Our approach to consultation has been more relational than formal. We requested permission to join the Kaurna community to listen and learn about Kaurna Yarta. In exchange, we brought skills and experience in architecture, landscape architecture, and place-making to assist in the coming together of the physical and the cultural topographies shaping the project.

The concept plan for Yitpi Yartapuultiku (the ‘Soul of Port Adelaide’) has been delivered through an extensive co-design process that has involved loosely structured design workshops and lots of ‘yarning’. By adopting a process of deep listening, the project team developed an interactive engagement process that used making and doing to explore the potential place-making opportunities. Using a unique process of physical modeling with kinetic sand, the custodian groups were able to shape the site with their own hands, explore landforms, build mounds, and shape the site’s edges. They tested spatial arrangements, coastal edge profiles, and discussed how cultural practices and narratives should be expressed, overlaid, and embedded into the concept plan.

participate.cityofpae.sa.gov.au/yitpiyartapuultiku