Reading Country: Seeing deep into the bush

I descend from a line of resilient, long-living Yuin women whose Country is the South Coast of New South Wales. I come from the Budawang clan; my lineage, like that of all First Peoples across the continent, delves into a past deeper than can be imagined, through inconceivable changes and evolutions, into a time when the landscape appeared very different than it does now. My grandmother, Gloria Nipperess, is one of those resilient women. She has been a significant teacher in my life, including in my doctoral thesis,¹ through which I question how Aboriginal peoples relate to space – which, for us, is held by Country.

Recent changes to the New South Wales government’s Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) require built environment professionals to protect and maintain heritage, including Aboriginal heritage, in the design of the built environment. Country is part of our heritage as First Peoples. We did not need to construct major monuments, as Country itself has always been our monument, both tangibly and intangibly. We know ourselves, our history and our