Dana Flahavin

Dana Flahavin is an emerging photographer and graphic designer based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her current photographic work explores the intersections of grief, climate, and human connection to Earth. Having grown up in Gippsland, Victoria (on Gunai Kurnai Country) nature has always played a major role in her life, and so seeks to encourage its protection and preservation in all that she does. Last semester she used her final photography brief to document the destructive deforestation occurring in Victoria’s central highlands, and the court case in which Kinglake Friends of the Forest and Environment East Gippsland took VicForests to court over the logging of threatened species habitat. Activism, community engagement and environmental concerns thus form a central axis of her work.

Dana’s other design passions lie within publication design - her attention to detail and curiosity in exploring possibilities creates considered, deeply thought about and beautiful works. Like her photography, storytelling and sharing are weaved in wherever possible. Such interests have found her interning with the print and online magazine, Dumbo Feather: conversations with extraordinary people, and she hopes to continue to explore this avenue of storytelling for change.

Outside of this, you can find Dana hiking mountains, pondering life, and cooking up her next big idea or adventure.

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From project: Walk with me Cry with me Dance with me Breathe with me - a love letter from Earth

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Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.