Reimagining the future and embedding reconciliation in everyday work
Kate Spencer, development partner at FORWARD — The RMIT Centre for Future Skills and Workforce Transformation — writing with director Peter Thomas and development partners Pete Cohen, Sally McNamara, Inder Singh, and Courtney Guilliatt about the reconciliation and place project for FORWARD, at RMIT’s City Campus, Melbourne.
As you enter FORWARD’s new workspace — in RMIT’s Advanced Manufacturing Precinct on the unceded lands of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation in Melbourne’s inner north — you are immediately struck with a juxtaposition.
Once a computer lab, the ceiling is a matrix of industrial air-conditioning ducts, but the furniture, equipment and layout of this space is far from the static, inflexible spaces characteristic of workspaces of the last 50 years.
Huge interactive screens — arguably the most tangible of symbols of the current age, that we use for collaborating in digital workspaces and to map out the future of skills, work and workforces — sit in a space that is filled with a connection to culture and Country dating back thousands of years, providing a provocation to imagine, explore and create and a different kind of future.
An artwork on the wall shows a set of concentric circles on a background of red and orange that resembles leaves. Towards the canvas’s edges are flowing shapes containing what looks like the rings of felled trees.
This is ‘Paperbark’ by Troy Firebrace.
A small panel on the wall next to the canvas has Troy’s words about the work:
“Paperbark talks to the history of what was torn out of Australia, and what was torn out of Aboriginal communities. It’s important to understand that in history, Aboriginal culture has been violently changed, through colonisation, through laws being passed down through Parliament. Aboriginal people weren’t at those tables during those decisions, such as the child protection laws or the Aboriginal protection laws, which resulted in the Stolen Generations. This work also talks about how we need to place importance on Aboriginal people at those tables.”
— Troy Firebrace
‘Paperbark’ — sitting alongside a series of other works by Troy Firebrace and a fit-out of custom pieces by WINYA Indigenous Furniture — was commissioned as part of the Reconciliation and Place project for FORWARD.
This juxtaposition of opposites is what we intended. Our brief was simple: transform the space. And now, plain white walls in a nondescript space have been transformed by colour, organic shapes and form, natural timbers and textures and infused with Country and story.
Yet the transformation we seek goes much deeper than adding colour.
The space is an invitation and a call to embed reconciliation into our everyday work.
FORWARD is RMIT’s Centre for Future Skills and Workforce Transformation, part of RMIT’s College of Vocational Education. Our remit is to explore and reimagine the skills and workforce transformations needed for the future of work.
As a system catalyst, our role is to explore some of the key issues around what skills people will need in the future and look at the effects that will have on individuals, on businesses, on the economy and the nation as a whole.
So when it came to designing the new place to work for FORWARD, it was natural that it should provoke new ideas about what the future of work could, and should, be.
Guided by Dhumbah Goorowa, RMIT’s second Reconciliation Action Plan, we also wanted to create a workspace that challenged our thinking and called on us to bring the principles of reconciliation into our everyday work.
You can see our film about the project here
Mish Eastman, Deputy Vice-Chancellor College of Vocational Education, says that:
“Building in and honouring recognition, and sovereignty, and truth telling, needs to be a process that occurs all the time. It’s not a bolt on. It’s not an add on. It’s part of an integrated approach, ensuring that we have the humility, and the appropriateness to be led through that conversation by the communities that know it best and have experienced it over many generations.”
Our vision was to create a workspace that, for our team and our visiting colleagues and industry partners, promoted curiosity, sparked conversations, and challenged us to re-evaluate our relationship to the past, present and future.
As Director of FORWARD, Dr Peter Thomas remarked:
“We could have chosen any theme in our workspace. We could have chosen any style or type of art or chosen any kind of artefact to fill our workspace. But it seems to me that reconciliation is incredibly important, not just reconciliation in the sense that we understand it in Australia, but also the idea it’s about building stronger, more compassionate and understanding relationships with each other, which as we all know, is the essence of all work.”
With our vision in mind, we started on a journey of learning and relationship building.
Art by Troy Firebrace
As an emerging and entrepreneurial artist with a strong connection to education and a passion for sharing knowledge and championing unity and reconciliation, Troy Firebrace was a perfect collaborator for this project.
Troy is a proud Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung man. Alongside his practice as a professional artist and managing his business Firebrace Designs, Troy also works as an Aboriginal Education Officer for Catholic Education Sandhurst.
The principles of education and sharing knowledge to enact change are intertwined in every aspect of Troy’s life and work. He sees each interaction with a potential client as an opportunity to share knowledge and understanding of his culture to advance reconciliation in Australia.
Troy says:
“My ambition is to ensure that the integrity of the Aboriginal arts industry is upheld, and that people, whether they are organisations, companies or individuals, ask the appropriate questions and go through that journey with an artist in a culturally safe way.”
Troy guided us on our journey of transformation, and the result is extraordinary.
Not only have the white walls been replaced with colour, organic form and narrative, but Troy’s artworks speak to the five dimensions of reconciliation outlined by Reconciliation Australia: historical acceptance, race relations, equality and equity, institutional integrity and unity.
On the opposite wall to ‘Paperbark’ is ‘The Deep’. Beyond the pearlescent veil, as if looking through the clouds, lies a shimmering network of golden patterns and shapes connected by the flowing lines of a river. This work challenges our perceptions and first impressions of others and makes a stand against racism.
“This artwork really does talk to racism — making sure that we are not placing our views on other people, and that we are not acting upon biased views. It talks about looking beyond the surface and valuing what’s underneath. Hence why the artwork is painted in a way that allows you to get this sense that you’re looking through this veil, but underneath is something special, something plated in gold, and something that flows within all our veins — the lifeline of Country which is essentially that river waterway that you see.”
— Troy Firebrace
Furniture and soft furnishings by WINYA
Complementing Troy Firebrace’s artworks, the space is filled with beautiful, bespoke furniture and soft furnishings by WINYA.
At the entrance are a beautifully crafted table and chairs made in Melbourne from Victorian Ash timber. In front of ‘Flood Plains’, a pair of timber armchairs invite you to sit and reflect on the works around you. A custom-made modular sofa featuring upholstered fabrics with original artwork by Jimmy Pike and modular ottomans create a zone for collaborative work.
“With the design layout, we cut it into segments to encourage different ways of working — here’s where a presentation could be, here an informal chat or over there a place we can all sit around a table as equals. When people come into the FORWARD space, we really want them to feel welcomed, and open to what they’re there for. We want people to feel comfortable and safe and perhaps inspired to have great conversations about a new way of working and collaborating.”
— Luke Whittaker, WINYA
WINYA (win-ya), meaning ‘sit now’ in Wiradjuri language, is a majority Indigenous owned and controlled “profit-for-purpose” business who supplies furniture and commercial fit-outs to a range of government and corporate clients. They collaborate with Indigenous artists and through partnerships with Australia’s leading furniture manufacturers, they also create employment and training opportunities for Indigenous people.
“Over the years, WINYA has initiated traineeships in different factories that we work with, which has been quite successful. We also set up traineeships in prisons, working with Indigenous inmates to do furniture making and screen printing, including a project we are starting with Ravenhall prison in Melbourne. It’s something that we feel really strongly about and it’s part of our business model.”
— Justine Davis, WINYA
Film and media archive by Simon Rose
To document our journey, we also commissioned filmmaker Simon Rose from The Great Aboriginal People, an 100% Indigenous owned and operated independent screen production service, to develop a film and media archive about the project.
Simon is a Birriah, Gurreng Gurreng Murri man with longstanding connections to RMIT. He is an alumnus of Screen and Media studies at RMIT and spent many years working with the Ngarara Willim Centre, RMIT’s dedicated support service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
As well as working with us to interview everyone involved in the project, Simon also worked with us and Ngarara Willim, RMIT’s dedicated support service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, to create connections and build relationships to explore how the space could be used by students in the future.
“I was really excited when I was asked to be part of this project. Having a chance to work with Troy was fantastic, as his work is just amazing, and having the opportunity to be part of deeper conversations and engagement with the FORWARD team is a wonderful example of how tangible outcomes like this project can effect meaningful and positive change for everyone involved.”
— Simon Rose
As the late afternoon sunlight streams in through the windows casting shadows and a warm glow on Troy Firebrace’s striking mural ‘Biyala’, the transformation from computer lab to a vibrant and welcoming multi-functional workspace is obvious.
But has it achieved the deeper transformation we aimed for?
For us as a team, the impact is ongoing and continues to shape our everyday understanding of reconciliation and how to embed it into our work. As Peter Thomas says:
“The extraordinary artwork and furniture in our space allows our team, our colleagues and those who visit us to reflect, each and every moment, on ways of knowing, understanding and working that have deep roots in the culture of Australia’s First Peoples and provides us with inspiration on ways to innovate how we will know, understand and work in the future.”
Over time, we hope it will be a space used by colleagues and broader RMIT community as part of both individual and organisational reconciliation journeys. Mish Eastman notes:
“I see this space as an exemplar of how we can integrate reconciliation in a way that is collective, and based in sharing knowledge, sharing understanding and sharing experience. Thinking about the elements of that, how can we integrate that into the other areas of the College of Vocational Education — whether that’s our staff spaces, students spaces, or indeed the design of our teaching, learning and assessment, and how we can incorporate Indigenous pedagogies into the ways that we bring to life training packages and vocational qualifications.”
The project has allowed us to develop new relationships and learn by listening and by collaborating with First Nations individuals and organisations, which we hope will be an example to others.
“My hope is that the work I’m doing will be a useful example to others. Whether it’s students, RMIT staff and or other departments, I hope that this project will support people who are unsure about how to go about thinking differently and how to incorporate a better understanding of Indigenous knowledge and history into their everyday lives.”
— Simon Rose
And for our collaborators, it has been a positive experience, with ripple effects (no matter how small) to the broader community.
“The benefit of this project for us will be that people can see what WINYA can do. And I feel like the FORWARD space will be an ongoing evolving project. I’m hoping that down the track, we can chat with Indigenous students who are interested in design and see how they can get involved with the furniture industry. The more that we have these spaces around, the more Indigenous art and workmanship is incorporated into fit outs and spaces like this, the more that the Indigenous community will feel confident that they can be involved. I just think it just grows and grows and grows. Once you once you start projects like this, it opens up a huge amount of possibilities. And that in itself will open up more possibilities, which is exciting.”
— Justine Davis, WINYA
But like all journeys, we are not sure exactly how this project will evolve and what the longer-term impact it will have on us, visitors to our space and the broader RMIT community.
Time — along with curiosity, reflection and conversation — will tell:
“I want you to walk away with the idea that you are not just looking at a pretty picture, you are walking away with a connection to culture, to land and to what we call home. It’s important to understand Aboriginal culture isn’t just something that’s at the surface, what you are looking at, is something further, something deeper. And the question I want you to explore is, what is your response to these artworks? What is the story that you are going to take away? And how is that going to embed within your own life and journey from this point onwards?”
— Troy Firebrace
Part of our journey is to deepen our understanding of the complexity and diversity of perspectives around what meaningful reconciliation looks like and the changes required for all Australians to thrive in the future.
In her Griffith Review article titled 2020: The year of reckoning, not reconciliation, Teela Reid, a Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman and lawyer, wrote:
Reckoning requires everyday folks to bring about bold change, whereas reconciliation has developed a fraught application in the Australian context. Although reconciliation is continuing to shape the way in which businesses engage with Indigenous issues and has proven useful for corporate Australia, it has also shielded the Australian state from its responsibility to rectify past wrongs through accountability and action.
Walk with us, as the call goes, not in pity but in solidarity, and with the imagination that this country can be better and do better. Now is not the time to be a quiet Australian. Now is the time to show up.
— Teela Reid
Compared to the long-overdue structural and systemic changes called for by First Nations leaders in The Uluru Statement from the Heart, our project may seem tokenistic and characterise the pitfalls of “corporate reconciliation” that Teela Reid highlights.
But for us, this project is about showing up — as individuals and in our work — to listen, to learn, to take action, and to build relationships and collaborate so we can imagine a different future together.
As Pat Anderson AO says in her 2021 Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration when she spoke about The Uluru Statement and the opportunities it offers our nation:
“After all, this is how positive change happens: not by accepting what is, but by imagining what could be different.”
The Reconciliation and Place project was co-designed and curated by Peter Thomas, Director of FORWARD, and Kate Spencer, an award-winning creative director and strategist who has delivered innovative projects in Melbourne, Sydney, Malaysia, Mexico and Canada.
FORWARD is the RMIT Centre for Future Skills and Workforce Transformation.
Our role is to build an innovative learning ecosystem at scale, create new collaborative applied research and invent next-generation skills solutions that will catalyse workforce development in the future-oriented industries crucial to Victoria’s economic renewal.
We lead collaborative applied research on future skills and workforce transformation from within RMIT’s College of Vocational Education, building and scaling the evidence and practice base to support Victorian workforce planning and delivery and acting as a test lab for future skills to develop and pilot new approaches to skills training and education through digital transformation and pedagogical innovation.
We leverage RMIT’s multi-sector advantage to translate research insights into identifying workforce requirements and the co-design of practice-based approaches with industry.
Contact us at forward@rmit.edu.au
