Speak Up: Seeking Greater Representation, Opportunity And Leadership For First Nations Students As Future Practitioners Within The Design And Planning Of The Built Environment

To better embed First Nations voices and knowledge in the creation of our cities, and for the recent draft Connecting with Country framework to develop its full impact, there is a need to grow the number of participants from First Nations communities. This will be long-term work and require many initiatives.

Katie’s proposal is one of these initiatives. It aims to broaden the understanding and create engagement with the built environment early in students’ lives by developing and running a series of collaborative workshops in primary and secondary schools. As part of her work, Katie will draw on her relationships with professionals in the Indigenous planning, design and education community.

The proposal meets the mission of the Christopher Procter Prize enabling research and professional development and will allow Katie to build on and apply lessons learnt from her deep personal engagement and professional work with First Nations communities and Country-centred designers on socially complex and culturally significant projects.