recommendations for ways to include Aboriginal cultural and heritage elements on the site. Together, these approaches provided the opportunity to give recommendations for embedding Aboriginal cultural values into the site of Green Square Integrated Community Facilities and School for all to enjoy and benefit from.
A Historical Review
Analysis of First Nations history of Green Square, Zetland and its surrounding areas was undertaken from pre-colonial times to the present day. The analysis reviewed this Country and its landforms, flora and fauna from pre-contact times through to this Country as we see it today. It provided perspectives and descriptions of First Nation’s people from this Country and the surrounding Country, their social, spiritual and cultural context, and the ways of living and some of the technologies that were used. An overview outline is provided of prominent Aboriginal figures from those first contact years, the post contact survival and the continuation of culture in the area today. This provided context for understanding this Country and its First People for an informed decision-making process founded in the knowledge of the First Stories of this place.
Community Engagement
The engagement for the Green Square Integrated Community Facilities and School aimed to identify stories and to enhance, inform, contradict, contrast or confirm the findings of the literature review. There were a several tasks to address, including:
- How would Community want Aboriginal culture expressed on the site?
- To identify stories and storytelling for in and around the site for now and into the future.
- To inform and provide thoughts and feedback about a rooftop artwork and its design.
- To identify thoughts and ideas around the previously planned or existing Aboriginal historical and heritage elements.
As always, our community engagement was grounded in Indigenous ways of thinking in a culturally safe, responsive and inclusive manner. The engagement was conducted as a yarning circle at the Green Square Library and provided many rich, useful and new ideas about the site’s cultural and heritage elements.
The engagement was productive and revealed many site-specific ideas, but also expanded beyond the site to make important cultural connections. Sydney is the place of first colonisation, and as such it is crucial to reveal this truth of Country’s first stories to educate users, residents and visitors. As a centre of education, the school provides the perfect opportunity to teach and learn about First Nations ways of knowing, living in and caring for Country in a contemporary environment.
Images source: Green Square Integrated Community Facilities & School Cultural Engagement & Heritage Report, prepared by Murawin for the Department of Education with the City of Sydney, October 2024
Rooftop Artwork
As part of this project, Murawin engaged Wiraduri artist Graham Toomey to create an artwork for the school facility’s rooftop floor area. The artwork will be 41 metres long and 3.75m wide and sandblasted onto the concrete ground surface, providing different texture to feel and experience. This artwork symbolises how Aboriginal Country is always connected to its People and how they journeyed through this Country, creating tracks and footprints. The tangible nature of this artwork provides the opportunity for children and visitors to learn about Country and to reflect on the knowledge, customs ceremonies and gatherings that have continued on this Country for millennia and continue into the present and the future.
Recommendations
Informed by our literature review and community engagement sessions, Murawin delivered a report with recommendations to the Department of Education and the City of Sydney that will honour history, Country and community. At the heart of this, Country and its Traditional Custodians are positioned as the centre of focus for learning principles that kept Country healthy for millennia. In addition, we recommend that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are included in a sustainable, ongoing way throughout the project lifecycle to ensure that the final development is inviting, safe, appealing and accessible to First Nations people, particularly those within the Green Square and Zetland areas, as well as the broader community.
The final recommendations included:
Rooftop Artwork
The final artwork to be installed to the artists recommendations including sensory components
Aunty Fay Carroll Hall
Made available for students and visitors
Naming of School Spaces
Sydney Aboriginal language names throughout the school facilities
Endemic Plants
Reintroduce plants that are native to this area
Attract Birds and Insects
Teach and improve perceptions and appreciation of the values and uses of endemic plants, fauna, flora and insects
Displays and Interpretive Approaches
Visual, aural and oral displays and other forms of interpretive presentations can play a crucial role in the education of place-based knowledge
Telling Stories
Incorporation of local stories with respect and permission from the knowledge owners, local Aboriginal Elders and Stakeholders
Extension Ideas
Connecting Water, include local football heritage, Places Connecting Community & Oral Histories
Images source: Green Square Integrated Community Facilities & School Cultural Engagement & Heritage Report, prepared by Murawin for the Department of Education with the City of Sydney, October 2024
The Green Square Integrated Community Facilities and School provides an opportunity to recognise and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture in public spaces.
Through art, landscaping and storytelling, children, employees, visitors and even passersby will have the opportunity to learn about Country, the native flora and fauna, art, and First Nations cultural heritage.
Murawin is proud to have delivered this comprehensive report to the Department of Education and the City of Sydney and looks forward to the development of this project in ways that are guided and informed by the First Stories of this place and Community aspirations and desires, creating an inclusive, appealing, educational and exciting new community space for Green Square.