Rate My Professor Kirrakee Watson

Kirrakee Watson, a Tanganekald, Meintangk, and Boandik woman with a deep, ongoing connection to her Weplprap community in the South East, holds a Master of Architecture. She has several years of experience in architecture, planning, and heritage, and has worked in various roles within the architectural profession, including on Aboriginal community housing projects across Australia. Prior to her current role, she worked as a Learning Adviser and was involved with the Teaching Innovation Unit at the University of South Australia, focusing on decolonizing and incorporating Aboriginal ways of knowing, being, and doing within the curriculum throughout the new university.

Currently, Kirrakee Watson is the Research Fellow: Aboriginal Engagement in the School of Law, College of Business and Law at Adelaide University. She is pursuing her PhD through Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA), applying a decolonising methodological framework and Indigenous positionality. Her research provides a critical Indigenous perspective on the disposition of global, Eurocentric architectures—products of colonial regimes—alongside Indigenous architectures and place, aiming to affirm the self-determination of First Nations Peoples and counter the myth of terra nullius. Watson presented on "De-colonizing Global Colonial Architectures: An Exploration of Arcadia" at the 2015 NAISA conference as an independent scholar and architect. She contributed to the "Teach, Design, Thrive" open educational resource by Adelaide University. Her PhD exhibition "Thina (Retrace), Tropa (Repair), Wila (Return)" was held at MADA in 2025, and she designed the Orientation Day tote bag for MADA. Watson co-led the Telling the Whole Story project for the 1840 Maria shipwreck site, creating an interpretive sculpture. She has led workshops in the LISTEN initiative to decolonise and indigenise architectural history curricula.