Charlie Connell-Tobin (he/him)

Charlie is studying a Bachelor of Design, majoring in architecture with a specialisation in working with First Nations knowledges. He also works at architecture firm ClarkeHopkinsClarke. He grew up with an intergenerational family farm on the Murray River. Indigenous studies helped him understand his relationship to that place, and his family's impact on Country.

As a non-Indigenous person, Charlie approaches this work with humility. He has learned on unceded First Nations lands from Wurundjeri Country to far North Queensland, spending time with Elders including Uncle Bill Nicholson Jnr. He believes caring for Country and regenerative design can heal what conventional building and farming strip away: soil, biodiversity and cultural knowledge.

In the Fellowship, he wants to design spaces that reconnect people to Country. First up are pollinator pods, a movable educational tool that draws in wildlife and people.