South-East Australian Indigenous Space and Its Cosmological Origins
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SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS SPACE AND ITS COSMOLOGICAL ORIGINS Jacqueline Power Doctor of Philosophy Built Environment University of New South Wales Submitted 2013 ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate Australian Indigenous spatial ordering. The central question guiding the research is: how does south-east Australian Indigenous spatial ordering differ from the European concept of spatial ordering? The hypothesis is that south-east Australian Indigenous occupation of space can be understood as interiority; in addition, it is also hypothesised that colonising western Europeans failed to understand this occupation and as a result, sought to impose western European spatial ordering in its place. The thesis presents a new narrative that is specifically associated with the discipline of interior architecture. Methodology: The overall research framework adopted in the thesis is a ‘spatial approach.’ An interpretive-historical research methodology is operating in a majority of the thesis chapters, bar one (Chapter 8), which diverges from this approach and adopts an ethnographic-type research methodology. A number of research methods have been utilised in order to gather and analyse the empirical material contained in this thesis. Results: Empirical material has been gathered and considered in relation to, but not only, the Sky Dome, palawa buildings, the site of Wybalenna, and Ring Trees. The aforesaid examples contribute to the thesis by allowing a questioning of the following: how cosmology lays the foundation for physical spatial ordering, how building types play a role in defining spatial ordering, the resistance of the palawa peoples to western European spatial ordering, and how Ring Trees in Wadi Wadi Country illustrate a spatial organising principle. Conclusions: The thesis concludes that western European spatial ordering, concerned with an inside and outside, finds expression differently in south-east Australian Indigenous buildings. These buildings are argued to operate as artefacts within spatial divisions enacted at a much larger scale defined by cosmology and inhabitation of the cultural landscape. The contribution that this thesis makes is to enable the western European spatial ordering model to transform and accommodate variations of its expression, as well as to contribute more broadly to the dialogue regarding Australian Indigenous buildings and space. I TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS__________________________________________________________ II LIST OF FIGURES______________________________________________________________ III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS________________________________________________________ V PREFACE______________________________________________________________________ VII NOTE TO THE READER_________________________________________________________ IX CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION____________________________________________________ 1 CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY___________________________________________________ 24 CHAPTER 3 INTERIORITY AND THE ORDERS OF SPACE_________________________ 58 CHAPTER 4 THE INFORMING OF SPATIAL ORDERING: THE SKY-DOME__________ 88 CHAPTER 5 CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS______________ 120 CHAPTER 6 THE ROLE OF BUILDINGS IN INDIGENOUS SPATIAL ORGANISATION: CLASSICAL PALAWA BUILDINGS_______________________________________________ 158 CHAPTER 7 RESISTING WESTERN EUROPEAN SPATIAL ORDERING: THE BUILDINGS OF WYBALENNA__________________________________________________________________ 201 CHAPTER 8 A NON-ARCHITECTURAL SPATIAL ORGANISATION METHOD: RING TREES IN WADI WADI COUNTRY______________________________________________________ 239 CHAPTER 9 CONCLUSION______________________________________________________ 285 LIST OF REFERENCES__________________________________________________________ 306 APPENDICES___________________________________________________________________ 340 APPENDIX 1 THE RE-INSCRIPTION OF SPATIAL ORDERING______________________ 341 APPENDIX 1 LIST OF REFERENCES______________________________________________ 352 II LIST OF FIGURES FIGURESi 1 Kambera Embassy interior architecture graduation project 6 2 Venn-diagram based on Kevin O’Brien’s representation of first, 85 second and third space 3 Aboriginal Australia map 91 4 Diorama of the sky raising magpies 97 5 The Dawn Magazine cover from July 1957 featuring the 99 artwork of Byram Mansell 6 Man and Woman engraving in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National 111 Park 7 Detail of the Man and Woman engraving 113 8 Satellite image showing boundaries of the nine Nations 130 9 Monument to the anchorage of Captain Tobias Furneaux 136 10 'The Neck' or isthmus which joins north and south Bruny Island 138 11 Human evolution and relationship to buildings and architecture 148 12 Tomb 177 13 Windbreak 181 14 Sketch of a windbreak by Thomas Scott 182 15 Watercolour of an open-sided dome at Adventure Bay 184 16 A more detailed watercolour of an open-sided dome 186 17 Map of Flinders Island showing the location of Wybalenna and 211 The Lagoons 18 Map of Wybalenna believed to be based on Robinson’s 1838 221 map 19 Watercolour view of Wybalenna by artist John Skinner Prout 234 20 Scarred Tree in the Nyah-Vinifera Park 256 21 The ‘Fruit’ 258 22 Bush asparagus 259 23 Fragment of Clay Ball 260 i Note: figures contained in the appendix are not included in this list of figures. III 24 River Reeds growing along the Murray River 261 25 Wood Wood Ring Tree 1 265 26 Wood Wood Ring Tree 2 267 27 Wood Wood Ring Tree 3 268 28 Nyah-Vinifera Ring Tree 4 269 29 Bora ground 270 30 Nyah-Vinifera Ring Tree 5 271 31 Nyah-Vinifera Ring Tree 6 272 32 Nyah-Vinifera Ring Tree 7 274 33 Nyah-Vinifera Ring Tree 8 275 34 Nyah-Vinifera Ring Tree 9 276 35 Nyah-Vinifera Ring Tree 9 showing shade area with small 277 grafted ring 36 Koraleigh Ring Tree 278 37 Koraleigh Ring Tree 281 38 Signage that marks the Koraleigh Ring Tree 281 TABLES 1 Key terminology 46 2 European and palawa names for the nine Nations 129 3 Clans of the nine Nations 132-33 4 Tasmanian Aboriginal settlements in the Furneaux Island 207 Group and their period of occupation 5 Overview of apartments that housed the palawa peoples in 218 phase 1 of the settlement 6 Overview of apartments that housed the palawa peoples in 219 phase 2 of the settlement IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My heartfelt thanks are extended to supervisor Dr Thomas Loveday for his encouragement, support and generosity of knowledge. Whenever I could not see a way forward, Dr Loveday helped me find a path. Any faults that remain in the thesis are entirely my own. My thanks to Wadi Wadi Elders Doug Nicholls and Marilyne Nicholls, who took me into their confidence, and their culture and showed tremendous faith in me. It has been a great privilege to be entrusted with their knowledge. I hope I have done it justice here. My thanks are extended to Donna Gorey, Reverend Robyn Davis, Shelley Davis and respected Wadi Wadi Elder Aunty Shirley Davis, for taking the time to read the Ring Tree chapter and provide comment on the work. Their input was greatly appreciated. My thanks to Peter C. Sims and Dr John Wilson, who told me the story of the Daisy Dell mia-mia. Peter and Dr Wilson kindly shared with me their photographs and provided a close reading of this material when it was intended to form a discrete chapter in the thesis. Although no longer included in the thesis following revisions, I hope it will inform future publications. A special thank you to the late Dr Dianne Johnson, Honorary Associate of UTS, who reviewed my publication for the IASTE conference and discussed with me her knowledge of the sky-dome. It was with great sadness that I learned of her recent passing. I would like to thank co-supervisors; architect and lecturer Bill MacMahon, and curator Djon Mundine, for their guidance particularly in the initial phases of the candidature. I would also like to thank Director of Postgraduate Research Dr Christine Steinmetz, for all of her advice and guidance in the completion of this research project. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the School of Architecture and Design, University of Tasmania. My particular thanks are extended to Head of School Professor V Stephen Loo, Program Director of Interior Design Kirsty Máté, and Professor Roger Fay for their support and guidance. My thanks also go to Indira Narayan, Wadi Wadi Co-Management Negotiations Coordinator, for facilitating communication with the Wadi Wadi community; Dr Libby Porter, then lecturer at the University of Sheffield, for putting me in contact with Mr Nicholls and Ms Nicholls; Geoff Barker, Senior Health and Building Surveyor for the Wakool Shire Council, for sharing with me his photographs of the Koraleigh Ring Tree; Doreen Lovegrove, a volunteer at the Furneaux Museum, who kindly showed me Wybalenna; Karla Chisholm, Information Services Librarian at the Maryborough Library, who helped me source information related to the arches discussed in the appendices; Rochelle Jones, Publishing Assistant at the Aboriginal Studies Press, for approval to use the Aboriginal Australia map; and Victoria Haines, Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, for permission to use photographs of engravings in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. Thanks to Andry Sculthorpe, the Lands Manager, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC), and Heather Sculthorpe, Manager, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, who showed me Oyster Cove. Although a discussion of the site is not part of this thesis, I gained a greater understanding and sensitivity from this experience. My thanks are also extended to