New Canberra Hospital building features Indigenous art and a yarning circle

It is the work of Ngunnawal, Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi artist Lynnice Church and one of the traditional custodian" artworks that have been commissioned by the ACT government.

The building, which includes a larger emergency department, more operating rooms and more intensive care beds, is due to open later this year.

The government "engaged closely with the traditional custodians, the Ngunnawal people and Canberra's local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to make sure that the new Critical Services Building at the Canberra Hospital is a welcoming and safe space for these communities".

"This has been achieved both through the design of the new building and the commissioning of new Traditional Custodian artworks, which are located prominently in what will be the new main entrance and reception for the building - the Welcome Hall," according to the government's Major Projects Canberra group.

The building design includes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lounge - a first for the Canberra Hospital - comprising an outdoor space and a yarning circle.

There is also a "strong indoor/outdoor connection in the design with large windows positioned across the hospital to provide views" and "frame areas of cultural significance".

The government has committed $1.8 million for art for the new building.

Art will be installed on every floor of the new building, "distinguishing different spaces and assisting with 'wayfinding' around the hospital".

Three artworks by Indigenous artists have been installed in the new building as the ACT prepares to mark Reconciliation Day on Monday.

Lynnice Church's artwork, Healing Journey, provides a striking new gateway to the Canberra Hospital and is positioned at the entrance to the new Welcome Hall, where the main reception will be located.

The artwork comprises 24,073 colourful metal discs, each attached by hand to a metal frame that stretches across the front and back entrance of the hall.

The artwork acknowledges the role of the Canberra Hospital "as a place for healing, depicting the journey people have with their health and the important role family, community, specialists and health staff play in supporting patients in their time of need".

The Brindabella mountain range surrounding the hospital is also depicted within the artwork, "signifying the journey people make to the hospital".

Motifs from the artwork have also been taken to form part of a large rooftop artwork made out of contrasting, white and beige pebbles.

The artwork "can be seen from the many vantage points around the new building and provides a direct visual connection to Church's veil artwork".

Bradley Mapiva-Brown's artwork, Ngala Dhawura, showcases the native woodlands surrounding the landscape of the new building.

The artwork is located in the Welcome Hall, above a corridor connecting the new building to the existing hospital.

The wooden sculpture shows gum trees represented by layers of wood, with some of the trees bearing the patterned scars where coolamons and a canoe have been removed from the trunks.

Lighting is used to illuminate the coolamons and to accentuate the sculptural qualities of the layers of wood.

Visitors will be able to see both Church and Mapiva-Brown's artworks for themselves at the new Welcome Hall and reception area in early June.

Clinical services will begin in the Critical Services Building in August.