Donald Horne Creative and Cultural Fellows

Claire Rosslyn Wilson

The Postcard Exchange: Exploring models of intercultural poetry-making in place through online exchange formats

The Postcard Exchange undertakes an approach of close observation and multimedia creation to facilitate intercultural exchange and reflection about place, extending my practice-led research of intercultural poetry-making. The long-term aim of the project is to develop a framework of exchange that facilitates close observation and reflection on the environments we inhabit. Although the encounter with culturally unfamiliar places, and the exploration of this encounter through creative practice, can lead to personal growth and innovation, it can also lead to culturally inappropriate uses. Encountering the other can be an instance of ‘uncertainty and risk’1, especially where it takes place in a postcolonial context in which past acts of cultural appropriation, theft or erasure have been the foundation for contexts of cultural exchange.

This is practice-led research project uses the Reflective Frames framework (which I developed during my PhD) to encourage creative practitioners to engage in ongoing and open-ended reflection as they create in an unfamiliar environment. The framework especially targets the challenge of perceiving clearly in intercultural contexts and the influence of past experience and frames of knowledge on this process (drawing from Bourdieu’s concept of habitus).

The project takes the multidisciplinary and collaborative nature of videopoetry as its starting point, and tests the framework developed during my PhD through 1) in-depth interviews to investigate existing models of online creative exchange, 2) a collaboration with up to 10 videopoets to test and reflect upon the micro-multimedia ‘postcards’ as a medium for translocal reflective practice and 3) the adaptation of the Reflective Frames framework into community guidelines for future contributions. The final output will be to display the videopoems on an online platform and work towards an in-person exhibition in Canberra/Barcelona.

1. Boey, Kim Cheng. 2016. 'On the Sidewalk: Towards an Ethopoetics of the Streets', Cordite Poetry Review http://cordite.org.au/scholarly/on-the-sidewalk/ [accessed 28/10/2021]

Dr Wendy Somerville

2023 Donald Horne Creative & Cultural Fellow

Re-searching using Koori Critical Storying: Responding to absent labels in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and Artefact Collection

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and Artefact Collection (the Collection) was purchased as a teaching tool in the late 1980s to be used in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies. It familiarises students with traditional technologies and the properties of natural materials. It also allows students to learn Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection management techniques and protocols, to handle certain types of objects and to practice conservation skills. The Collection originates from Northern Australia with a smaller number of artworks coming from the deserts of Central Australia. The Collection consists of over 450 individual works of artworks in a variety of media and techniques. Most of the works were made by Aboriginal women, although there are many examples of men’s weaponry.

My PhD research explored ways of adding information to that already known but disappeared through the effects of colonisation. The Koori Critical Storying (KCS) framework I developed allows researchers to apply their own knowledge to build on the snippets of information available. This research is two-pronged. I will be working with the Collections manager Hakim Abdul Rahim who, through his Honours research, noted the loss or absence of several labels from the artworks. In the first prong, to ascertain whether they have knowledge of the un-labelled items, we will reach out to the organisations from which other artworks in the Collection were purchased. Connecting the Collection to Country and people is paramount in this research and informs the second part of the research which will add to what is already known. The KCS approach will be used to develop stories that build on existing knowledge to re-label artworks.

Dr Rahmatollah Amirjani

2021 Donald Horne Creative & Cultural Fellow

Dr Rahmatollah Amirjani is a lecturer in Architecture at the University of Canberra, Australia. His research interest includes the contemporary history of modern architecture, with a specific zoom on the question of social housing. Rahmatollah’s research investigates the dichotomy between traditions and modernity; in addition, his studies focus on contemporary movements in the provision of affordable housing, and the effects of inappropriate housing policies/design on communities.

Canberra, Public Housing and The Great Australian Dream

Public housing plays a significant role in increasing the quality of life and overall wellbeing. As many studies have indicated, public housing is integral to enabling population growth, economic activity, and labour mobility. In addition, decent housing is not only a primary need, but also a human right, which has an effect on the education, health and employment productivity of the inhabitants, as well as on the general well-being of the society.

In Australia, for many groups in the general public, and also a large number of historians and critics, the provision of public housing has failed to fulfil its objectives, in particular after the Second World War. Some argue that the general post-war social housing proposals, which were previously supposed to help low- and moderate-income groups to achieve the Great Australian Dream, “owning a home,” have turned into humiliating philanthropic proposals or starter homes for the poor. As expected, based on a large number of research outcomes, the architecture body and design of the proposed projects cannot respond to different communities’ primary and secondary needs.

Using literature review, documentary research, observation, and descriptive data analysis, with a specific zoom on ACT, Canberra, the current research seeks to critically analyse the transformations in the design philosophy behind the state public housing since the post-war period. Highlighting different public housing programs, this proposed research will investigate the reasons for the success and failure of the most critical housing schemes based on the design theories suggested in the contemporary discourse of social housing. The designated public housing projects will be decoded in regard to their historical and architectural context, illustrating how design features and living standards have been affected by the state policies.

Olga Walker

2020 Donald Horne Creative & Cultural Fellow

Writing through overcrowded places into hollowed out spaces: Life after bushfire fighting

The 2019/20 bushfire season started early and in October 2019, I also graduated with my PhD at the University of Canberra. Life at that time was filled with an array of activities including repainting feature walls, writing poetry, taking photos, weekly fire-fighter training and attending the smaller fires in our area. The bushfire season then descended on us at full pace and its end was abruptly followed by the Covid-19 virus.

Most of my fire-fighting/training activities with the Rural Fire Service (RFS) and other physical activities have temporarily ceased. Thus I am able now to devote time to my new research and creative writing project, Writing through overcrowded places into hollowed out spaces: Life after bushfire fighting. The project will use an auto-ethnographic approach to track how I balance what became my everyday firefighting experiences with life before and beyond the fire-ground.

The learnings of 2019/20 are intense but, for me, creative writing is that hollowed out space where I can breathe deeply. It has also become a place where I can feel good about being excited about ‘creative writing’. This project will be one expression of that excitement.