Indigenous Cultural Centers and Museums

An Illustrated International Survey

By (author) Anoma Pieris

Publication date:

14 July 2016

Length of book:

328 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442264069

Here is a lavishly illustrated descriptive survey of 48 leading indigenous cultural centers around the world (35 are from Australia and 13 from North America, Japan, Europe, and Asia). The book shows how each is a potentially transformative, politically compelling addition to the field of cultural production, illustrating how the facilities --- all built in the last three decades --- have challenged assumptions about nature, culture, and built form. Using the spatial-temporal practice of place-making as the starting point, the facilities highlighted here are described in terms of collaborations between a number of stake-holders and professional consultants.

The book adopts the format of a descriptive survey with separate chapters devoted to individual case studies. A broad introductory chapter which presents the arguments and overview precedes richly illustrated short individual essays on selected projects. Each chapter commences with the details of the project including, location, area, cost and consultants, followed by a project description, and discussion of background, design development and reception of the projects. Each project is approached as an architectural commission, detailing the critical criteria, consultants, and processes. The format is adopted from architectural review essays typically used in awards or journal publications within the profession which are accessible and relevant for both academics and practitioners. Considerable attention is given to the process, and to the evaluation of the project as a cultural response. Each case study has been written with consultation of architects or administrators of the facilities for accuracy.

Indigenous Cultural Centers and Museums: An Illustrated International Survey documents a rich legacy of collaboration across the spatial disciplines combining creative art practice, architecture, construction, landscape design and urban design in the production of unique and culturally significant social institutions. This book provides material on hitherto unknown bodies of work of talented architectural practices, working collaboratively with culturally different client groups and developing consultative processes that test models for inter-cultural engagement.

Introduction: Architectures of Survivance: an Antipodean Perspective

1. Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra, Australia

2. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and National Museum of Australia, Canberra, Australia

3. Bangerang Cultural Centre, Shepparton, Victoria, Australia

4. Bowali Visitor Centre, Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

5. Brambuk Cultural Centre, Halls Gap, Victoria, Australia

6. Brewarrina Aboriginal Museum, New South Wales, Australia

7. Burrinja Cultural Centre, Olinda, Victoria, Australia

8. Edge of the Trees, Museum of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

9. Galina Beek Living Cultural Centre, Healesville, Victoria, Australia

10. Gunung-Willam-Balluk Learning Centre, Broadmeadows, Victoria, Australia

11. Gwoonwardu Mia Gascoyne Aboriginal Heritage and Cultural Centre, Carnarvon, Western Australia, Australia

12. Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea, New Caledonia

13. Karijini Visitor Centre, Karajini, Western Australia, Australia

14. Koorie Heritage Trust, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

15. Kurongkurl Katitjin Centre for Indigenous Australian Education and Research, Edith Cowan University, Mount Lawley, Western Australia, Australia

16. Lake Tyers Training Centre and Lake Tyers Health Centre, Lake Tyers, Victoria, Australia

17. Living Kaurna Cultural Centre, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia

18. Minpaku (National Museum of Ethnology), Osaka, Japan

19. Mossman Gorge Centre, Mossman, Queensland, Australia

20. Musée du Quai Branly and Universitè Wing, Paris, France

21. Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

22. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand

23. Musgrave Park, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

24. National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, Redfern, New South Wales, Australia

25. National Museum of the American Indian, Washington & New York and Cultural Resources Centre, Maryland, United States of America

26. Needwonnee Walk, Melaleuca, Tasmania, Australia

27. Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Cultural Complex, Roebourne, Western Australia, Australia

28. Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre, Osoyoos, Canada

29. Port Augusta Courts, Port Augusta, South Australia, Australia

30. Reconciliation Place, Canberra, Australia

31. Riawunna Centre, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia

32. Rumbalara Medical Clinic, Mooroopna and Rumbalara Elders Care Facility, Shepparton, Victoria, Australia

33. Sámi Parliaments, Norway, Sweden & Finland

34. Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, Taipei, Taiwan

35. Tiaggara Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Museum, Devonport, Tasmania, Australia

36. Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, Caravonica, Queensland, Australia

37. Tjulyuru Cultural and Civic Centre, Warburton Aboriginal Community, Western Australia, Australia

38. Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre, Northern Territory, Australia

39. Wilcannia Health Service, Wilcannia, New South Wales, Australia

40. Worn Gundidj, Tower Hill, Victoria, Australia

41. Yagan Memorial Park, Belhus, Western Australia, Australia

[T]he book has value, and not just as travel guide (though it could serve as that). Looking at architecture in particular, Pieris examines the origins, development, and public reception of the sites, many of them designed in consultation with Indigenous peoples. One strength of the book is the author's overview of how architects and curators (mostly Australian) considered the voices of Indigenous people in their design and interpretive practices. Of special note is the Brambuk, a cultural center in Victoria, Australia: the center's circular forms represent the five Aboriginal communities that make up Brambuk Incorporated (which owns the Brambuk facility). Architects took care to invoke ancient stone dwellings throughout the complex, which drapes across the foothills of the Grampian mountains. At other centers discussed, designers incorporated buildings into existing landscape features (and included indigenous plants).

Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty; professionals; general readers.