LISTEN: Decolonising and Indigenising Architectural History Curricula
***Registration for the LISTEN pedagogy workshops on 5 and 6 April is now open, here, to SAHANZ members who wish to view the opening conversations, workshop activities. Please click through for the registration link.***
Register for the LISTEN Pedagogy Workshops
As facilitators and conveyors of this pedagogy workshop we recognise that we are located and conduct business on the unceded lands of the Peoples of the Eora and Kulin Nations – we pay our respects to their Elders, past and present. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners, and Elders past and present, of all the lands and waters on which our University operates.
The Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands on which our members practice.
LISTEN: Decolonising and Indigenising Architectural History Curricula
5-6 APRIL 2024
How can architectural historians meaningfully and sensitively engage with decolonising and Indigenising the curriculum we teach? How can we trace histories of the diverse ‘ways of being, knowing and doing’ that are embedded within multiple worldviews? How do we decolonise our own practices as historians, as teachers and as members of SAHANZ, to further develop respectful and responsible engagement with Country, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Māori and Pasifika Peoples and their knowledges?
We believe the first task is to Listen. By ceding our voice to the leadership, guidance, and advice of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Māori, and Pasifika cultures and people we can begin this process. With this in our minds and hearts, Listen proposes a series of workshops led by leading and emerging Indigenous scholars to explore modes of collaboration to develop approaches for expanding, reconfiguring and redefining architectural histories an the histories, pedagogies, and practices of our discipline.
The traditional Eurocentric canon of architectural history is ill-suited to respond to the growing need to holistically understand, engage, and transform the rapidly changing world in which we live. That history, largely of colonisation and oppression, fails to address knowledges and experiences from the peoples who have inhabited places other than Western Europe. There have been notable and laudable attempts to expand the scope of architectural history taught in western academia to include more diverse understandings of architecture and design and how meaning and purpose may be embodied in the built environment. The Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative and the Teacher to Teacher Workshops by the Society of Architectural Historians are such initiatives. However, the aim of this year’s SAHANZ pedagogy workshop is not to supplement the European canon, but rather to listen and learn in order to co-create strategies for teaching, practice, and life that reject and dismantle Europe’s outsized and undeserved role as the measure of historical endeavour. This will also lighten the cultural load currently being placed on Indigenous scholars and practitioners.
The themes and topics of the workshops will continue to develop in dialogue with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Māori, and Pasifika scholars and practitioners over the course of the two days. We will facilitate alongside the workshop leaders to support the development of foundational papers/documents that will explore approaches to the teaching, learning and practice of architectural history. Following the workshops, preliminary outcomes will be further co-developed for publication and other potential outputs.
The workshops will be hosted across two days – Friday 5 April and Saturday 6 April at Monash University Caulfield Campus. Each day will begin with an Indigenous-led opening conversation, followed by the workshops, and end with reflective round tables by all participants on the activities of the day. Workshops will be led by Brian Martin, Kirrakee Watson, Karamia Muller, Ripeka Walker, Ali Baker, Julian Worrall, Anthony Coupe, Sarah Rhodes, Emily Paech, and Paul Walker. Tea, coffee and lunch will be provided. To recoup some costs associated with hosting the workshops, a small registration fee of $50 per person will be charged. This fee will be waived for early career researchers and students.
We call for Expressions of Interest to participate in the LISTEN activities. To register your interest, please submit a 1 page CV and brief document of no more than 300 words outlining your background, your interest in participating and the kind of output you are interested in developing to Jason Crow –
Workshop leaders will use these EOIs to place participants in workshops most clearly aligned with their interests.
If you would like to participate but cannot travel to Melbourne at this time there will be an online option to audit the conversations.
EOIs are due at 5pm on 22 March.
Advisors:
Convenors: