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The Parklands, Culture and Communities project looks at how cultural diversity shapes people’s understandings and use of the Georges River & nearby open spaces in Sydney’s south west.
We focus on the experiences of local communities such as:
- Vietnamese Australians
- Arabic-speaking Australian communities from the Middle East and North Africa
- Indigenous people, both traditional owners of the area and those who have come from rural areas
- Anglo-Australians
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» Introduction to the project in Vietnamese
» Introduction to the project in Arabic |
Some of the key issues our work tackles include:
- How might a person’s cultural background, experiences and ideas from homelands or childhood influence their relationships with the river, parks and other park users?
- How do people form attachments and connections with new environments when they have moved from other areas or other countries?
- How people might use parks to strengthen their sense of community identity AND shape new identities from their interactions with other park users?
- What activities and uses of the park might a range of park users have in common with each other?
Our findings will help park managers from NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and local government to run parks in ways which are inclusive and welcoming places for a range of people.
If you would like to know more, or share your insights, we would like to hear from you.
About the researchers
The project is lead by Professor Heather Goodall who has extensive experience in Aboriginal history, environmental studies and cross cultural relations.
Other members of the team include:
Dr Denis Byrne, Adjunct Professor with Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre at UTS, is the manager of Cultural Research at the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water. He has worked in cultural heritage for many years in Australia and South East Asia and is the co-author, with Dr Maria Nugent, of Mapping attachment: a spatial approach to Aboriginal post-contact heritage, 2004.
Associate Professor Stephen Wearing, is a member of the School of Leisure and Tourism in the Faculty of Business. He has been a member of the Sydney Urban Parks Research Group and has with wide experience and knowledge of ecotourism and leisure studies.
Dr Allison Cadzow has been a contributing researcher and co-author on this project. Previous contributing researchers have been Dr Jo Kijas and Dr Stephen Gapps
Research approaches the team is using to understand the differences and similarities in people’s relationships
with the river and its parks include:
• In depth interviews
• Discussing personal photo collections of park users
• Personal maps of open space use
• Community focus groups
• Archival research
This project is funded by an ARC Linkage grant, with UTS and DEC as contributing partners.
  
  
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This site explores people's changing relationships with environments through the personal stories of refugees and migrants from Vietnam who have made new homes and attachments in Sydney's south west.
» Visit the site
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