Design, Building on Country is a publication by Alison Page and Paul Memmott and is part of the First Knowledges series which links Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers and editors. The book illuminates the ways that design, through engagement with First Nations knowledge, can become an expression of respect for Country, supporting First Nations led practices of environmental stewardship.

Aboriginal design is of a distinctly cultural nature, based in the Dreaming and in ancient practices grounded in Country. In the seminal text, Memmott and Page evidence the inherent ingenuity of First Nations culture and its benefits; from the aerodynamic boomerang to the ingenious design of fish traps and the precise layouts of community settlements that strengthen social cohesion. In turn, demonstrating how principles of sustainability and storytelling, refined over many millennia, are now being applied to contemporary practices through the creation of a new Australian design ethos that truly responds to Country and culture.

The book draws on Indigenous knowledge to illuminate how design as a practice can become an expression of respect for and observance of Country. It is a call to all design related professions to accept and step up to the obligations inherent to the acknowledgment of Country, and to develop responsibility over custodial environmental practices. The publication upends old, often paternalistic paradigms of deficit-driven design practice that address Indigenous knowledge and communities through a problematized lens. In doing so, charting a path towards the inclusion of First Nations expertise and practices within the entangled fields of urbanism, environmental management and design.

This text was the result of online research and a reading of the publication, borrowing from the publisher's official description of the review by Christine Phillips and Jock Gilbert for Landscape Architect Australia.