Abstract
If it is true that public buildings “…reflect the beliefs, priorities and aspirations of a people” (Powell 1995: ix), what do Australia’s public buildings say about Australians? More specifically, what does the design of Australia’s courthouses say about the beliefs, priorities, aspirations and agency of Australian people and in particular, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples?
The original version of this chapter was revised: Author biography has been updated. The erratum to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6904-8_35
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Notes
- 1.
For more information on the Supreme Court of New Zealand , see Watson (2012).
- 2.
- 3.
The design for Supreme Court building in Darwin included a mosaic for the forecourt designed by Warlpiri artist Norah Nelson Napaljarri in the first instance (Birnberg and Kreczmanski 2004: 209).
- 4.
A number of courthouses around Australia hold large collections of Aboriginal art and artefacts and could be seen as operating as informal Indigenous keeping houses (see Grant and Greenop 2018).
- 5.
The aforementioned 55 m2 (592 ft2) mosaic by Norah Nelson Napaljarri entitled Yiwarra Jukurrpa (Milky Way Dreaming) (1990–1) “became the subject of dispute [and traditional litigation] within the artist’s community. Both its subject matter and innovative style caused some degree of discord amongst senior law men and women at Yuendumu ” (Angel 2000: 12–13) which was in time, resolved. It is now displayed inside the building to allow viewing from above. Pedestrians are allowed to walk across the art work. See a recent photo here: http://unprojects.org.au/un-extended/dear-un/beautiful-injustice/
- 6.
This approach has been termed the cultural design paradigm in the housing setting. Go-Sam writes:
The cultural design paradigm uses models of culturally distinct behaviour to inform definitions of Aboriginal housing needs. Its premise is that to competently design appropriate residential accommodation for Aboriginal people who have traditionally-oriented lifestyles, architects must understand the nature of those lifestyles (2008: 53).
- 7.
While there has been some debate about who is authorised to express Aboriginality through the incorporating of signs and symbols into architecture (see Lochert 1997; Dovey 2000) and there have been concerns about appropriate use (see Memmott and Reser 2000; Murphy 2016: 292–294), employing this approach is common.
- 8.
Judge Paul Grant, President of the Children’s Court of Victoria notes that:
[c]ourtrooms used for [Children’s] Koori Courts have been adapted for the court’s particular processes. Aboriginal artworks are on the walls and the Australian, Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander flags displayed (Grant, P 2009: 6).
- 9.
The retractable screens are a technological solution to conceal the dock, the bench, the witness box/remote screen and other accoutrements of the traditional court (Grant et al. 2011).
- 10.
Note: the Magistrates Aboriginal Courtroom at Port Augusta contains a dock, despite architects attempting to negotiate for its exclusion (Harrison 2002).
- 11.
Aboriginal avoidance practices refer to those relationships in traditional Aboriginal societies where certain people are required to avoid others in their family or clan as a mark of respect.
- 12.
In 2015, the Kalgoorlie -Boulder Indigenous Sentencing Community Court lost government funding; however, it continues to operate without a dedicated budget.
- 13.
By contrast, the new courthouse in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales , (within the Coffs Harbour Justice Precinct; PTW Architects in collaboration with the National Aboriginal Design Agency ) was designed with windows in the holding cells. These windows allowed for sight to the external environment. However, police raised risk mitigation issues that forced designers to increase the height of the window to above the height of juvenile offenders (see Rowden and Jones 2015: 16).
- 14.
‘Country ’ is a place of belonging and connection for Indigenous Australians that extends beyond the meaning that non-Indigenous Australians attach to land.
- 15.
- 16.
Emphasis added by authors.
- 17.
- 18.
The Pine Rivers Courthouse, in Queensland , designed by Guymer Bailey Architects, provides an exemplary transparent court frontage (Beynon 2010: 40–43).
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Murphy, J.R., Grant, E., Anthony, T. (2018). Indigenous Courthouse and Courtroom Design in Australia: Case Studies, Design Paradigms and the Issue of Cultural Agency. In: Grant, E., Greenop, K., Refiti, A., Glenn, D. (eds) The Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous Architecture. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6904-8_19
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