Signal Fire – 2024 Australian Good Design Award Indigenous Design Award

THE INDIGENOUS DESIGN AWARD RECOGNISES AND CELEBRATES THE IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION THAT AUSTRALIA’S ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER DESIGNERS MAKE ACROSS THE SPECTRUM OF AUSTRALIAN DESIGN.

Signal Fire receives this prestigious award under Nicole Monks’ leadership at mili mili.

Australia’s rich Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage finds a powerful expression in Signal Fire. Standing proudly on the Freshwater headland, this artwork is more than just a landmark; it’s a thoughtful design that connects us to the stories of the land.

Signal Fire marks the beginning of the Northern Beaches Coast Walk and stands as a symbol of connection and community. Inspired by the ancient tradition of signal fires that communicated messages across Australia’s east coast for thousands of years, this public art piece invites both reflection and celebration. It honours not only the past but also the living culture that continues to enrich our Communities today.

Commissioned by the Northern Beaches Council for the Coast Walk Public Art project, Signal Fire was designed by Nicole Monks, Creative Director and Founder of the design studio mili mili. With her Yamaji Wajarri, Dutch, and English heritage, Nicole created the piece to honour Aboriginal culture, drawing deeply from Indigenous design principles and practices.

The project was a truly collaborative effort, with Nicole and her team collaborating closely with AG Public Art, the local Aboriginal enterprise Bush to Bowl, Local Knowledge holder and Community, Aboriginal Heritage Office (at Freshwater) and the Council’s bush regeneration teams to integrate endemic native plants into the surrounding landscape. 

Local Elders and knowledge holders generously shared their profound connection to the land, guiding every step of the design process. Nicole and her team immersed themselves in Community, weaving and gathering insights and stories into every detail – from selecting the location and refining design elements to choosing materials and incorporating the story and graphics of Banksia. Each aspect of the design celebrates the area’s rich cultural tapestry.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Nicole to dive into how this collaborative approach not only shapes the artwork but also allows it to tell its own unique story.

[Winner of the 2024 Australian Good Design Award Indigenous Design Award | Team]

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GDA: How did the design of “Signal Fire” successfully integrate the Northern Beaches Council’s vision to create a beacon landmark, with the local Aboriginal community’s priorities for sensitivity to Country and storytelling?

Nicole Monks: It was an international expression of interest, and from there, they did a shortlist, and we were the only Aboriginal Company shortlisted. I knew people from the northern beaches, one being Adam, from Bush to Bowl, and so I could have conversations with him prior to pitching an idea for that space, on what they thought would be a good fit for their community. 

But there was a lot of weight knowing there was a possibility no Aboriginal story of that place being told, if we didn’t do a good enough pitch.

The conversations with Community revealed that they wanted it to be integrated into the space using natural materials, avoiding shiny stainless steel or other materials that didn’t reflect the natural environment. And as a place to watch the whales and connect with the environment.

The idea was to support the natural experience of standing on the headland and to tell a story from that place. The stories I had read, written up in the Cook journals and first contact, were about the signal fires going off all along the Headlands.

I lived in Manly and Collaroy, and I knew those areas quite well, including the headlands. From that vantage point, you can see all the way from North Head to Long Reef. Even though there’s no recorded evidence, it’s highly probable that there would have been some sort of marker along those headlands for communications.

So it was talking about that moment in time, you know, when the colonists first came, and the response to that – the signal fires that lit up all along the east coast. 

Once we won the project local knowledge holders wanted to set it back so the headland could be the feature and incorporate the story of the Banskia and how mob carry fire from one place to another in the Banksia cone. So they’ll take that as an ember, then they’ll carry it to another place, and then they will relight it from there. So they were really keen to tell that story.

Local mob also said it was a woman’s place. So we focused on the women to connect with the artwork by providing photographs and sketches of banksias from the area and other ones that were actually on site.

We enlarged them, and burned them into the deck. Using fire again to burn those into the deck was part of a workshop with the women, and selecting the locations, figuring out where to put them, and authentically layer the artwork with those stories.

The objective was to create something transformative, engaging for the local community and visitors. When people come from out of town, they take them there and share local stories. It is an Aboriginal place.

[Winner of the 2024 Good Design Award Indigenous Design Award – Signal Fire]

GDA: How did the active involvement of community members, along with the First Nations public art team Mili Mili, influence the final design and execution of the Signal Fire?

Nicole Monks: I think for us to have a connection to place we need to understand the places and spaces we inhabit. Only then can we truly connect with where we live, work and play.

The most authentic connection comes from the people who are tied to that land and the knowledge holders from that land. They have an uninterrupted relationship with the place and its stories, the depth of knowledge and culture is really amazing. 

We had the Aboriginal Community involved from the beginning to the end, keeping an open dialogue throughout the entire process. We had an evening on Country where we just had a fire. 

We had a big community consultation, which included the Aboriginal community and the broader community as well, to introduce them to the project. I think it was the biggest response they’d ever had. At the opening we had singing and ceremony up there using the center stone to grind the ochre on.

Artworks like this have the ability to bring the community together. Once the community is involved, these projects are pulled into that community. If you have watched a project develop and grow, and have been part of that process from beginning to end, when it’s finally there, you are part of that.

I want to thank the Community for their contributions to this design.

GDA: What impact has it had on the broader community’s engagement with Aboriginal culture and heritage?

Nicole Monks: I hope when Aboriginal people go there, they can really feel a real sense of belonging. But the community there, the general wider community there, has been extremely supportive. 

There’s videos and lots of photographers taking images. The Aboriginal community often calls me to say they took visitors from out of town there or went up to watch the whales. They’ve become really proud.

Even kids in kindergarten. So they’ve taken them all up there, and they’ve sat them all around the stone, and then they’ve done an acknowledgement of Country with all of these little children in this space on the headland, totally immersing themselves in the land.

The work I do, I say, I work like a conduit. I’m there to help mob tell their story how they want it to be told, I can shift and shape and move things around to make sure that story is told the way they want it to be. 

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[Winner of the 2024 Good Design Award Indigenous Design Award Signal Fire – Freshwater headland]

Honouring authentic community driven-design

Good Design Australia is proud to honour a project that not only respects and reflects the cultural heritage of the Northern Beaches but also fosters a genuine connection between visitors and the land’s stories. 

The collaborative process has not only created a visually striking landmark but has also strengthened community ties and deepened the broader community’s appreciation of Aboriginal culture.