Fabricating Blackness: Aboriginal identity constructs in the production and authorisation of architecture

Fabricating Blackness: Aboriginal identity constructs in the production and authorisation of architecture

Title	Fabricating Blackness: Aboriginal identity constructs in the production and authorisation of architecture
Authors/Contributors	Go-Sam, Carroll (Author)
Date	2011
Abstract Note	The architect and writer, Fantin concluded that, ‘Aboriginal identity is not separate from external forces and influences and architecture is one of those influences. The difficulty in evaluating Fantin’s assertion of the power exerted by architecture is firstly due to a lack of any convincing documented measurement of supposed forces, and secondly there is a relative absence of Indigenous voices in the discourse; so it becomes problematic to conclude the extent architecture exerts this presumed power. Another view presented, is that architecture incorporating Aboriginal themes derived from cultural and totemic references, reinforces identity stereotypes. Leading to the conclusion that several of the completed works consciously and deliberately represent Aboriginality as a primitive and romanticised concept. This latter view poses a contradictory perception that contemporary Indigenous client groups or individuals who participate in projects are passively or naïvely complicit in endorsing regressive, essentialised notions of identity.
Resource Type	Conference Paper
URL	https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:245276
Citation	Go-Sam, C. (2011). Fabricating Blackness: Aboriginal identity constructs in the production and authorisation of architecture. Audience: The 28th Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, 1–27. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:245276
Link to this record	http://ikbe-library.unimelb.edu.au/bibliography/M2C8EVY4/

Title

Authors/Contributors

Date

2011

Abstract Note

The architect and writer, Fantin concluded that, ‘Aboriginal identity is not separate from external forces and influences and architecture is one of those influences. The difficulty in evaluating Fantin’s assertion of the power exerted by architecture is firstly due to a lack of any convincing documented measurement of supposed forces, and secondly there is a relative absence of Indigenous voices in the discourse; so it becomes problematic to conclude the extent architecture exerts this presumed power. Another view presented, is that architecture incorporating Aboriginal themes derived from cultural and totemic references, reinforces identity stereotypes. Leading to the conclusion that several of the completed works consciously and deliberately represent Aboriginality as a primitive and romanticised concept. This latter view poses a contradictory perception that contemporary Indigenous client groups or individuals who participate in projects are passively or naïvely complicit in endorsing regressive, essentialised notions of identity.

Resource Type

Conference Paper

URL

https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:245276

Citation

Go-Sam, C. (2011). Fabricating Blackness: Aboriginal identity constructs in the production and authorisation of architecture. Audience: The 28th Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, 1–27. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:245276

Link to this record

http://ikbe-library.unimelb.edu.au/bibliography/M2C8EVY4/