A search has begun to find an Indigenous director to help lead planning and delivery of the Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre (AACC) as a world-class cultural attraction at Lot Fourteen innovation precinct.
The AACC is being developed in partnership with the Aboriginal community to recognise and celebrate some of the world’s oldest continuous living cultures through immersive experiences that will drive year-round cultural tourism to Adelaide.
The Project and Program Director will have a critical role in the design and construction stages of the AACC as well as delivery of operations and curatorial programming.
Lot Fourteen State Project Lead Diane Dixon said the AACC would enhance reconciliation through awareness and understanding of Aboriginal cultures.
“It will acknowledge and celebrate Aboriginal stories through truth-telling of the old in new unique ways, showcased in a safe and contemporary environment that enables connection to Country, place and kin,” she said.
“As we transform Lot Fourteen from a former hospital site into a new place for the future, we look to provide new opportunities for leadership, innovation and learning while at the same time, we seek to create a place of community, of storytelling, and of healing.”
For more than 50,000 years, the land now occupied by Lot Fourteen was an integral site to the Kaurna people as a place for camping and ceremony, between the banks of Karrawirra Parri (River of the Red Gum forest; River Torrens) and the waterholes of Kainka Wirra (Eucalypt forest, Adelaide Botanic Garden). The areas around Lot Fourteen continued to provide refuge for the Kaurna and were a place to practice culture for many years after the arrival of the British settlers.
Ms Dixon said the AACC would help position South Australia as the gateway for Aboriginal culture for all of Australia and beyond. “We will share with the world, and with great pride, the incredible story and unique cultures of Australia’s first peoples, as never told or shown before,” she said.
“The AACC will combine traditional storytelling and modern technology to deliver a major cultural institution of truly global significance at a place that has been very special to the Kaurna people for thousands of years.”
Ms Dixon said the AACC would create important opportunities for Aboriginal employment and training before and during construction and through its future operations and related commercial, educational and retail activities.
The State Government has currently committed $65 million towards construction of the AACC, and the Australian Government has provided a further $85 million through the Adelaide City Deal.
The position is only open to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander applicants, as this is considered a genuine occupational requirement for the position under the Equal Opportunity Act, 1984.
Applications close 5pm, October 1, 2020.
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