First People’s Garden, Western Sydney University

Located on D'harawal Country at Western Sydney University's Campbelltown campus, the First People's Garden is a Design with Country landscape where the stories of Yandel’ora and Yandelm’awa define the cultural purpose, spatial organisation and ecological logic.

Rather than consultation after key decisions, Traditional Owners were design partners from the outset. Taylor Brammer facilitated a co-design process involving the D'harawal Traditional Descendants and Knowledge Holders Circle, Western Sydney University's DVCIL, Bangawarra and WSP Indigenous Specialist Services, with stories, cultural knowledge and lived experience informing spatial planning, artwork, and materials. It was a privilege to be trusted with this process, shaping a practice of listening first and outcomes second.

The result is a landscape where cultural knowledge exists as physical infrastructure - audio, landform, art, water and planting woven into campus life, creating outdoor learning environments where Country is an active participant in education, gathering and lived experience. Visitors move through the stories of Yandel'ora and Yandelm'awa, encountering expressions of language, story and ecological understanding embedded in landform, water, planting and artwork by Dr Shannon Foster and Bangawarra, supported by audio trigger points, educational panels and sand-blasted, laser-cut artwork.

Three constructed Lore Hills reference the region's prominent landforms - Mt Annan, the Camden Flood Plains and the Scenic Hills of Campbelltown - drawing on Yandel’ora, the D'harawal story of meeting on the lands of peace with the intention of deep listening and learning, establishing a sequence of outdoor learning environments within the courtyard.

A reticulated system of ponds and creek beds carries the story of Yandelm’awa across the site, expressing the responsibility to maintain peace and care for Country, extending the University's lake system beyond the courtyard's open edge and restoring the site's relationship with place. Diverse endemic planting embeds the D'harawal seasonal cycles alongside the Seven Peacekeepers and Peacemaker, who ensured the land's enduring safety and balance. Species traditionally used for food, medicine and ceremony reconnect ecological process, exemplifying cultural knowledge.