Our Phantoms, 2024
This video was filmed and edited in what is now known as Southbank, very close to where the Falls once stood across the Birrarung.
This monologue lists all the species rapidly becoming lost to Australia and the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri, Bunurong, Wadawurrung, Taungurung, Eastern Maar, Dja Dja Wurrung, Gunaikurnai, Yorta Yorta, Millewa-Mallee, Gunditj Mirring and Barengi Gadjin peoples. The creatures listed are vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered or extinct, as per the Flora & Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 Threatened List (Feb 2024).
There are really too many to name, but out of respect for the disappearing they are each articulated here, at excruciating length. We call their name; though their original names are too, largely disappeared.
Jane was born on Wurrundjerri Woi Wurrung Country and grew up in a remote part of lutruwita | Tasmania on Tommeginer Country; instilled with a deep fascination and commitment to the natural environment.
Having commenced her architectural studies at University of Melbourne and completing her degree at RMIT as part of the Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL), Jane co-founded the collaborative architecture practice Sibling in 2012. Jane has now developed her own practice – Heliotope – based on regenerative principles and dedicated to architectural and spatial outcomes that operate within the finite resources of planetary boundaries; embodying a renewed interest in the specificities of place (south eastern Australia). Her research and multidisciplinary collaborations contribute to the development of low carbon, climate-adaptive projects; with a focus on emerging technologies, construction industry waste streams and local production economies and ecosystems. She maintains strong ties with academia, leading design studios at Monash University and RMIT.