Planner Spotlight

Michelle Howard MPIA (Fellow)

Managing Director, Collaborations

  Prefer to pop your headphones in?

Video interview with Michelle coming soon! Alternatively, read on to hear her insights.

What first drew you to planning?

Planning is my second career! After working in the arts and experiencing the way public art and design can shape places and influence sense of belong, I wanted to explore the human dimensions of planning and place. When I re-trained as a planner, in the late 1980’s, the City Engineers – almost entirely men – ran the show. I was generally the only woman in the room and my background in the arts and community development gave me a unique lens on how people experience a place – access to public resources, decision making, safety, mobility etc. Putting a human face on planning was important to me and the diversity of voices in communities being represented in decision-making!

I’ve always explored the relationship between ‘technical’ knowledge and expertise and lived experience – the way different knowledge sets and understandings can weave together to create place-based solutions that go beyond just the physical aspects of planning. 

Is there a project or moment you’re particularly proud of?

That’s so hard! I’ve worked on projects big and small, everything from bushfire recovery, to renewable energy, healthy environments and major infrastructure.

I’d like to reference two very different experiences. The first being part of the Ministerial Advisory Committee for Fisherman’s Bend in Melbourne, as a group we stepped in to Australia’s largest urban renewal project, at a time of significant public and development sector anger and mistrust. I often talk about planners being change managers and this project epitomised that role – no one had felt part of the change. We had to take everything back to first principles, rebuild trust, establish a shared vision and create new planning mechanisms and strategies to support the ambition for future development and community. It was an extraordinary group of people to work with, the leadership of Meredith Sussex was pivotal to our work and I was proud to lead the design and implementation of the community and stakeholder processes that informed the Fishermans Bend Strategic Framework. 

Since 1988, I’ve worked with First Nations colleagues and friends to facilitate First Nations voices in planning and design. My personal and professional learnings, now inform the work that I do with my friend and colleague Carol Vale, building capacity in the policy and build environment sectors to Plan with Country.  It is inspiring and rewarding work as we watch other professionals become more confident to engage, to collaborate, to challenge ‘mainstream’ paradigms about planning and design. We know that the impact of each person who participates in this ‘training’, ripples out in their organisation, with clients and community. This is legacy work that contributes to a more Country-centred approach nation-wide. Our legislative frameworks and systems are still stuck in a ‘colonial’ approach to land-use. However, individuals and organisations are pushing back, innovating and building a new body of work, weaving together different knowledge and skills to heal our relationships with each other and Country. 

We cannot leave the difficult work of changing our planning system and profession to First Nations colleagues and communities alone. It is work that requires humility, deep listening, courageous conversations, collaboration and bold moves.

Looking back over PIA’s 75 years, what do you think has been the institute’s biggest impact?

Without a doubt, it’s raising the profile of the planning profession at all levels – through advocacy to all levels of government, growing planning as a desirable professional path and as an impactful discipline sitting alongside other professionals. I love an engineer, particularly now they have to share a few seats at the table with planners  - environmental, social, statutory, strategic, heritage, health. That’s actually alot of seats – so perhaps a marker of success is that we need bigger tables! 

What advice would you give someone considering a career in planning?

That lovely saying, ‘not all get to see the harvest’ is important, the really powerful change that we can make often takes time and it’s the small impacts over time that add up. Architects and bridge engineers have immediate tangible outcomes, whereas planners require patience, persistence and some ‘out of the box’ thinking to realise change.  I remember using examples from Europe and Japan to advocate for a land-efficient, ‘vertical’ school for Docklands in Melbourne in the early 90’s. The first stacked public school and community facility was built in some 20 years later!

Putting a human face on planning was important to me and the diversity of voices in communities being represented in decision-making!

What did it mean to you to take on your role within PIA’s Knowledge Circle?

The Knowledge Circle is such an important initiative. Joining as founding, non-Indigenous member was not a decision that I took lightly. In fact, we continue to challenge ourselves as a group about who needs to be at the table advocating for change.  Watching the ‘failure’ of the Voice to Parliament Referendum heightened my belief in the importance of effective Allyship. We cannot leave the difficult work of changing our planning system and profession to First Nations colleagues and communities alone. It is work that requires humility, deep listening, courageous conversations, collaboration and bold moves.  This is who we are as a Knowledge Circle. 

I was moved to tears at the Tasmanian State Conference last year, to share the stage with Aunty Theresa Sainty and hear about her important work to heal Palawa Country. To support PIA to host these important conversations in the state of my birth, given its horrendous history, truly was an honour and a privilege.

 

What excites you about the future of planning?

A planning system which is Country-centred and contributes to the healing of people and the land. 

In three words, what do you think makes a great planner?