The Tweed Valley Hospital is a $723.3 million greenfield development in the Northern NSW suburb of Cudgen. When the project was announced in 2017, there was opposition from the local Aboriginal and South Sea Islander communities. To respond to these concerns, the project team engaged with the local Community to listen to their concerns and embed Aboriginal people in the governance structures. This included establishing the project’s Aboriginal Community working group, which included key local Aboriginal organisations, the local Aboriginal health service and Community Elders and members.
Through the working group, Community members shared local knowledge and songlines to inform the development of the hospital, raised concerns about the cultural safety of hospital facilities, and participated in design user group sessions to address these concerns. This ensured that the local songlines and culture were considered in the hospital design, for example changing the orientation of the hospital’s birthing rooms so that they did not face Wollumbin (Mount Warning), which is a male landmark and not appropriate for Aboriginal women to face while birthing. It also enabled Community members, Elders and local Aboriginal Organisations to participate in the design, implementation and governance of the arts and culture program for the hospital. This resulted in more than 30 signs being translated into a local Aboriginal language, the inclusion of local edible and medicinal plants being used in the hospital’s landscaping and commissioning multiple artworks and sculptures to share and celebrate local knowledge and stories.
Embedding local Aboriginal Community members’ voices in the design, development and governance of the hospital redesign has resulted in the local Community becoming advocates for their new hospital. A smoking ceremony was held in early May 2024 to cleanse the space and the Tweed Valley Hospital opened to patients on 14 May 2024.
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