This year marks our fifth year supporting a First Nations performance at The Blue Room Theatre, a partnership with our friends at Block Branding that we hold with great pride. This year, we’re supporting CORE, a ‘theatrical collage exploring what it means to be an Indigenous person in modern Australia, navigating life and identity across two worlds: Country and colony’. The show opens tomorrow night and runs until 6 June. We’re not seeing it until Tuesday, so no spoilers please! Tickets are available via this link: https://lnkd.in/gAgtrumm
A while ago, we shared that our Sydney-based Principal, Andrew Broffman, had been awarded a State Library of New South Wales Summer Fellowship to examine the link between social housing and design in Sydney.
A couple of weeks ago, he snuck in an interview for Sydney breakfast radio and thought we wouldn’t notice. In a short chat with journalist Dominic Knight, Andrew discusses two seminal social housing projects from the 60’s – Harry Seidler’s Stephen Street building in Paddington and Maloney Street in Rosebery.
Andrew reflects on the joy of trawling through newspaper clippings at the library, the potential of architecture to improve lives through simple, considered design moves, and the responsibility of government to defend and fund quality housing for all.
Kieran Wong, Director at TFA and Wurankuwu Traditional Owner, Ron Poantimilui, will present our work developing a comprehensive Master Plan for the Wurankuwu (Ranku) community on Tiwi Island.
Ranku stands at a pivotal moment in its history, preparing to transition from a homeland to a recognised Remote Community under the leadership of its Traditional Owners. The community envisions Ranku as a thriving place, welcoming all Tiwi people, where culture, livelihoods, and economic opportunities flourish. This presentation will examine the steps the community took to prepare and justify their position as a legitimate Remote Community, including developing a comprehensive Master Plan. The presentation will offer insights for other communities considering similar transitions. We hope to see you there.
When: Thursday 21 May, 1.45pm – 2.15pm
Where: Grand Ballroom at DoubleTree by Hilton Darwin
All That Country Holds is showing now at PICA, Boorloo/Perth. Curated by Zali Morgan, the exhibition brings together works by ten Kimberley-based Aboriginal artists – Miriam Baadjo, Angelina Guluwulla Karadada Boona, Jan Baljagil Griffiths, Ben Galmirr Ward, Evelyn Malgil, Mary Lou Oliyarli Divilli, Leah Rinjeewala Umbagai, Mervyn Street, Pauline Sunfly and John Prince Siddon.
We’re proud to have supported this exhibition through The Fulcrum Fund, which last year travelled as far as the Australian Embassy in Washington. Go see it, and while you’re there, swing in to Revealed, one of our favourite annual events and an opportunity to enjoy artworks from new and emerging WA Aboriginal artists.
We wish you and your family a gentle, joyful and safe festive season and year ahead.
Each Christmas, we donate to Warrawee Women’s Refuge in place of client gifts. This organisation transforms donations into moments of joy for women and children rebuilding their lives. This year, they’ll use the funds to provide fun school holiday activities for children in their care.
Our 2025 Impact Statement demonstrates just how busy we have been this year. We are closing from Wednesday, 24th December, and re-opening on Monday, 12th January.
We hope you enjoy a restful break and look forward to reconnecting next year.
It’s our fourth year supporting a performance at The Blue Room, and we’re leaving the theatre for a journey on foot through Perth instead. UP THERE (Boorloo) has been described as a walking meditation on the people and buildings that make up a place. Noongar perspectives and stories will be woven through the production, as we consider how to bring life into the CBD’s empty or underutilised spaces.
You walk past shop front after shop front with ‘For Lease’ signs. Who even is Lease?
And why do they get all the empty shop fronts?
You look up to the second level of terrace shop fronts. “Oh, but they’re for storage”, your friend says, your Mum says, your friend’s Mum says. But surely all these spaces aren’t for storage.
What stories do they have to tell?
What stories do we have to tell about them?
Brought to life by Tay Conway, William Gammel, Leah Robyn, Rebecca Riggs-Bennett, and the people of Boorloo, UP THERE (Boorloo) is a site responsive audio walking tour of empty and underutilised spaces in the CBD of Boorloo (Perth). This work will interrogate place, space, community and people’s ability to occupy these spaces. We can’t wait to see it! Book your tickets here.
A pointed article and a reckoning for the profession.
TFA Principal Andrew Broffman responds to ArchitectureAU’s dossier on the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games, and invites the question: how deep does our discipline’s commitment to First Nations’ agency and reconciliation truly run?
We’re never short of an opinion at The Fulcrum Agency. Go here to read Andrew’s important piece now.
A breathtakingly beautiful and history-swerving body of work.
Last week, we all received a present from Kieran*: a copy of Birrundudu Drawings by John Carty, Jason M. Gibson, Alistair Paterson, Luke Scholes, Jessyca Hutchens, and Stephen Gilchrist.
The Birrundudu Drawings represent one of the most significant bodies of historical imagery ever introduced into the canons of Australian art. A collection of 810 crayon drawings were created by sixteen Aboriginal men working on a Northern Territory cattle station in 1945. That place was Birrundudu, an outpost of Gordon Downs, a large cattle station with a lease that extended across the Northern Territory and Western Australian borders. The works resulted from the men’s engagement with the anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt. Dutifully recording as much information about their meaning as he could, Ronald Berndt and the men who made these drawings captured an extraordinary record of the Country, ancestors, history and ceremonies of the region.
The drawings are not simply important because they have never been seen, nor because there are so many of them. They are important because of the convergence of these two aspects – their scale combined with their novelty has transformative potential in the narratives of Aboriginal art and Australian history. A breathtakingly beautiful and history-swerving body of work.
We’re delighted to announce our B Corp re-certification!
While the journey was demanding, requiring us to examine every aspect of our business from staff wellbeing and finances to client relationships and environmental impact, it ultimately confirmed what we hoped: that we’re on the right path, putting people and planet first.
Our good friend, Ricky England, will soon walk 250km from Dwellingup to Perth to raise awareness and funds to stop low-grade bauxite mining in WA’s precious Northern Jarrah Forests. TFA Director, Kieran Wong will join him for part of the journey, alongside our mates Jen Lowe and Berlin As Ricky states, “these forests are not just beautiful; they’re vital to our climate resilience, home to rare biodiversity and essential water catchments.” Despite their ecological importance, Alcoa and South32 propose clearing 13,672 hectares of forest for mining operations, permanently degrading this irreplaceable landscape. Thank goodness we have brave activists like Ricky and WA Forest Alliance standing up for our environment. Go here to donate or join the protest.
