Aboriginal architecture student, Marni Reti, 23, has been awarded one of the highly sought after Droga Indigenous Architecture scholarships at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). Ms Reti is currently in the first year of her master’s degree at UTS, and in December 2018 was also the successful recipient of a newly created role at Sydney architecture firm, Kaunitz Yeung Architecture, who is committed to supporting the progress of Aboriginal architects and bringing their perspective to practice.

With only 28 of the 12,000 registered architects in Australia being Indigenous, the scholarship was designed to develop a meaningful representation in Australian architecture of Indigenous professionals and support a student’s contribution to architectural culture and production in Australia. The partnership between the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the Droga Family Foundation was established to support a number of Aboriginal students through the lengthy tertiary architectural education process. The selection process recognised a students; passion for architecture, motivation, advance professional development and commitment to benefiting the Indigenous community through architectural culture and production.

Marni Reti said, “The fact that an opportunity like this exists is really incredible and being a part of this support network for younger students – particularly young Aboriginal girls – is really exciting to me. This scholarship, for me, means I can focus on my studies, my family and the work I do at Kaunitz Yeung Architecture that I’m passionate about. It’s also an acknowledgement from the wider industry that the current statistics and low level of engagement with Indigenous voices is an issue, but that it is now recognised as an issue and subsequently being addressed.”

David Kaunitz, director of Kaunitz Yeung Architecture, said, ““We are committed to supporting the progress of Aboriginal architects and bringing their perspective to practice. I am very proud to see Marni receive the Droga Indigenous Architecture scholarship. Her dedication and work ethic is to be commended. She is an absolute asset to our team and I look forward to supporting and watching her progress.”

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