Co-designed Aboriginal culture centre proposed for Port Adelaide

The City of Port Adelaide Enfield will create a new Aboriginal Culture Centre in the heart of the city.

To be located on a riverbank site formally known as Western Region Park Reserve, the centre will create an open space for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people that directly connects to the Yerta Bulti Country of the Port River.

The centre is designed by Ashley Halliday Architects and Wax Design in collaboration with the City of Port Adelaide Enfield, Port Adelaide Enfield Aboriginal Advisory Panel and the local First Nations community.

The centre will accommodate a range of activities with indoor and outdoor performance spaces, public amenities, offices, meeting rooms and extensive landscaping.

It will also be a culturally safe space to gather, practise, share and record culture and connect with Country.

In August 2022 at a naming ceremony, the centre was given the name Yitpi Yartapuultiku, meaning “soul of Port Adelaide.”

“At the City of Port Adelaide Enfield, we are conscious of our sphere of influence and aspire to be a City that values its diverse community and embraces change through innovation, resilience, and community leadership. This vision can only be fully realized through the strengthening of identity, wellbeing, and sense of belonging for First Nations people in our community,” the council said.

“Our approach to this project over the past two years has allowed for cultural exchange, with Council and Aboriginal Custodians working together to co-design Yitpi Yartapuultiku in a shared and respectful way. It will be a safe and nurturing community place for healing, connection and reconciliation, for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people to learn, experience and be immersed in Aboriginal culture.”

The project received the Planning with Country Award from the South Australian chapter of the Planning Institute of Australia in 2022.

A tender for a principal is underway. The project is anticipated to be complete in 2025.