Opening up colonial space: Aboriginality, Perth and the Nyoongar Tent Embassy

This presentation reflected on problems encountered in making spaces of hospitality for and with Aboriginal people within institutional buildings in Perth, Western Australia. The exhibition project was directed at disrupting criminalisation of Aboriginals in the city, particularly members of the Nyoongar Tent Embassy. The exhibition at the entrance to the state library included three works: one challenging popular media construction of tent embassy members as law-breaking outsiders by showing that members had acted by principles of state, national and international law; one work presenting a counter-narrative to marginalisation of Aboriginal inhabitation in the city; and one work soliciting engagement in telling stories of ongoing colonial violence directed at excluding Aboriginal people from the city. The exhibition was designed to encourage hospitality to expressions of Aboriginal sovereignty in the city. Making space for this ethics of hospitality in a colonial city is highly problematic but not impossible. Through critical reflection on the exhibition, the talk identified five design tactics for making de-colonised openings in colonial space. The presentation was supported by the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies and the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies Urban Studies Theme at University of British Columbia, Kelowna, Okanagan Nation.