An Indigenous Australian Dictionary of Biography. The project will research Indigenous biography through collaboration between Indigenous researchers and the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are significantly underrepresented in the ADB. The project will work with Indigenous communities to produce the Indigenous Australian Dictionary of Biography, a supplementary volume of the ADB on 190 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for use by ....An Indigenous Australian Dictionary of Biography. The project will research Indigenous biography through collaboration between Indigenous researchers and the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are significantly underrepresented in the ADB. The project will work with Indigenous communities to produce the Indigenous Australian Dictionary of Biography, a supplementary volume of the ADB on 190 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for use by scholars, students, and the public, and publish research articles that reframe Indigenous biographical practice. The project aims to foster reconciliation, national knowledge and pride in the ancient and modern contribution of Indigenous Australians to the nation, and to facilitate Indigenous participation at all levels of research and production.Read moreRead less
The Great Exhibitions and their Lost Indigenous Objects . This project will rediscover the Australian Indigenous objects sent overseas to the Great Exhibitions of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Such objects acted as powerful forms of cultural, political and economic display, and a form of imperial and colonial projection. It will excavate the hidden histories of Indigenous people involved in these events and the many objects lost to Australia. Through collaborative work at communi ....The Great Exhibitions and their Lost Indigenous Objects . This project will rediscover the Australian Indigenous objects sent overseas to the Great Exhibitions of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Such objects acted as powerful forms of cultural, political and economic display, and a form of imperial and colonial projection. It will excavate the hidden histories of Indigenous people involved in these events and the many objects lost to Australia. Through collaborative work at community dialogues, the project will repatriate knowledge and remake connections between objects, museums, and Indigenous people. In doing so, it will bring contemporary Indigenous perspectives to global attention, generate new exhibition possibilities and influence international museum practice.Read moreRead less
More than family history: race, gender and the Aboriginal family in Australian history. This project will explore Aboriginal family histories. Historical processes and complex interplays of race and gender within the colonial period across space and over time make for complex layering in diverse Aboriginal families. Research into Aboriginal family formation reveals a strong basis for identity and wellbeing through telling foundational stories within the narrative of the nation.
Ngukurr to Newcastle: intercultural collaboration and influence. This interdisciplinary project will explore the intercultural contributions of residents from a remote Aboriginal community both on their own community and the broader Australian society. In doing so it aims to challenge dominant deficit-centred view points of remote Aboriginal communities and instead examine these communities as sites for lively intercultural exchanges. It will support community members to collect and document st ....Ngukurr to Newcastle: intercultural collaboration and influence. This interdisciplinary project will explore the intercultural contributions of residents from a remote Aboriginal community both on their own community and the broader Australian society. In doing so it aims to challenge dominant deficit-centred view points of remote Aboriginal communities and instead examine these communities as sites for lively intercultural exchanges. It will support community members to collect and document stories about the people who were an are influential and in doing to engage in Indigenous histories from an Indigenous perspective. Collaborative engagement with the community will ensure that these stories are preserved in accessible forms so that they are accessible for future generations and future leaders.Read moreRead less
Governing Aboriginal self-determination in NSW: 1980-2025. This project aims to examine how Aboriginal affairs governance in NSW has operated in the era of self-determination since 1980 to today. Using an ethnographic approach to study political power through time, it can develop a new understanding of the real practice of self-determination as policy. It expects to investigate whether governance processes have enabled improvements in the lives of Aboriginal people in NSW. Today, as policymakers ....Governing Aboriginal self-determination in NSW: 1980-2025. This project aims to examine how Aboriginal affairs governance in NSW has operated in the era of self-determination since 1980 to today. Using an ethnographic approach to study political power through time, it can develop a new understanding of the real practice of self-determination as policy. It expects to investigate whether governance processes have enabled improvements in the lives of Aboriginal people in NSW. Today, as policymakers negotiate co-design and partnership in Aboriginal affairs, this project can create new knowledge on the potential of resetting relationships between government and Aboriginal people. This will provide a significant contribution to crucial debates on advancing Aboriginal self-determination today.Read moreRead less
Indigenous leaders: lawful relations from encounter to treaty. This project aims to draw together history, law and the creative arts to recover, make visible and make accessible the continuous traditions of Indigenous people’s leadership in conducting lawful relations in Victoria. The project aims to develop methods of translating these encounters and their insights. The intended outcomes should shape critical deliberations on the future of non-Indigenous Australia’s legal and social relationshi ....Indigenous leaders: lawful relations from encounter to treaty. This project aims to draw together history, law and the creative arts to recover, make visible and make accessible the continuous traditions of Indigenous people’s leadership in conducting lawful relations in Victoria. The project aims to develop methods of translating these encounters and their insights. The intended outcomes should shape critical deliberations on the future of non-Indigenous Australia’s legal and social relationships with its First Peoples, particularly regarding treaty-making.Read moreRead less
Tracking three significant Songlines of Country. This project aims to track three significant Songlines and the intersecting and interconnected cultural relationships between northwest NSW Aboriginal language groups, and their neighbouring language groups northeast of the Darling River and northwest into northeast SA and the Corner Country. Indigenous oral history methodologies will provide a dynamic, rich and deep cultural knowledge and history of each site. The project is of major importance t ....Tracking three significant Songlines of Country. This project aims to track three significant Songlines and the intersecting and interconnected cultural relationships between northwest NSW Aboriginal language groups, and their neighbouring language groups northeast of the Darling River and northwest into northeast SA and the Corner Country. Indigenous oral history methodologies will provide a dynamic, rich and deep cultural knowledge and history of each site. The project is of major importance to Indigenous Communities in NSW, SA and QLD and will also develop the wider public’s understanding of Aboriginal history and culture. In particular, the project seeks to emphasise that Aboriginal stories are not myths and legends and are more than ‘stories’ simply understood. Aboriginal stories are lore and provide deep insight into the history of the Australian continent.Read moreRead less
Healing Land Healing People: Novel Nyungar Perspectives . This project aims to investigate means of biodiversity conservation and human resilience in a global hotspot by advancing collaborations between Aboriginal environmental and cultural knowledges and Western science and humanities. The project will generate new strategies to slow decline of biodiversity in the Southwest Australian Floristic Region, and help build Aboriginal resilience by exploring innovative techniques to restore narrative ....Healing Land Healing People: Novel Nyungar Perspectives . This project aims to investigate means of biodiversity conservation and human resilience in a global hotspot by advancing collaborations between Aboriginal environmental and cultural knowledges and Western science and humanities. The project will generate new strategies to slow decline of biodiversity in the Southwest Australian Floristic Region, and help build Aboriginal resilience by exploring innovative techniques to restore narratives of local life styles to Dryandra Woodland history. Expected outcomes include enhanced sustainability of environment and culture and new theories and assessment models. This should provide significant benefits for Aboriginal well-being, national reconciliation and for coping with global climate change.
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‘Like the Thunder’: Seeing Stories in the Gulf Country. This project investigates the nature of relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the Gulf of Carpentaria. It will generate imaginative understandings of how new relations might have been built through the historical marriage of a Waanyi woman and Chinese man in the late gold rush era; consider the challenges of contemporary Aboriginal advocacy; and examine how storytelling allows us to understand the nature of relation ....‘Like the Thunder’: Seeing Stories in the Gulf Country. This project investigates the nature of relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the Gulf of Carpentaria. It will generate imaginative understandings of how new relations might have been built through the historical marriage of a Waanyi woman and Chinese man in the late gold rush era; consider the challenges of contemporary Aboriginal advocacy; and examine how storytelling allows us to understand the nature of relations. The outcomes will be presented in major works of fiction and non-fiction and a collection of scholarly essays. Cultural benefits include showing how storytelling helps reveal the essential nature of human relations, and how the capacity to remake relations is essential to intercultural reconciliation.Read moreRead less
Indigenist Archaeology: New Ways of Knowing the Past and Present. This project aims to explore how Indigenous Australian worldviews can transform archaeological practice and understandings of the past. Archaeological research practice has typically relied on Western science, theories and interpretive frameworks. As an alternative approach, we will develop a new epistemological conceptualisation for how archaeology can be practiced. Based on surveys and interviews with six Aboriginal communities ....Indigenist Archaeology: New Ways of Knowing the Past and Present. This project aims to explore how Indigenous Australian worldviews can transform archaeological practice and understandings of the past. Archaeological research practice has typically relied on Western science, theories and interpretive frameworks. As an alternative approach, we will develop a new epistemological conceptualisation for how archaeology can be practiced. Based on surveys and interviews with six Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory and South Australia, and using Indigenous theories and concepts, the project will identify and explore how Aboriginal ways of knowing (epistemology), being (ontology) and doing (axiology) can be integrated into a new model for archaeological research that we call “Indigenist Archaeology”.Read moreRead less