The garden is a new living space commitment from PAS created in partnership with the City of Parramatta Sustainability Team, Baramadagal custodians, studio artists and Marian Abboud and the Preserve program. Signifying an ongoing and deepening relationship with Country, the garden aims to steward plant life and ecological practices from communities who live and work in the Parramatta region.
Three community groups are represented in the first iteration of the garden, supporting the site of PAS Granville's transition into a public park. Baramadagal custodians will grow endemic plants, traditional medicine and edible plants and have revitalised access to Country for ceremony, learning and storytelling. Four plots of vegetables, fruit and herbs will be used to learn about food sovereignty and cultural preservation with community invited to grow and cook from it for the Preserve program. And finally, a section of creative crops for artists including plants used for dyeing, weaving, photographic processing and more will carry the legacy of creative practice, ecological reciprocity and materiality in the Parramatta bioregion.
The garden will operate as an outdoor programming space and testing ground for communities to gather and try things out. Existing programs supported by the garden are Bare Skills, Preserve, Future Artists Club and the ongoing relationship with Baramadagal and First Nations artists and communities.
Image: Healing plants workshop with Kylie Colemane, 2025. Photo: Rihana Elsamouly