Boost for Indigenous Architecture

UTS Architecture students Joel Sherwood Spring, Marni Reti and Mitchell Moxey have been announced the inaugural recipients of the Droga Indigenous Architecture Scholarship.

Launched in 2018, the Indigenous Architecture Scholarship program has been made possible by a $1 million donation from cultural philanthropists the Droga Family – the largest single donation to the education of Indigenous architects in Australia.

The program was created specifically to address the shortage of Indigenous architects in Australia, where just 28 were registered nationally at the last Census. With Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples representing 3 per cent of the population, the number should be closer to 500. However, Indigenous architects make up just 0.2 per cent of the roughly 12,000 architects in Australia today.

The Droga Indigenous Architecture Scholarships are worth up to $50,000 over five years at the UTS School of Architecture, and both commencing undergraduate and master’s students are eligible. As part of the program, recipients will also be mentored by industry, through a summer internship program supported by the Government Architect NSW and the NSW Architects Registration Board.

Scholarship winners Joel Sherwood Spring and Marni Reti are both in their first year of the Master of Architecture degree at UTS, while Mitchell Moxey is undertaking his first year in the Bachelor of Design in Architecture.

Sherwood Spring, a Wiradjuri man raised in Redfern and Alice Springs says that the scholarship will support him to balance the commitments of full-time study with responsibilities to family and community.

 “It's an important gesture to see that there is an emphasis on the participation and further inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in architecture,” says Sherwood-Spring. “Architecture is not just about buildings, it's about the politics of bodies in space. We need to have more diverse representation.”

Professor Elizabeth Mossop, UTS Dean of the Faculty of Design, Architecture Building, says the scale of this scholarship program has the potential to have a profound influence on the discipline of architecture in Australia.

“The future of architecture must more wholeheartedly address issues of diversity and social relevance, and philanthropic gifts such as the Droga Family’s can make a huge impact.”

“The scholarships are already empowering some extraordinary young architects-in-the-making in their studies at UTS. We hope the program will be an inspiration to other young Indigenous people to come and study architecture at UTS”, said Professor Mossop.

In December 2018, UTS announced plans for Australia's first Indigenous residential college which is aiming to open within 4 years. The college is intended to support more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to commence and continue tertiary education.

UTS supports Indigenous students through Jumbunna Indigenous Education and Research. Jumbunna coordinates the Galuwa Experience program that introduces Indigenous high school students to a broad range of higher education opportunities, including architecture.

Applications for the 2020 Droga Indigenous Architecture Scholarship round will open in November.