moondani balluk

How might we recover Country: where so much has been colonised, cleared, and concreted; a whitestream of activity and knowledge, counter to Country and its deep connections to past?

Moondani Balluk is the Indigenous Academic Unit of Victoria University’s Footscray Campus. The Campus, precariously located on the escarpment between Maribyrnong River floodplain and the (once) grasslands of the basaltic planes, IS the escarpment, unrecognisable, modified, through its 1970’s architecture and brutalism.

What started as a simple ‘landscape’ attached to a ground level refurb in the centre of the campus has become the heartbeat of the University. The Moondani Balluk courtyard has become a deep mark on the campus map, reconnecting place with Country, culturally safe.

As a campus on the escarpment, it has an immediate relationship with water, flooding, the river. Our response was to invert convention, create floodable landscapes, capture
previously discarded roofwater, flood the landscape. Crags, as perched wetlands, are brought to life through Dr Paola Balla’s artwork: an act of reclamation, collaboration and cocreation.

These are saturated terrains, living and breathing. Geographically central to the campus (Indigenous studies unit typically is on the edge) these knowledge systems, these principles of Country, are revived through engagement, listening and responding. The courtyard has become a place of ownership, yarning, cultural safety.