Been thinking about this for a while. And I have to point out that I haven’t discussed this with anyone so am not aware whether any aspect of the idea might offend cultural sensitivities.
I would hope that one day Indigenous Australians wouldn’t feel the need to retain the tent embassy outside Old Parliament House in Canberra. But I do think that it has been and remains an important part of our society’s history and it keeps reminding us that the problem is yet to be solved.
Therefore I've been wondering about a way this role could be commemorated in an ongoing way, while preserving the design and vista of the axis.
Then I was listening to a podcast about a gallery in Paris dedicated to just Australian Aboriginal art, and it got me thinking why is there this in Paris but we don’t have such a thing in our own capital? To a degree this has been remedied with the expansion of the National Gallery, but there’s more to it than just art. A museum is warranted.
My idea is to build this museum and gallery underneath the square where the Tent Embassy is now, retaining the grass park over the top (but better kept than the way the government leaves it now!). The building would emerge from the ground along either side in much the same way as the tents are now nestled among the trees down both sides.
I picture long ground-level glass facades facing each other across the grass. The facing sides could somehow represent the “sides” that seek/need reconciliation and they could be designed to pay homage to the tent embassy, and work in the trees somehow too. In the centre an appropriate sculpture could represent that reconciliation achieved (pre-emptively I guess).
What do you think?
Not sure I agree with your comment, "... we don’t have such a thing in our own capital"
ReplyDeleteThe National Museum of Australia has a pretty decent collection of Australian Aboriginal art and the last time I checked that was in our capital!