Local Cultures – Global Spaces

Abstract

This essay emerges from the author’s attempt to position herself as an academic in architecture and a South-Asian, first generation migrant woman in relation to the newly developing decolonising practices in architectural education in Australia; in particular, the suite of Indigenous Cultural Competencies that students must now meet in order to obtain a Master of Architecture degree. The author’s role as co-coordinator for a postgraduate design studio provided an entry point through which she could interpret the professional cultural competencies and negotiate her own positionality and by extension, its relevance for students, a significant proportion of whom are international students who may or may not practice professionally in Australia. A central question in this essay is how do we, as those benefiting from the settler colonial process, and having a different colonising relationship to the First Nations people of Australia engage meaningfully in the decolonising of the profession? Expanding on a positioning lecture delivered in the subject, this essay offers a conceptual argument through which those who identify as ‘recent arrivals’ to Australia (be it as first-generation migrants or international students), might contend with this movement, particularly amidst contentious questions of its relevance for new migrants and when embedded in a globalised tertiary education system. The essay draws on intersectionality and the concept of la facultad as introduced by Gloria Anzaldua, to argue for an ethical framework of practice that promotes solidarity across differing subjectivities and enables the design disciplines to cultivate a more reflexive, contextual practice.