The brief is simple enough: come up with a new coat of arms for the Australian Capital Territory, one which represents a diverse, modern and inclusive place.
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The task, though, is tricky - and the results varied.
Students from the University of Canberra were given the job as part of a partnership with the ACT government to help develop options for a new coat of arms for the territory.
Gang-gangs, bogong moths, bluebells and the outline of Parliament House emerged as familiar themes in the students' proposals, which had input from the Ngunnawal community and heraldic experts.
Liam Atkins, who is completing a masters in creative and cultural futures, did away with the usual form of a coat of arms, however. Gone was the central shield and the animals to stand by it.
Mr Atkins' blue disc, marked with the Griffins' triangle and lake and interwoven with the Ngunnawal symbol for meeting place, the federation star and the bluebell, offers just one possibility for a new symbol for the territory.
"We discussed in class how we can best modernise and decolonise this very colonial symbol. And in doing so, I wanted to make it - what's the word - noticeable," Mr Atkins said.
"And I wanted to incorporate all the things I really enjoyed about living in the ACT, and one of which is the built environment. Coming from a background in architecture, I think the Walter Burley Griffin plan is this really amazing thing. So I wanted to try and incorporate that in a very visual element"
The territory has never had its own coat of arms. The Canberra City coat of arms, which features black and white swans, will remain as an official symbol. But it was designed in 1928, and the ACT government committed in 2019 to developing a new motif for the territory to sit alongside it.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr, who toured the student exhibition this week but politely declined to select a favourite, said designing a new coat of arms was an opportunity to make a statement about the ACT's community as it is now.
"We don't get these opportunities very often," Mr Barr said.
"I think it's important to acknowledge that on one level this a highly subjective process and there will be a lot of different views and opinions - and that's a good thing. We want to have that discussion."
Mr Barr said while the project was not the government's main priority, it was possible to have the discussion with wide-ranging community input.
"I did see one of my Assembly colleagues took the time to write an op-ed that this wasn't important, but it was obviously important enough for him to write an op-ed about it. So I did find that amusing."
Liberal member for Murrumbidgee Jeremy Hanson wrote in The Canberra Times last month the ACT government should not be seeking to dismiss the legacy of the Canberra coat of arms.
"You would think they would have better things to worry about like poor hospital waiting times, declining academic results in our schools, the housing crisis or spiralling debt," Mr Hanson wrote.
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But Mr Barr said the process was the right one to engage with the evolution of how the territory's community represented itself in symbols.
"Perhaps previous debates on symbols have been about saying, 'That's it for the past and here is something new.' This allows us to have both. And I think that's a good position to be in and a good reason to proceed with this process," he said.
A Legislative Assembly inquiry into the territory's coat of arms recommended in August 2019 the ACT adopt a new emblem or update the exiting city coat of arms.
The ACT government agreed, and began the process to adopt a new emblem, which could inform how the territory reconsiders its flag, which features the Canberra City coat of arms.
Public submissions for the design process are also open, with a public vote expected later this year.
- See the students' designs at: oursymbols-ourcbr.com.
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