Holding Space

Elder-led exhibition sharing stories of Country through film, portraiture, sound and scent to honour memory, culture and community care.

Holding Space is a community-led exhibition that honours the stories, memories and cultural leadership of Elders from Cummeragunja and Barmah.

Through film, portraiture, sound and botanical design, it invites audiences into an immersive experience of Country shaped by those who live on it.

Commissioned by YIRRAMBOI Festival and led by Apryl Day and Jirra Harvey, the project centres Indigenous knowledge systems, care practices and storytelling traditions.

Designed in partnership with Elders and local organisations, Holding Space offers a powerful and emotional insight into what it means to live with Country, care for community and keep culture strong across generations.

Design Brief:

Holding Space was created in response to a need for culturally grounded, community-led approaches to designing with Country. Too often, First Nations knowledge is referenced symbolically or without deep engagement.

This project set out to change that by centring the voices of Elders who live on and care for Country every day. Led by Apryl Day and Jirra Harvey, the design brief was to create an immersive experience that would honour intergenerational knowledge, strengthen cultural connections and offer a genuine space for reflection, healing and pride.

The intended outcome was to shift how people understand and feel Country, not through theory or policy, but through story, sensory experience and emotional connection.

Commissioned by YIRRAMBOI Festival, the exhibition aimed to model a respectful, place-based approach to cultural design and create a blueprint for future work that is shaped by those whose knowledge, memory and responsibility to Country is lived and ongoing.

This project was developed by:

Jirra Harvey, Kalinya Studios
Apryl Day
Garuwa
YIRRAMBOI Festival
Cummeragunja Housing and Development Aboriginal Corporation
Moth Design

Design Process

Holding Space followed a culturally grounded and community-led design process guided by deep respect for Elders, memory and Country. Led by Apryl Day and Jirra Harvey, the project began with consultation and formal consent from the Cummeragunja community, including the Cummeragunja Housing and Development Aboriginal Corporation.

An Elders Advisory was established to guide the work and ensure the process upheld cultural integrity at every stage. Before any creative work began, the project was presented on Country and shaped through yarns, site visits and time spent listening. Information packs were hand-delivered to Elders and families, and participants maintained full editorial control.

Film and photography were created in partnership with Garuwa, a 100 percent Indigenous-owned storytelling agency. All content was reviewed and approved by Elders before the exhibition. Each Elder’s portraits and interview recordings will be returned to their families to support cultural keeping and intergenerational knowledge sharing.

The final design was brought to life across three interconnected spaces. There was a portrait gallery with images and quotes from Elders, a film screening room, and a rooftop sensory space infused with botanical scent, filtered light and soundscapes from Barmah Forest. Spatial and sensory elements were developed in collaboration with Moth Design, Alchemy Orange and Harry the Hirer. Every material choice, from soft furnishings to natural airflow, was made to reflect the feeling and texture of Country.

Holding Space met and exceeded the design brief by delivering an exhibition that was professionally executed, emotionally powerful and deeply rooted in cultural leadership. Free and open to the public, the project welcomed over 1000 visitors and generated more than 100 handwritten letters to Country.

This project is not just an exhibition. It is a working example of how design can be shaped by consent, care, cultural authority and connection to place.

Design Excellence

Holding Space demonstrates design excellence through its thoughtful integration of cultural integrity, emotional resonance and sensory experience. Every element of the exhibition was intentionally designed to honour the stories of Elders and reflect the feeling of being on Country. It satisfies all the hallmarks of good design, balancing functionality, accessibility, beauty and care.

The layout was intuitive and inclusive. Visitors moved through the space in a gentle sequence that mirrored the experience of listening and learning in community. The exhibition began with portraiture, followed by the film, and ended in a sensory room for reflection. The space was wheelchair accessible and free to enter. Furniture was soft, rounded and arranged to welcome rest. Lighting shifted with time of day, echoing the natural rhythms of Barmah Forest.

The aesthetics were intentionally grounded. Images were printed on translucent fabric, moving gently with airflow to evoke trees on Country. Soundscapes of birdsong, wind and water paired with native botanicals created a sensory memory that stayed with visitors long after they left. The design placed equal value on emotional impact, cultural safety and spatial beauty.

Holding Space also prioritised sustainability, using hired or borrowed furniture, locally grown flowers and materials that could return to community. The work was never decorative. It was functional, culturally guided and deeply respectful of the people and places it represented.

The user experience was central. Over 1000 people visited, including Elders, young people, designers, architects and passersby. Many returned with family or colleagues. More than 100 letters were written to Country, demonstrating the emotional power of the work.

Holding Space sets a new benchmark for what it means to design with Country. It shows that professional design, when led by community and shaped by care, can transform systems and create lasting connection. It speaks locally, but resonates globally.

Design Innovation

Holding Space responds to a pressing challenge in the design sector: how to work with Country in ways that are led by the people who live on it. While many projects aim to engage with First Nations perspectives, few offer clear models for how to do this with care, accountability and depth.

Holding Space addresses this gap by presenting an immersive, Elder-led experience shaped entirely by cultural authority, lived knowledge and community consent. Rather than offering a symbolic gesture or a fixed toolkit, this project takes visitors on a multi-sensory journey through sound, scent, light and story. It is not didactic or performative. It invites feeling. It shows that cultural design is not something to be “added on” but must be held throughout the process, from concept through to presentation and return.

One of the most innovative features of Holding Space is its emotional architecture. Visitors experience a connected arc: they hear Elders speak in the film, then see their portraits, read their reflections and finally sit in a room that feels like the forest they described. The design invites stillness, not spectacle. It honours slowness, care and sensory connection.

The project is also innovative in its approach to cultural return. Elders maintained editorial control throughout, and materials will be returned to their families for cultural keeping. This shifts the dynamic from extractive documentation to relational memory-sharing.

Holding Space is user-centred in the deepest sense. It was designed with and for community, and it responds to real cultural, emotional and intergenerational needs. Its structure offers a working model for how to centre First Nations leadership in the design of spaces, experiences and systems.

This project is not only unique in form, but in its values. It shows that innovation can look like care, consent and connection to Country.

Design Impact

Holding Space has created a long-lasting and deeply positive impact for both community and the broader design sector. For Elders and families from Cummeragunja and Barmah, the project offered a culturally safe platform to share stories, document memory and pass on knowledge in their own words and on their own terms.

These stories are now living cultural assets that will be returned to families and used to support teaching, healing and intergenerational connection. Socially, the exhibition created space for genuine connection between visitors and Country. People engaged with the work not just visually, but emotionally and physically—sitting with Elders’ voices, breathing in the scent of native botanicals, and reflecting quietly in the sensory space. Many described the experience as grounding and transformative.

The exhibition invited hundreds of written reflections, with visitors addressing Country directly and sharing personal responses to what they had seen and felt. Community members recognised themselves in the stories, while professionals across architecture, planning and education returned with peers and students to continue learning through the work.

The project also modelled circular design in action. Furniture was hired or borrowed and returned to circulation. Flowers were grown locally. Potted plants were taken home and later replanted in the Cummeragunja community garden. Materials used in the exhibition will be gifted back to community for cultural keeping and ongoing use. This approach demonstrated that environmental responsibility can be embedded in both materials and relationships.

Professionally delivered and culturally led, Holding Space shows what is possible when design is guided by care, trust and community authority. It has already influenced practice across education, government and cultural institutions.

The project strengthens Victoria’s standing as a leader in ethical and relational design and offers a blueprint with relevance across Australia and beyond.

Holding Space

Elder-led exhibition sharing stories of Country through film, portraiture, sound and scent to honour memory, culture and community care.

Design Process

Design Excellence

Design Innovation

Design Impact

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Holding Space

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