The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) has released a discussion paper encouraging town and development planning experts and Aboriginal communities to help shape the future of the State’s planning designs.
Secretary of DPIE, Jim Betts said the Designing with Country Discussion Paper provided an opportunity to share ideas on how better to incorporate Aboriginal cultural elements into future planning decisions.
“The land we live on, build on and raise families on is Aboriginal land, cared for over thousands of years by our First Peoples,” Mr Betts said.
“Modern Australia can learn much from this connection and we have an opportunity to incorporate Aboriginal knowledge of Country into our planning and design systems,” he said.
“We are inviting Aboriginal community members, recognised cultural knowledge holders, design and planning industry experts to provide feedback and guidance to address the challenge of how we can ‘design with Country’.”
Mr Betts said the Discussion Paper posed a series of questions, challenges and case studies to guide discussion and seek input from the community to better incorporate Aboriginal heritage and design into the planning system.
“The Designing with Country Discussion Paper is the first step in the Connecting with Country program and will be used to develop a set of cultural principles and a framework to guide the development of infrastructure projects in the future,” he said.
He said Connecting with Country was aimed at ensuring Aboriginal heritage and culture were embraced and protected as a central part of the planning, construction and delivery of projects.
The Department’s 12-page Discussion Paper can be accessed at this PS News link.
