Stolen Generation Keeping Places

The aim of the project was to deliver concept designs that support a Business Case for further funding and the development of Keeping Places and Healing Hubs. The sites were the Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home (1908-1988), Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls (1912-1969) and Parramatta Girls Home (1887-1974), and our tasks included the following:

• Engagement with survivors and Stolen Generation Organisations.
• Site analysis, including heritage, traffic and transport, bushfire, site services
• Establishment of design principles
• Development of functional brief
• Master planning and concept designs
• Confirmation of optional planning pathways

Discussions with Survivors and their representative organisations coalesced into the following Design Principles:

• Living Museum: a place to celebrate survival and sustain a legacy for future generations
• Memory: a place to remember and share experiences
• Truth telling: a place to tell stories of Stolen Generations and to educate the public
• Healing: a place for Survivors and their descendants to gather and heal

Working on the Stolen Generation Keeping Places project was a profound privilege, as it involved transforming sites of historical trauma into spaces for healing and truth-telling, collaborating directly with Survivors and Descendants to reimagine three former Aboriginal children’s homes as living museums that will help future generations understand, remember, and move forward on the path to reconciliation.

The image of Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls appears with the permission of Cootamundra Girls Aboriginal Corporation.