A trip to visit her father on the very remote community of Gununa, Mornington Island, led Dr Kali Marnane to identify a pressing community need relating to housing inadequacy. And she asked, ‘How could we make a change?’
Dr Marnane, Honorary Associate Lecturer at The University of Queensland (now Associate Director at Urbis), embarked on a community engagement research project with esteemed colleagues from the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, Dr Kelly Greenop and Ms Carroll Go-Sam, Dyirbal gumbilbara bama. Their research has revealed areas of urgent need that “cannot be delayed in being resolved,” including issues with availability of services, habitability, accessibility, location and cultural adequacy in relation to housing.
The three highly respected academics have a long history of Indigenous consultation. They previously worked together on projects including UQ’s Campuses on Countries: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Design Framework, which produced a set of guidelines for those designing the built and landscape environments at UQ in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ histories and connections.
Their latest collaborative project came about almost by chance, and is an uplifting example of researchers identifying a community need and using their time and expertise to contribute to making a difference.
“I ran into the [Mornington Shire Council] mayor’s partner, Ereehna, at the airport and she told me about overcrowding in the Gununa community, the need for more houses, and how the existing houses didn’t work well for people,” says Dr Marnane.
“She and Kyle Yanner (mayor at the time), had been talking about getting the community involved in the design of houses on the island, but they weren’t sure how.
“That’s when I said I could potentially help and told her a little about the work of my wonderful colleagues Carroll Go-Sam and Kelly Greenop – before running to the plane so I didn’t miss it!”
Dr Marnane and Ereehna exchanged contact details and the research trio was soon engaged by Mornington Shire Council to provide guidance on future development on the island. Gununa (a Lardil word) is facing a range of problems familiar to many remote Indigenous communities: housing that is not fit for purpose, both culturally and environmentally, with too little housing for the community and energy security disparities.
The Gununa Futures research involved two trips to Gununa, where they worked with the community, the Council and other stakeholders to gain a clear picture of the issues and what could be changed for the future. They worked intensively – about 60 hours during the week of the surveys – from the moment they woke in the morning until they went to sleep at night.
This has culminated in a 96-page report intended to support the Council in advocating to government for a stronger cultural fit for new housing. The report encompasses findings from two surveys (housing and energy), ideas from workshops with young people, First Nations knowledge, and 12 ‘design response recommendations’ informed by occupant experiences of housing.
Gununa location snapshot
Located about 440 kilometres north of Mt Isa in Queensland, and 28 kilometres off the mainland coast, Gununa is home to about 1,000 residents, 84% of whom are Indigenous people. Mornington Island, classified as Very Remote (ASGS 2021), is only accessible for people and goods by small aircraft and barge. Its remoteness contributes to service and delivery costs that dictate the nature of certain infrastructure, including housing. Land tenure within Gununa township is community freehold, held by Mornington Shire Council; the dominant tenure type is rental housing, with no private owner-occupied dwellings.
“It was a real privilege to be invited onto Country by the community … [and] a valuable – and increasingly rare – opportunity for us as researchers to work together in a team for a week, doing what we love to do and bringing all our different strengths to it,” says Dr Greenop.
Research that explores relationships
Rather than approaching the research from a numerical or budgetary perspective, the team aimed to explore how houses are used, the relationships of people in those houses, and how adequate they are. They surveyed 35 householders from a range of housing types and living configurations. Of the 35 survey respondents, 33 were Indigenous residents.
Responses were considered against the United Nations housing adequacy criteria – an international benchmark for evaluating housing – which the researchers say are to be met for a house to be “merely at a basic level of adequacy.” They found that alarmingly, only two of the seven United Nations housing adequacy criteria were being well met. The report places the criteria in a traffic-light system.
Gununa housing against UN housing adequacy criteria
Green (adequate)
- Tenure security: tenure is secure once housed.
- Affordability: rent is affordable for now.
Yellow (partially adequate)
- Location: long, hot walks to visit family and facilities.
- Availability of services: some infrastructure and maintenance problems.
Orange (partially adequate)
- Accessibility: needs over a lifetime are not taken into account.
- Habitability: safe, comfortable spaces are not available for everyone.
Red (partially adequate)
- Cultural adequacy: houses are culturally inadequate.
The issue of cultural inadequacy
The researchers highlighted cultural inadequacy of the houses as one of the biggest concerns, and say the urgency to fix problems with a lack of housing in communities like Gununa had led to cultural adequacy being left behind. Closely linked to this is the complex issue of the way crowding is determined. While there are some official ways of measuring crowding, they aren’t culturally responsive.
The researchers emphasised that cultural adequacy in housing is a human right, not just a “nice to have,” with the UN housing adequacy criteria stating: Housing is not adequate if it does not respect and take into account the expression of cultural identity.
“We’re trying to get [cultural adequacy of housing] back on the agenda,” says Dr Greenop.
“As urgent as housing is, it’s worth getting it right. Housing needs to be adequate in a number of ways, not just a roof over your head – otherwise we’re not meeting housing adequacy obligations or even future value for money.”
However, most residents surveyed identified areas where their home did not form a good fit with their cultural values. One of the main issues identified was not being able to fit the required number of people in the home in a configuration that did not cause stress. Other cultural adequacy issues related to the design of house floor plans, the siting of the house on the block, the landscaping approach and material choices – with “simple and inexpensive opportunities” being missed which would facilitate the residents having a better sense of place and connection to Country at their home.
One survey participant, Emma (participant names have been changed for privacy), said, “We feel like we’re sleeping on top of each other sort of thing, you know, we’re breathing in each other.”
Another participant, Steve, described how the two bedrooms in his house were taken up by he and his partner’s four children, one of whom is a young mother with an infant. The young mother and infant share a bedroom with the younger sister, and the two male children share the other bedroom. “… Most of the time, me and my partner spend most of our nights staying at the lounge … and the kids stay in the rooms,” said Steve.
In very remote communities like Gununa there aren’t many public venues, meaning “the home has to do absolutely everything,” says Dr Greenop. “That living room, if it's not very big and people are also sleeping in it, it’s under so much pressure.”
Survey participant Debbie said, “If families come over for a funeral and that, we do have to put them up.” She also noted that on other occasions, she has young people staying with her who need “a feed and a place to sleep. I got nowhere to put them, only on the couch …”
According to the researchers, Australian Bureau of Statistics data relating to occupancy numbers on Gununa is inaccurate. This makes it difficult to negotiate with the government for more houses. “Everything relies on the ABS data, but the data says there’s less crowding than what people are actually experiencing,” Ms Go-Sam says.
“The ABS method doesn’t count visitors … If you come from a dynamic household where you’ve got six visitors one night, four visitors the next, they don’t get counted at all. And it’s incredibly difficult to quantify that.”
Ms Go-Sam says that crowding is often framed as a cultural driver – in effect blaming Indigenous people for the housing inadequacy issues. “But you’ve got to look at a community where there’s only one tenure model and there aren’t enough houses if people didn’t share. There’s a hidden homelessness, where people are moving between houses because of this inadequacy,” she says.
The 12 ‘design response recommendations’ in the report address specific issues relating to the design of housing for Gununa community needs. The recommendations include both housing and urban design strategies, ranging from considering the varied requirements and uses for living rooms, to streetscape beautification works, improving house siting, incorporating larger verandah spaces, and better activating passive design measures to reduce energy costs. Some issues identified through the surveys fell under the category of housing management and couldn’t be addressed through design responses.
Engaging community in research
The three researchers are dedicated to considered community engagement as part of their research methods, which they say leads to relevant and valuable outcomes for the community.
Ms Go-Sam says that as an Indigenous person, she is conscious of respecting the Indigenous protocols of place and making connections with people when on someone else’s Country. “For me that’s a high priority – to gain the trust that we are going to treat the community with the respect and care that it needs, and engage with the community in a way that they feel has relevance to them and outcomes for them,” Ms Go-Sam says.
A valuable part of the community engagement was Dr Marnane’s work with young people on the island, through workshops with students at the local school. The team sought from young people their perceptions of spaces that work well or do not work well. This aimed to identify issues in the design of the built environment that influence young people’s quality of life, and opportunities for positive design recommendations in their town.
“Often adults get caught up in ‘business-as-usual,’ but young people have a way of cutting through a lot of nonsense … and celebrating the underlying value of a place and its people,” says Dr Marnane.
“The young people in Gununa shared lots of amusing and clever insights about different spaces around town … they weren’t just concerned about their own needs – they thought carefully about their whole community.”
The students shared ideas such as planting trees for shade and beautification, providing seats for the elderly, providing bus services, and ensuring there were things to do equally for all genders.
‘We don’t want to be rescued’
The researchers emphasised that despite the areas of urgent need across the community that have been identified, the community “don’t want to be rescued.”
“People love their place, they’re super attached to it – they just want the housing to be good so that they can live there … it’s really important to understand that,” says Dr Greenop.
“The people are fantastically funny and resilient and connected to their Country and their family … To get to sit under a mango tree with someone who grew up on Country, to hear his stories about what he does with his grandkids, we were very lucky to get the opportunity to do that.”
The report’s conclusion states: “Adequate housing is an agreed universal human right, and an essential factor in the ability for individuals, families and communities to flourish. The people of Gununa require, and deserve, no less than this.”
The Gununa Futures report (authored by Go-Sam, Greenop, Marnane and Dr Maram Shaweesh) will be provided to Mornington Shire Council and made available to the public. In addition to supporting housing advocacy and future developments on Gununa, the researchers hope the report will be useful for other communities by providing insight into their research and engagement methods.
Read the report
To find out more about the work done with Gununa communities on their housing adequacy and visions for their place please follow the link below.
The researchers thank the Gununa community, and the Lardil, Kaiadilt, Yangkaal, and Gangalidda peoples who welcomed, hosted, and assisted them.
Gununa Futures was included in the recent Purpose Built exhibition, a joint initiative of The University of Queensland and State Library of Queensland.
All photographs by Dr Kali Marnane.
