Aboriginal architecture: merging concepts from architecture and Aboriginal studies

This paper adopts a cross-disciplinary research approach which merges concepts and knowledge from architecture and from Aboriginal studies to explore how the process of design can support the future social and cultural needs of Indigenous building users. Through case study analysis, the paper presents observations that assist in creating new practices, processes and knowledge in architecture. In addition, an important component of the paper is its conceptual or theoretical framing. In this paper, literature on Aboriginal architecture is critically interpreted from the point of view of the Indigenous Research Methodology; an approach which sets a strategic agenda for planning and implementing research in a clear and conscious attempt to reclaim control over Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Accordingly, this textual research uses, for the first time in the discipline of architecture, a "decolonising methodology" that acknowledges the research project’s post-colonial framework while actively considering the racial identities of Indigenous designers and building users.