Sydney Open talk: The DNA of a city 2021

The built and natural landscape of a city can reveal insights into the hopes and challenges of the people who have inhabited these places, past and present. 

It's the everyday spaces that we pass through and occupy that assist in shaping our complex and layered identities, histories and memories. Many of Sydney's major thoroughfares, such as Parramatta Road, are based on centuries-old pathways walked by First Nations people long before colonisation. 

In this conversation, our speakers will explore the process through which buildings and places become significant to a community, looking at sites that are thousands of years old, through to places of recent history and those more speculative. How do we respectfully and contemplatively acknowledge the sites whose histories read more darkly than others'? 

Join moderator Fenella Kernebone to hear from a diverse panel of creatives and academics as they delve into what makes Sydney unique, including the often-overlooked streets, buildings and histories that make up the city's ever-evolving identity. 

Speakers include writer, artist and lecturer at the University of Sydney, Dr Vanessa Berry; curator, Yananurala, City of Sydney and Director, First Nations, Powerhouse, Emily McDaniel; and Urban and Architecture Historian and Program Director, the University of Sydney, Assoc Prof. Cameron Logan.

Free and online. Registrations recommended.

More: slm.is/open