From an episode of Indigenuity∙Presented by Krystal De Napoli
Interview
Indigenuity: Bradley Kerr on First Nations Architecture
Bradley Kerr is a Quandamooka man and an architect, and director of architecture firm Winsor Kerr. He recently won the Australian Institute of Architect's Emerging Architect Prize, where he is also on the institute's First Nations advisory committee. He joins Krystal to discuss his architecture praxis which is underpinned by caring for Country.
"Architecture played a really significant role in terra nullius. Colonisers didn't value or appreciate the architecture of country or the stewardship role that First Nations people played in caring for Country. If it wasn't a built physical space then it wasn't valued or appreciated. They couldn't see how we had looked after Country for 60,000 years, time immemorial. And then through that, cadastral plans sliced through country, we built roads and highways on songlines because whitefellas use blackfellas' knowledge to traverse what is such a big country. We put waterways underground, we removed beautiful and damaged species of flora and fauna, and replaced them with English plane trees. As an industry, it's gonna take a long time to reconcile the harm that's been caused."
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