Danusha Gamage

Aboriginal people refer to the utilisation of land, seas and waterways as country. These play an important role in their daily lives as they are used to create tools and handcrafts, as well as food and medicine. The following territory study depicts some of Victoria's remaining woody vegetation and grassland areas, as well as the Yarra River, which was an important food source and gathering site for local indigenous people prior to colonisation.

The site plan presents a new proposal for the current Aboriginal Garden on the Momash Clayton Campus, recently renamed in honour of its creator, the Beth Gott Garden. The new proposal will involve educating its users about how indigenous people used their land, by incorporating small interventions around the garden. These interventions will demonstrate how tools, handcraft, food, medicine, and the sky can be readily used from what is available within the garden.

The elevation and section drawing are of one of the interventions at the Beth Gott Garden. The Stargazing Pavilion gives individuals an opportunity to stargaze and reflect on how indigenous people utilised the night sky and the stars. Everything on the land is reflected onto the sky, therefore it was used as a way finding tool, a calendar, and was also a way of story telling between generations.

The 1:20 scale model of the Stargazing Pavilion is constructed of material that indigenous peoples used to build tools and shelters. The supporting structures would be made of Blackwood tree trunks found in the garden, and the weaving timber blocks that run across the pavilion are also made of timber that can be found in the Beth Gott Garden.