Meet Maree Meredith

WE’VE GIVEN OUR STUDENTS
A NEW HEART
A glint of sunlight caught the artist’s eye as she crossed the campus lawns.
It was a glossy black feather-the inspiration for an impressive art installation that’s
gracing the new heart of the Bedford Park campus.
STORY BY: KAREN ASHFORD
Judy Watson’s graceful steel
feathers—yara, honouring the Kaurna
Ancestor spirit Tjilbruke—are nine
towering sentinels watching over
Bedford Park. We are on Kaurna
Land. From the Registry forecourt
through the crystalline student hub
to the plaza’s dramatic southern
amphitheatre, they are linked by a
string of poetic text gifted by
Kaurna elder Uncle Lewis
Yerloburka O’Brien (DUniv ‘11)
with the Kaurna Warra Karrpanthi
Language Committee.
Yara refers to Kaurna ideas of
reciprocity and ‘two way’ learning
that takes place in a shared space.
Ngaiyirda karralika kawingka tikainga
yara kumarninthi.
When the outer world and the sky
connect with the water the two
become one.
Two become one is true of the
feathers; yara captures another
legacy, that of our namesake
Matthew Flinders, by virtue of
map fragments etched into their
russet surfaces.
When viewed as quills, the feathers
are emblems of scholarship and
knowledge, reflecting the teaching,
learning and research of Flinders.
This essence of scholarship,
cultural exchange and guardianship
permeates the redeveloped hub. The
spaces within draw not just from
the latest research into collaborative
learning, but from the students
and staff for whom the building
is intended. Seamless integration
between learning, support and
socialising flows from a finely
crafted design that ensures the
building is an elegant blend of
form and function.