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Lottie Harper-Siolo

EOI Spatial Design 2021-2023

EOI Communications and Methodology 2019-2023

Instagram: LottieHarperSiolo
Email: Charlotte.sarahelen@gmail.com

Design

Writing

‘Body of an Eel’ was designed in relation to the context of Te Awa Kairangi, Lower Hutt, Aotearoa. For a large number of our Pasifika whanau/aiga this is the place they call home. With sea levels rising and flooding events occurring due to climate change, the HCC is in the process of implementing a new urban development with the aims of flood protection, urban revitalisation, and better transport.

Within my offering for the new urban development, I would look to prioritise the well-being of our Māori and Pacific communities, acknowledging a need for more equitable health care.

“Health for the river is health for me”.

Demonstrated in many narratives and passed down knowledge within indigenous Pasifika culture, caring for the relationship between people and our environments plays a large role in our existence. Through this project, I communicate through indigenous critical discourse how caring for these communities is in relation to caring for our environments and vice versa.

Indigenous critical discourse:


Immanence: Understanding all characters as part of a larger living being. That being a part of a larger collective, that has an impact on one another.


Talanoa: A tool used to build connections through acts of conversation in a space where one's voice is equal to another's.


Vā: The space in between, the relation of one being/thing to another.


Pō: An overarching understanding of the vibration of life, time, and space. “Pō - begun.. Connecting darkness and land”.

Storyboards inspired by the narrative Sina and the Eel.

I have used these methodologies and the knowledge found within a Samoan fale, in my approach to creating spaces that can conduct equitable health care and indigenising how we inhabit and care for our space. A key aspect I appreciate in the knowledge found within a Samoan fale is the use of posts, creating space between the fale and fanau (land), therefore allowing the river to rise and flow its course as well as protecting the whenua.