Culture and Creativity Seminar Series

This study investigates strategies to increase women’s participation in the construction industry by addressing cultural and structural barriers. Using a qualitative approach, semi-interviews with industry professionals revealed key challenges and highlighted effective interventions, such as mentorship programs, gender-sensitive training, and flexible workplace policies. The findings emphasize the importance of role models and professional development in retaining women. The study offers evidence-based recommendations to promote gender equity, enhance inclusivity, and drive innovation and sustainability across the construction sector. 

Hamed is the senior lecturer and program director of Building & Construction Management at University of Canberra and a member of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research. Prior to joining academia, Hamed worked as a site engineer and project manager for more than six years, successfully handling projects of varying scales and complexities. His research focus is on addressing the critical challenges of workforce, digitalisation, and resilience in the Built Environment sectors. 

This presentation was accompanied by slides. To view the slides head to HamedGolzad_Presentation.pptx

Inspired by the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the Statement from Australia’s Carers sets out to represent and increase recognition for Australia’s 3 million unpaid carers.  

Kim was commissioned to write the Statement in conjunction with bureaucrats and carers by the Department of Social Services. It sits atop the new National Carer Strategy. 

This seminar reveals the sausage making process behind the Statement. Come to this CCCR event if: 

• You have cared for or been cared by someone. 
• You care about caring. 
• You are concerned about public language. 
• You’ve ever sat in an office chair and stared at a page or screen and asked, “Must it be like this?” 

Kim Huynh teaches politics at the Australian National University and hosts ABC Radio Canberra’s Sunday Brunch. He cares for his father and is a member of Carers ACT. 

This presentation was accompanied by slides. To view the slides head to KimHuynh_Presentation.pptx

Born and raised on Ngunnawal Country, I am Kamilaroi, part of the Aboriginal diaspora. I posit the question: Who am I on Ngunnawal Country? What is my identity? 

As a child, I visited Cumbo Gunnerah’s (the Red Chief’s) Country—the ancestors’ Country. My grandfather rests there, but two attempts to find him have failed. Diagnosed with cancer at 75, I took a journey back to see my traditional Country again, perhaps for the last time. The journey was with learned men steeped in Barkindji and Kamilaroi knowledge. This paper concerns this trip, my Dreaming stories, and also my personal past, including still vivid memories of a Canberra of the 50s and 60s—a time that led to my younger brother and me being institutionalized. A photographic montage helps relate those stories of the past to the present as I journey back to Mt Kaputar, the sacred site of my ancestors. 

Assoc. Prof. Wayne Applebee is Kamilaroi man, Indigenous cultural specialist, and former member of the Galbany Circle Court. Wayne has lectured in the faculties of Arts and Design, Health, Law and Science and Technology at the University of Canberra and is Adjunct Associate Professor with the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research. 

This presentation was accompanied by slides. To view the slides head to WayneApplebee_Presentation.pptx

The climate crisis has shifted the ways in which time is generally considered in architecture. This presentation uses time as a lens through which to consider practice-based research that engages with climate change adaptation and low-carbon material use. It aims to highlight the potential benefits of the consideration of time to not only foreground the importance of material and building life cycles in the drive towards net zero carbon by 2050, but to contribute towards the perception and experience of movement and change. 

Mike is a Senior Lecturer in architecture at the University of Canberra’s School of Design and the Built Environment. Prior to this, he taught full-time at the University of Cape Town for ten years, following twelve years in practice in South Africa and the United Kingdom. He holds a BArch degree from the University of Pretoria, an MPhil degree in Sustainable Development Planning and Management from the University of Stellenbosch and a PhD in Architecture from the University of Cape Town. His research focuses on architectural technology, adaptation, design-build practice, sustainable and low-carbon material use, and tectonics. 

Supports and Fundings: The Alastair Swayn Foundation and the University of Canberra’s Faculty of Arts and Design for Second Skin. The University of Cape Town and various funders for other featured projects. 

This presentation was accompanied by slides. To view the slides head to MikeLouw_Presentation.pptx

The University of Canberra in Australia is the possessor of a 1980s 10 metre radio telescope. Due to changing university priorities it has not been used for nearly 20 years, but it has been estimated that at today’s prices it would cost $10 million to purchase and install. 

Over the past 8 years a project has evolved to see value in this heritage machine, stabilise it, return it to working order, and create a community to care for it and use it. Each new person who has got involved has added a lifetime’s worth of skills and experience, creative ideas, bits of spare equipment, offers to piggyback off software and techniques developed for other projects, and invitations to join existing networks and projects. This talk is about the challenges of meshing these different resources to create a project plan that is leaner, environmentally gentler, and better connected than one based purely on copious funding, and that prioritises a whole-of-life focus rather than a time limited start/stop project management structure. 

Alison Wain is Associate Professor in Cultural Heritage at the University of Canberra, teaching materials conservation and heritage practice. Her research focuses on the challenges of preserving and interpreting engineering, industrial and science heritage, and the importance of recognising the intangible heritage of culture, skills and changeability connected with and embodied in machinery heritage. 

This presentation was accompanied by slides. To view the slides head to AlisonWain_Presentation.pptx