Throughout the development of our design, we learnt a great deal about what equity means and it’s vital importance to our local community. Fundamentally, equity is fairness, respect and justice in the way people are treated. With the modern world being more divided than ever, we believe it is crucial that people remember the need to respect and include others. We took this into careful consideration when creating our design.
We wanted people to respect their surroundings but also at the same time respect each other. This is why we have put seats in a circular arrangement into our design, inspired by the Indigenous symbol for meeting place, to create a place for people to sit down and rediscover the spirit of community, perhaps even having a conversation with someone they haven’t met before amongst the serenity of their surroundings. Our design heavily features the River Red Gum tree, a key icon of our community that lines the banks of the sprawling Murrumbidgee.
The word “Yindyamarra” is written along the top of the seats in our design. In Wiradjuri language, it means respect, gentleness and kindness. We believe that this word was the perfect one to sum up our design and it’s connection to the land and rich history of the Wiradjuri peoples. To solidify this, considering Wagga Wagga’s multicultural and diverse community, we have put the words for ‘respect’ in different languages encouraging people of all cultures and backgrounds to come together, truly reflecting the equity aspect of “Equity and Respect”.
