Ngurra design competition

A Noongar musician from the south coast of Western Australia, Professor Clint Bracknell is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Queensland.

He has investigated connections between song, language and landscapes in Australia’s southwest for over a decade, co-developing Noongar language resources including both the first fully-adapted Shakespearean stage work and dubbed feature film in a language of Australia.

Professor Bracknell holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Western Australia and received the 2020 Barrett Award for Australian Studies.

An elected member and Deputy Chair of the Council of AIATSIS, Professor Bracknell also sits on the ARC Centre of Excellence in the Dynamics of Language Advisory Committee.

For Gregory Burgess, architecture is a social, healing and ecological art. His multi award winning projects include housing, community, cultural, Indigenous, tourism, educational, health, religious, commercial, exhibition design and urban design. His awards include the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Buildings,
the Victorian Architecture Medal for the best building of the year, and the Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal.

An honorary Doctorate of Architecture from the University of Melbourne acknowledges his artistic, social, environmental and intellectual contribution. He is recognised with a Member of the Order of Australia for services to the community for environmentally-sensitive and community building design.

Dr Shaneen Fantin holds a PhD from the University of Queensland on the relationship between design and culture in Aboriginal housing and she has applied this knowledge to Indigenous housing, community and health projects across Australian and in Canada. As co-director of POD (People Oriented Design), a multi-disciplinary practice committed to sustainability and intercultural design, she brings an unusual combination
of skills including architecture, stakeholder engagement, project management, research and teaching.

Dr Fantin is a registered architect with 25 years experience, an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland and James Cook University, she sits on the Queensland State Government Urban Design and Places Panel, and is a member of the Australian Institute of Architects First Nations Advisory Working Group. In 2021, Dr Fantin (with her co-director at POD, Belinda Allwood) won the Architecture & Design Women In Sustainability Award. This is a national award that recognises women who have influenced ideas and innovation in sustainability.

Professor Dr Marcia Langton AO, BA (Hons), ANU, PhD Macq. U, D. Litt. ANU, FASSA is the granddaughter of an Iman man and is proud of her Indigenous heritage from her grandmother who worked in the pastoral
industry in southwest and western Queensland. Professor Langton has qualifications in anthropology and geography, and since 2000 has held the Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne. She has produced a large body of knowledge in the areas of political and legal anthropology, Aboriginal alcohol use and harms, family violence, Indigenous agreements and engagement with the minerals industry, and Indigenous culture and art.

Professor Langton is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, a Fellow of Trinity College, Melbourne, and an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College at the University of Queensland and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering. In 2016 Professor Langton was honoured as a University of Melbourne Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor, and in 2017 was appointed as the first Associate Provost at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Michael Mossman is a proud Kuku Yalanji man, born and raised in Cairns on Yidinji Country. He now lives and works on Gadigal land and is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Sydney School of Architecture Design and Planning. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy for his thesis: ‘Third Space, Architecture and Indigeneity’. He is also a registered architect who champions Country and First Nations cultures as agents for structural change in the broader architectural profession at educational, practice and policy levels.

Rachel Perkins is a distinguished filmmaker of Arrernte/Kalkadoon heritage. In 1992 she founded the Indigenous production company Blackfella Films and she has contributed extensively to the development of Indigenous filmmakers in Australia and, more broadly, to the Australian film and television industry. Her television work includes Redfern Now, Total Control, Mystery Road and the documentary series First Australians. Her movies are Jasper Jones, Brane Nue Dae and One Night the Moon. Ms Perkins recently led the development of the national vision for Indigenous heritage (Dhawura Ngilan) and is currently co-chairing the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance’s joint working group with the commonwealth, on national Indigenous heritage legislative reform. She has served on numerous NGO and federal agency boards including Screen Australia, the Australian Film Television and Radio School, AIATSIS, the Australian Heritage Council and Jawun, and she was a founding board member of the National Indigenous Television Service.

Andrew Smith is a registered architect and planner who is currently employed as the Chief Planner of the National Capital Authority. In this role, Mr Smith is responsible for Strategic Planning, Planning Approvals, Master planning, Urban Design, Capital Works and Heritage within the Canberra’s Central National Area.

Mr Smith has worked in a variety of roles in Australia and overseas and has won a number of awards for his planning and design work.

The National Capital Authority is charged with representing the Australia Government’s role in the planning and design of Canberra as the national capital.

Born in Adelaide, Amanda Vanstone studied arts and law at the University of Adelaide and worked in law, retailing and small business before entering politics. As Liberal senator for South Australia from 1984 to 2007, Ms Vanstone held ministerial portfolios including employment, education, training and youth affairs; justice and customs; family and community services; immigration and multicultural and Indigenous affairs.

After her resignation from the Senate Ms Vanstone served as the ambassador to Italy until July 2010. Ms Vanstone serves on the boards and committees for various organisations – including Drinkwise Australia, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, the Woomera Protected Area Advisory Committee and the University of Adelaide.

Zachariah Matysek is proud Meriam man from the Meuram tribe in Zenadth Kes (the Torres Strait).

Mr Matysek is currently a part of the Torres Strait Regional Authority’s (TSRA) Executive Team, overseeing the Culture, Arts and Heritage, Healthy Communities and Safe Communities programmes.

Backed by over a decade of experience in Senior Leadership positions across Local, State and Commonwealth Government, and in the Non-For-Profit sector, Zachariah has and continues to drive transformational change, ensuring successful and culturally appropriate program, project, and service delivery for First Nations Australians in health, housing, homelessness, education, cultural maintenance and preservation, and community safety.

AIATSIS is seeking to create a new national landmark of the highest order; the Ngurra Cultural Precinct. The purpose of the design competition is to select a design team who presents the highest quality architectural, landscape and urban design proposal for the Ngurra Cultural Precinct.

The Stage 1 Expression of Interest will commence on 4 March 2022, and close on 1 April 2022 (14:00 AEDT). The announcement of the shortlisted competitors will be in April 2022.

The launch of Stage 2 Invited Design Competition will be on 2 May 2022. Stage 2 submissions will close on 24 June 2022, and the winner of the design competition will be selected on 29 July 2022.

The Australian government has committed a total budget of $316.5 million for the Ngurra Cultural Precinct.

The National Capital Authority and both Houses of Parliament will be responsible for authority approvals following completion of the design competition.

A jury will be responsible for selecting a winner of the design competition following Stage 2.

The jury will use selection criteria stipulated in the Competition Brief which will be provided to the shortlisted Stage 2 competitors.

A procurement model has not yet been established for the project. The procurement model is still being considered and will be defined at a later stage of the project.

Consultation has been undertaken to date, and outcomes of this consultation will form part of the ongoing Design Brief.

As per Part C: Conditions, Section 15.1 of the Invitation for EOI, the Jury will assess Responses that meet the EOI selection criteria from eligible Respondents. The Jury will select the invited Competitors to participate in Stage 2 of the Design Competition.