e to survive successfully despite major changes in climate, with a culture that is responsive to and coherent with nature.
And the potential goes further. The arrangement of knowledges within the environment – built and grown – has been achieved through Songlines as a method of recording vast amounts of ecological data without the written word. In the first book in the First Knowledges series, Songlines: The Power and Promise, co-author Lynne Kelly describes how Indigenous Australians used the three-dimensional world around them – mountains, rocks, rivers, stars – as visual triggers to remember traditional knowledge. This was further reinforced through songs, elaborate Dreaming stories and dance, so that as people moved repeatedly through Country over time, that knowledge was embedded into the synapses of their brains.
Perhaps here is the vital clue to the true meaning behind Tu-bow-gule. Maybe it was a clearing house for knowledge about marine ecology that connected to Songlines within and beyond the Sydney area, so when the nawi (traditional bark canoes) pulled up on the shores of what is now called Circular Quay, people gathered, shared and updated this knowledge around the camp fire.
When Jørn Utzon conceptualised the Sydney Opera House as looking like shells growing out of the ocean and as a gathering place for song and dance, you could imagine that he was connecting with the memory of Tu-bow-gule. Within his practice, he often looked to nature for guidance and cited shells, birds’ wings and clouds as inspiration for his building designs. Although his homage seems purely aesthetic, Utzon was a pioneer of sustainable architecture in that he used prefabricated modular forms; his reverence for nature was not skin deep. I am sure he would have loved the chance to sit with traditional owners at Tu-bow-gule and share a meal or even spend the night and discuss how his building could be activated through ceremony and song. Imagine if the decision-makers and architects had joined them under the stars – perhaps the process of building the Opera House would have been a lot smoother.
Country-focused design is an attempt to reinvigorate ancient conversations about the human connection to nature and how the built environment can play a vital part in this dialogue. It is as much a process as it is a product, in that it goes beyond stylised homage to plants and animals. From the first marks on the page to the decisions by governments, to the materials used in the fabric of the buildings and the public domain, every step has respect for Country at its core.
It is not too late to tap into the traditional knowledge waters at Tu-bow-gule, to define a new Australian design identity – one that truly responds to the ebb and flow of Country and is powered by some very old ideas.
First Knowledges Design: Building on Country by Alison Page and Paul Memmott (Edited by Margo Neale) published by Thames & Hudson. $21.99