The ECU City Campus Public Artworks form a major public art program embedded within Edith Cowan University’s new city campus in Boorloo (Perth), located on Whadjuk Noongar boodjar. Positioned within a significant civic and cultural corridor, ECU City establishes a new urban destination where learning, culture and public life intersect.
Developed by Apparatus in close collaboration with ECU and Whadjuk Noongar Elders – Dr Roma Winmar AM, Farley Garlett and Dr Barb Bynder – the program evolved over several years through a process grounded in respect, cultural authority and shared knowledge. The resulting works are integrated into the architecture and landscape, shaping how people experience and move through the site.
Spanning the Karak Walk and Yagan Square precinct, the program includes a major integrated ground plane work by Bibbulmun artist Lea Taylor and a sculptural commission by Kamilaroi artist Reko Rennie. Together, these works respond to the deep cultural and environmental histories of the site, including the waterways and wetlands of Goologoolup that continue to exist beneath the contemporary city.
Encountered daily by thousands of students, commuters and visitors, the artworks create a layered and immersive public realm. Grounded in First Nations knowledge systems – the oldest continuing cultures in the world – the project affirms the continuity of Noongar culture in a rapidly evolving urban context.
