A cultural ecologist working at the intersection of regenerative design and indigenous ideology, Chelsea is part of the team shaping how Gungahlan Homestead, on Ngunnawal Country, comes to life. Her starting point is a question that most design processes skip: what does this country actually need?
Designing from Country means listening before planning. Understanding how water moves through a place, how wind shapes it, which species belong here, and how human presence can exist alongside them rather than over them.
She is matter-of-fact about assumptions she regularly encounters. That Aboriginal culture is ancient and static. That it belongs in the past. Her response is simple: Aboriginal culture is the oldest living sustainable culture in the world precisely because it has always been adaptive, innovative and evolving.
For Chelsea, what makes this project significant is its layers. A parcel of land whose history runs deeper than its buildings, deeper than colonisation. An opportunity to bring that story forward and let it shape what comes next. A community that, if the work is done well, won't just live on this land. One that lives as part of it.
We acknowledge the Ngunnawal People as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Gungahlan Homestead Estate sits, and pay our respects to Elders past and present.
