J Power

Healthy Buildings of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Peoples

ABSTRACT This article will describe the interiors of the traditional buildings of the Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples or palawa, constructed prior to and in the early years of European colonization in Tasmania. Both the health properties of the artifacts found inside the buildings and the materials used in the construction of these buildings will be described. The hypothesis proposed by this article suggests that palawa health strategies were closely linked to buildings and their materiality. The discussion will be supported by an outline of the disastrous health profile of the palawa peoples when they were relocated from mainland Tasmania to an island off the coast called Flinders Island, where they resided in European-style accommodation at a place called Wybalenna. This article reveals for the first time that the buildings of the palawa peoples not only satisfied architectural mediation of environmental conditions, but may have also been closely associated with palawa health strategies.

The Australian Indigenous sky dome and its potential to reshape interiority

Interiority is a concept that allows interior thinking to move beyond the interior space of the building envelope. It is also appropriate for engaging with built expressions across cultures, because interiority is not tied to western spatial organization. This paper will explore Australian Indigenous space and, in particular, the utopian cosmological model of the “sky dome” as providing an opportunity to extend the concept of interiority for the interior discipline. This paper builds on work undertaken as part of my doctoral research by positioning the sky dome in relation to three key aspects of interiority: scale, boundary, and projection. The sky dome was a cosmological model predominant, particularly in parts of south-east mainland Australia, at the time of European colonization. In this model the sky was thought of as a vault that stretched to the earth, sometimes supported on columns. This paper explores the ways this particular cosmological model can contribute to understandings of interiority. It concludes that the sky dome cosmology has the potential to act as a case study for the interior discipline when exploring the conceptualization of interiority. The cosmology also enables key ideas to be distilled in new ways. The argument draws on anthropological and historical literature but frames the discussion from within the interior architecture/interior design discipline.

Australian triumphal arches and settler colonial cultural narratives

Abstract Within the Western architectural canon, the triumphal arch has been used to embody symbolism and meaning in the urban rituals of parades and processions. This paper examines temporary triumphal arches constructed in Australia between 1868 and 1954, to celebrate visits by the British royal family and their representatives. Each of the arches selected for discussion incorporated Australian Indigenous people, buildings or artefacts, which were curated to convey carefully crafted narratives of colonisation. A raft of interpretations can be read into each of the arches because they are intentionally loaded with meaning and symbolism. Particularly evident are the notions of protectionism and assimilation, which were central to the settler colonial narrative. Understandings of the arches is framed by the interpretive information available about them – photographic documentation taken of the in situ arches, drawings and textual descriptions. This paper examines how the triumphal arch form enshrined Australian Indigenous culture into the narrative of colonial experience. It explores how the triumphal arches presented particular representations of Indigenous cultures, both through the allegorical narratives inherent in their physical design, and through the involvement of performers in the events.