CATCHMENT STUDIO

Catchment Studio is an independent, non-profit creative platform transforming how people connect with urban waterways. Based in Ngunnawal Country (ACT), we collaborate with Traditional Custodians, artists, scientists, and community organisations to create inspiring experiences that centre Indigenous practices of caring for Country, build public understanding of and engagement with water systems and help grow new approaches to living well with creeks and rivers.

Home: Welcome

Culture, Art, Science

Catchment Studio’s mission to transform our community’s understandings of and connections with urban waterways begins with the conviction that, as a society, we need to learn to better hear, see and feel, and respect and respond to Country telling us its stories. These stories include Country telling us what it needs to remain healthy and to support our own wellbeing. Our approach to facilitating this learning is to create opportunities where people can participate in on Country conversations and investigations that bring together a range of bodies of knowledge and practice. Each of these traditions reveal certain understandings of places and how we can live well with them.

First Nations knowledge is paramount and foundational. Ngunnawal Custodians live an ancient, continuing, and evolving practice of caring for waterways as places of material, ecological, cultural and spiritual significance. Aboriginal design practices and management frameworks ensure long-term, sustainable human relationships with waterways, tuned to working with the ebbs and flows of Australian river systems and mediated by significant cultural relationships with riparian species. Reflecting this understanding, Catchment Studio programs are centred on working with Traditional Custodians to (as appropriate) share knowledge of and connect people with Country.

MEANINGFUL COLLABORATIONS

LOOKING TO SEE

Professional Guidance

Our programmes are customized to respond to questions that arise from Country and community, each project is guided by the specify site. We work collaboratively with Country and community through the entire process.

LISTENING TO HEAR

A Step In the Right Direction

The studio is led by our ongoing relationship with the Ngunnawal Mob and Country. Aboriginal Knowledge, participatory arts, citizen science, and are all critical in responding to questions about culture, health and community. Together, they make visible the knowledges that have always been here.