Kalkaringi, NT 2020 – Consultation Days 3 & 4
This morning we finished work on our two models; one for the whole site and one of the shade screens in detail.
Kalkaringi, NT 2020 – Consultation Day 3 - Wednesday
We presented these models to a meeting with traditional owners Rosalind and Rob Roy, Quitaysha, Mina, Phil (CEO of Gurindji corp), Michael (Gurindji Corp manager of construction and maintenance) and other community members and construction team members and listened to their feedback. This meeting was a crucial step towards getting the project approved, accepted by the community and up and running. This meeting gave us an opportunity to not only present our new ideas to the community leaders and incorporate their opinions and approval, but it was also a chance to reiterate the story of the considered design of the Wave Hill Walk-Off Pavilions and its relationship with this project.
Members of the community told their story or their relative’s story of living on the Wave Hill Station and experiencing the walk-off and from these stories and visiting the station the design was developed for the Wave Hill Walk-Off Pavilions. The rusted steel angle reflects the original bed frames now rusting on Wave Hill station, the exposed concrete pads resemble the slabs that were provided for accommodation and the shadows of the overlapping perforated mesh screens are representative of the dappled sunlight in the shade of the significant trees.
After the meeting, Quitaysha and Rosalind left to visit another community that was having an opening event for their new Family Centre. They went to support the community and get ideas for what could be implemented in Kalkaringi.
Emma and I returned to the house and began amending the CAD drawings of the new community hub to submit to council for approval so that we can begin building in April.
In the afternoon we took the time to explore the beautiful landscape as we had never seen it before. When Emma and I were here last it was a very dry season as the wet season had been absent, so the landscape was extremely parched. Now with the rain, all the rivers and creeks had swollen and all of the trees and shrubs were so green. We bumped into Leah at the river who had brought her grandchildren, nieces and nephews to swim. Sitting by the river in the hot weather we were definitely regretting not packing our bathers, but we still enjoyed dipping our feet into the refreshing water.
Kalkaringi, NT 2020 – Consultation Day 4 - Thursday
It’s our last morning so we went to back to site and took some final measurements and photos to make sure we weren’t missing anything. We also visited the Karungkarni Arts Centre where we showed Penny, Rosemary, Richard, Rachel, Narelle and Leah the two models and talked about the plans for the Community Hub. Everyone at the meeting was happy that the old building was getting repurposed and they were excited to have a new opportunity to display their community values. We received many valuable suggestions and inputs that we’re incorporating into the design.
We then said our final goodbyes and hit the road on the long drive back to Darwin to return in a few months with the new Bower 2020 students to begin the build.
By Annabelle Roper
