Thina (Retrace), Tropa (Repair), Wila (Return): Reinscribing Aboriginal Presence in Spatial Design

This research reclaims Aboriginal knowledge systems through spatial practice grounded in Country, memory, and community. Centring the Bunganditj principles of Thina (Retrace), Tropa (Repair), and Wila (Return), it weaves oral histories, counter-mapping, drawing, and storytelling to resist colonial erasure and gentrification in sites such as Redfern and Tangulan. Through methodologies of Wutamba (deep listening) and participatory design, the work affirms Aboriginal sovereignty and cultural continuity. It challenges Eurocentric architecture by reactivating relational, land-based knowledge embedded in language, story, and ecology, offering a decolonial framework for place-making that is accountable to Aboriginal law, kinship, and the enduring presence of Country.