Construction of a $320 million national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural precinct in Canberra
The federal government has announced plans to construct a $320 million national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural precinct in Canberra.
The new cultural precinct will house the world’s largest collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural and heritage items and include a long-awaited national resting place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestral remains.
It will be known as Ngurra—which means home, country or place of belonging in different Aboriginal languages.
It will be built in Commonwealth Place on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin on Ngunnawal country on the primary axis in the Parliamentary Triangle—between Old Parliament House and the Australian War Memorial.
The project is based on a proposal from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (Aiatsis). Two parliamentary committees have since endorsed the recommendation.