Paul Herzich integrates high-profile Adelaide city public art with his passion for Aboriginal culture and country
Paul Herzich's high-profile public art, integrating Aboriginal culture, have included Adelaide trams and buses, the River Torrens entrance to Adelaide University, signs with roadworks acknowledging Aboriginal country, and The Riverbank is a Kaurna Market installation at Topham Mall in Adelaide city.
Award-winning Paul Herzich, as the only practising Aboriginal landscape architect in Australia, designed significant public art integrating Aboriginal culture into South Australian landscapes and architectural projects.
Herzich was the first Aboriginal student to complete a bachelor of design studies (2000) and bachelor of landscape architecture (2002) at Adelaide University. In 2009, he founded his mantirridesign practice and won awards with his passion, from a Kaurna/Ngarrindjeri background, for representing Aboriginal people, art, culture and country in the public realm, with his strong focus on health and wellbeing.
Among works for the South Australian government’s department of planning, transport and infrastructure, Herzich designed the Kardi Munaintya (Emu Dreaming) Adelaide Metro tram, starting in 2010, with striking Aboriginal artwork to mark National Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Week. The tram wrap acknowledged the main Aboriginal nations fully or partly within South Australia.
Among acknowledgements of Aboriginal country with other department of planning, transport and infrastructure projects, Herzich designed Kaurna signage, with the Kaurna Nation Cultural Heritage Association, at a roadside rest area on Port Wakefield Road, about two kilometres north of Dublin. In red ochre and white pipe-clay, the signage told a story of the nearby two freshwater wells within the town of Two Wells. The design also showed Kaurna men and women as well as the red kangaroo travelling across Kaurna country in spirit.
Herzich also did Adelaide University’s entrance installation from the River Torrens (Karrawirra Pari) footbridge called Karra Wirraparinangku (From the red gum forest river) to acknowledge and celebrate the Kaurna people, culture and country. A feature was the wangu (seven) large aluminium poles, laser cut with thousands of hand-drawn circles to tell an ancient Kaurna story of the relationship between the Wardlipari (the Milky Way) and the Karrawirra pari (River Torrens).
The university's Kaurna learning circle entrance was developed as part of the university’s reconciliation action plan – Yangadlitya (For the future) – with the pro vice-chancellor indigenous engagement, professor Shane Hearn, and the Wilyu Yarlu academic programme at the university.
Herzich also did The Riverbank is a Kaurna Market installation in 2018 in Topham Mall as part of Adelaide city council and the state government Renewal SA’s Market to Riverbank upgrade through Adelaide city. Using 2D imagery and text, in sandblasted concreted and acrylic paint, the integrated artwork explored the future, past and present, allowing people to walk in the ancient footsteps of the Kaurna people.
