University of Queensland (UQ) PhD candidate and postgraduate architecture student at Conrad Gargett, Yim Eng Ng hopes to connect Indigenous communities through architecture. She was recently awarded UQ’s Ceridwen Indigenous Scholarship.
Ng says creating shared spaces aimed at bringing Indigenous childcare and Indigenous residential aged care together could provided a positive boost to community education and relationships.
“My research explores whether these communal settings and spaces can be co-located to support intergenerational learning and sharing of Indigenous culture and knowledge.
“The elderly experience renewed vitality and are valued for their knowledge which, in turn, strengthens the community. The outcomes of this research can potentially influence the way designers and practitioners innovate and integrate cultural diversity into the design of the built environment.”
With the help of her scholarship, Ng will travel to rural areas to further her research, including towns such as Yulara in the southern region of the Northern Territory.
She hopes to gain a better understanding of both Mutitjulu and Docker River aged care and the models of care used for both facilities. She will also observe how childcare centres and community hubs, housed on the same site as a local aged care centre in Mutitjulu, incorporate intergenerational story telling.
“When it comes to intergenerational living, a one size fits all approach does not apply. There must be community consultation,” says Ng.
“Hopefully this research will feed into practice and education and we will see change starting to occur.”
Image credit: UQ
