Alison Page on 'BLAK: Defining an Australian Design Future'

Design is never neutral. It carries the imprint of culture, memory, and values, shaping how societies see themselves and their futures. In Australia, the foundations of design extend far beyond the colonial narrative into deep time, where land, sea, and sky were understood as interconnected living systems. For First Nations peoples, all making of objects, shelters, pathways, and stories emerged from the Dreaming: an evolving body of cultural, ecological, and spiritual knowledge that sustained Country for millennia. In this lecture, Alison Page explores BLAK as a powerful reassertion of Indigenous identity and creative sovereignty within contemporary practice. She introduces Designing with Country, a transformative placemaking movement that re-centres design within the wisdom of Country, inviting architects, designers, and communities to engage with place as a living system rather than an empty site. Through built and conceptual projects, Page demonstrates how embracing Indigenous knowledge systems offers a generous and necessary framework for defining a truly Australian design language. Looking forward – looking BLAK – this lecture calls for a future in which design in Australia is grounded in ancient knowledge, responsive to Country, and courageous in reimagining a national identity. Alison is the 2026 Robert Garland Treseder Fellow at the Faculty of Architecture, Building, and Planning, University of Melbourne. This Fellowship enables artists, business innovators, designers, policy leaders, start-ups, architects, and scholars dedicated to the development and promotion of design-based innovation to visit Melbourne. We are grateful for the generous ongoing support of the Robert Garland Treseder Fellowship.