Curtin University Indigenous Learning Circle (Yarning Circle)

The design challenge for the Curtin University Indigenous Learning Circle was to holistically design a place that inspires interest, interaction and sociality. As a place where culture, art, ceremony, recreation and learning are interlinked, the design solution for the Yarning Circle was required to sit at the intersection of a healthy environment, a healthy campus community and a healthy culture.

Positioned in front of Curtin University’s Ceremonial Walk, at the nexus of the Djiridji (Zamia) trail and the beaux-arts axis of the campus, the Yarning Circle sits adjacent to one of Curtin University’s main entrances and offers outdoor learning space to encourage greater connection to cultural processes and landscape systems. The project’s design process – undertaken alongside Professor Simon Forrest (Curtin University’s former Elder-in-Residence), and Dr Noel Nannup, with early input from the University’s School of Design and the Built Environment – utilised Yarning Circle Protocols to create a culturally safe place to meet, reflect and yarn.

The design of the Yarning Circle is based upon respecting and celebrating the cultural and environmental significance of the landscape and its ancient and present-day systems. Created via an integrated and collaborative design approach, the project’s underlying vision of ‘healing country-healing people’ has resulted in the creation of a focal point and collective gathering space for community, educational and ecological experiences. The larger outcome is that the project and its process forms part of the wider Noongar cultural interpretation of the Perth Campus and broadens the ‘Learning on Country’ opportunities first realised at Curtin’s Nowanup Bush Campus.

Consisting of a circular 6-tonne shade canopy, rammed earth seating, and a network of garden paths that meander through thousands of native plants, the Yarning Circle celebrates Curtin’s cultural heritage, and provides a symbolic link to Curtin’s Nowanup Bush Campus. Strategically, the Yarning Circle builds upon the Curtin University Living Knowledge Stream Guidelines (2017) which provided a framework for a cultural trail and blue-green infrastructure network focused on ancient songlines that traverse the Bentley Campus. The landscape of the Yarning Circle involved the installation of over 2500 endemic plants and trees, including over 40 mature Djiridji (Zamia) and Balga. Plant selections were based on original vegetation complexes, and upon respecting and celebrating the cultural and environmental significance of the landscape and its ancient and present-day systems. It provides a focal point for important community, educational and ecological experiences, and connects Jack Finney Wetland, the Djiridji Trail and the University’s ‘Ceremonial Walk.’ The Curtin University Yarning Circle is a highly utilised outdoor space on campus, and a tangible milestone in Curtin’s continued action towards reconciliation.