Kyle Bush (a graduate of the QUT Bachelor of Design, Architectural Studies) was commissioned to exhibit this work in the triennial. The map – ‘settlement’? or invasion. – brings together fragments of maps and other images created between 1830 and 2020. Each original map or image tells different parts of a story of first contact between european invaders and the First Nations Peoples of this continent.
The work, “‘settlement’? or invasion.” extends on Kyle’s PhD research exploring the role of mapping in shaping landscapes of extraction in Latrobe Valley, Australia. It offers new interpretations of historical landscape transformations and the maps which documented them, to which landscape architects and other spatial practitioners might respond. Drawing on the work of Denis Wood, James Corner and Laura Kurgan it engages with interactions between maps, ideological frameworks and socio-political dynamics during processes of resource extraction, to establish critical cartographic methods appropriate to designing for post-extraction landscape conditions.
This map aims to be an act of truth telling from the perspective of a settler Australian, acknowledging the strength of First Nations Peoples in the ongoing struggle against colonial systems of oppression; in this case, maps themselves.
The 2021 Alumni Triennial was the fourth iteration in the series. It explored practitioners’ unique creative processes as well as signalling the success that they have made through their practice. It also highlights QUT’s focus on interdisciplinary teaching and its alumnus impact on broader societal change and innovation. The aim is not to present a graduate show but rather to track and present current trends and ideas through broader contemporary practice. This year’s exhibition focused on Design, its power to disrupt and connect thinking, ideas and actions.
Kyle is a non-Aboriginal spatial practitioner from the Country of the Turrbal and Jagera Peoples, working on the unceded lands and waters of the Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nations.
