First Nations Perspectives
First Nations Engineering
First Nations peoples have developed complex systems of knowledge, design and engineering over thousands of generations.
These systems are often closely connected to Country, local materials, environmental conditions, community needs and cultural knowledge.
For Systems Engineering, you do not need to memorise a long list of traditional technologies. Instead, you should be able to recognise and explain how First Nations knowledge and perspectives can influence the way a system is designed, used and evaluated.
Expect to apply your understanding to a stimulus.
You may be given an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander technology, system, practice or design approach and asked to explain:
how it responds to a particular need
how it uses knowledge of Country or the environment
how materials have been selected
how parts of the system interact
how it demonstrates sustainable or ethical design
how First Nations perspectives could influence a modern engineered solution.
Systems Engineering and Country
Country is more than a physical location.
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Country can include relationships between land, waterways, sea, sky, people, plants, animals, culture and community.
From a systems engineering perspective, this encourages us to look at the environment as an interconnected system rather than treating each part separately.
Changes to one part of a system can affect many others.
For example, changing the flow of water may affect: - plants and animals - food sources - soil and erosion - water quality - movement through Country - cultural practices - communities.
This is similar to systems thinking: inputs, processes, outputs and environmental factors interact with each other.
Sustainability
First Nations perspectives can also provide a different way of thinking about sustainability. First Nations people lived with the land—they did not seek to conquer it the same way other people groups did.
Sustainable design is not simply:
"Use less plastic."
It involves thinking about how a system interacts with its environment over time, and what the lasting impacts might be.
Questions might include: - Where do the materials come from? - Can the resource regenerate? - What other parts of the environment depend on that resource? - What waste is created? - What happens when the system is no longer needed? - Will using the system now reduce opportunities for future generations? - Does the solution suit the local environment?
This connects strongly with environmental, social and economic sustainability.
Knowledge Built Through Observation
Engineering knowledge does not only come from laboratories, computer modelling or formal written documentation.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge systems have developed through observation, experimentation, experience and knowledge passed between generations.
Long-term observation can provide knowledge about: - material properties - seasonal cycles - animal behaviour - water movement - weather - fire - plants - landscapes.
From an engineering perspective, this is evidence gathered over long periods and used to develop and refine solutions.
Do not describe First Nations engineering as simply "primitive technology".
The important idea is that engineered solutions can be sophisticated because of how effectively they respond to their purpose, environment and users, not because they contain electronics or modern materials.