Co-designing Indigenous education policy in Queensland. The aim of this study is to provide an evidence base and framework for the new co-design approach being implemented across State and Commonwealth Indigenous policy domains. This project investigates co-design within the context of Indigenous education policy within QLD to create a large data set on how co-design is conceptualised and enacted. As the concept of co-design is new in Indigenous policy development, this project is expected to ge ....Co-designing Indigenous education policy in Queensland. The aim of this study is to provide an evidence base and framework for the new co-design approach being implemented across State and Commonwealth Indigenous policy domains. This project investigates co-design within the context of Indigenous education policy within QLD to create a large data set on how co-design is conceptualised and enacted. As the concept of co-design is new in Indigenous policy development, this project is expected to generate new knowledges that will directly benefit Indigenous people, schools, policy makers, and governments. The project addresses the critical social justice issue of Indigenous education inequalities through investigating best practices in education policy development and enactment.Read moreRead less
Navigating the Carceral Interface. This project acknowledges the overrepresentation of young Indigenous people in child protection and incarceration rates. It aims to address the gap in knowledge of how young Indigenous people experience the carceral system and document how Indigenous community organisations support and provide vital contributions to building safer more supportive communities, which is one of the targets of the Closing the Gap policy framework. This project will develop a theore ....Navigating the Carceral Interface. This project acknowledges the overrepresentation of young Indigenous people in child protection and incarceration rates. It aims to address the gap in knowledge of how young Indigenous people experience the carceral system and document how Indigenous community organisations support and provide vital contributions to building safer more supportive communities, which is one of the targets of the Closing the Gap policy framework. This project will develop a theoretical model of a trauma- and culturally-informed response to improving experiences of young Indigenous people between the ages of 10–24 who come into contact with the carceral system, transferring the knowledge gained from the research back to Indigenous communities.Read moreRead less
Identifying pedagogical factors enabling success in elite level team sport for Indigenous Australians: Lessons for Closing the Gap. Despite significant social disadvantage and alarming underachievement in educational outcomes, Indigenous Australians achieve remarkable success across a range of high profile sports. Indigenous Australians' achievement in sport is often explained as a result of inherited racial characteristics but, when seen as the result of a process of learning, it demands inquir ....Identifying pedagogical factors enabling success in elite level team sport for Indigenous Australians: Lessons for Closing the Gap. Despite significant social disadvantage and alarming underachievement in educational outcomes, Indigenous Australians achieve remarkable success across a range of high profile sports. Indigenous Australians' achievement in sport is often explained as a result of inherited racial characteristics but, when seen as the result of a process of learning, it demands inquiry into how this learning occurs and what socio-cultural factors facilitate this. This project will identify the socio-cultural and pedagogical factors that encourage and enhance achieving excellence at the highest levels of sport as a process of learning. Read moreRead less
Oyster adaptation to climate change via transgenerational plasticity. We are in an age of rapid climate change, where the need to understand the adaptive potential of marine organisms in warmer, more acidified oceans is increasingly urgent. This is especially true in Australia where changes are significant. This project uses a cutting-edge, integrated interdisciplinary approach to measure the capacity of oysters to adapt and persist to climate change via transgenerational plasticity, describe th ....Oyster adaptation to climate change via transgenerational plasticity. We are in an age of rapid climate change, where the need to understand the adaptive potential of marine organisms in warmer, more acidified oceans is increasingly urgent. This is especially true in Australia where changes are significant. This project uses a cutting-edge, integrated interdisciplinary approach to measure the capacity of oysters to adapt and persist to climate change via transgenerational plasticity, describe the epigenetic mechanisms which underlie it and develop an immediate breeding method to protect vulnerable oysters and other marine organisms against climate change. The research outcomes will transform Indigenous-led oyster reef restoration projects and future-proof an iconic food source and national industry.Read moreRead less
Developing a predictive toxicity model for metallic anions in plants. This project aims to develop competitive anionic toxicity models for antimony, arsenic, molybdenum and selenium supported by detailed speciation information. Available ecotoxicological models for inorganic toxicants have exclusively focused on cations such as zinc, and ignored anionic toxicants such as arsenic and antimony. For available models on cations to be applicable to contaminated environments, it is essential for equiv ....Developing a predictive toxicity model for metallic anions in plants. This project aims to develop competitive anionic toxicity models for antimony, arsenic, molybdenum and selenium supported by detailed speciation information. Available ecotoxicological models for inorganic toxicants have exclusively focused on cations such as zinc, and ignored anionic toxicants such as arsenic and antimony. For available models on cations to be applicable to contaminated environments, it is essential for equivalent anionic toxicity models be developed. This project will develop the first such model, which will provide new insights on ecotoxicological modelling for inorganic anionic toxicants. The project will transform ecotoxicological modelling approaches for metals and metalloids in terrestrial systems and directly improve our ability to assess risks associated with environmental contamination.Read moreRead less
Beyond recognition: postcolonial relationality across difference. This project aims to improve our understanding of claims for and against recognition by comparing relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in a settler-colonial context (Australia) and formerly colonised countries (Kenya and Papua New Guinea). Expected outcomes include new insights into the political effects and limits of ‘the politics of recognition’ in diverse contexts of post-colonialism. These outcomes are ex ....Beyond recognition: postcolonial relationality across difference. This project aims to improve our understanding of claims for and against recognition by comparing relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in a settler-colonial context (Australia) and formerly colonised countries (Kenya and Papua New Guinea). Expected outcomes include new insights into the political effects and limits of ‘the politics of recognition’ in diverse contexts of post-colonialism. These outcomes are expected to enhance the capacities of Indigenous peoples to negotiate and of Australian policy makers, development workers and corporations to engage effectively and ethically in such negotiations.Read moreRead less
Barriers and pathways to development of Indigenous traditional medicines. This project aims to explore how Australian regulatory systems can better support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Traditional Knowledge (TK) holders to commercialise their traditional medicines. Focusing on the mudjala plant and working with the Kimberley’s Nyikina people, the project should generate new anthropological methods for documenting TK related to traditional medicine, new models for regulating traditional ....Barriers and pathways to development of Indigenous traditional medicines. This project aims to explore how Australian regulatory systems can better support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Traditional Knowledge (TK) holders to commercialise their traditional medicines. Focusing on the mudjala plant and working with the Kimberley’s Nyikina people, the project should generate new anthropological methods for documenting TK related to traditional medicine, new models for regulating traditional medicinal products, and pharmacological insights into traditional methods of activating the plant. Additional expected outcomes include unlocking the significant, untapped potential for Indigenous Australians to benefit from the development of traditional medicine products regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.Read moreRead less
Aboriginalia: Collecting Histories of Aboriginal Representation. Since Federation, non-Indigenous people have produced material objects for the home depicting Aboriginal bodies, artefacts and designs and marketing these as the truly Australian look. Since the 1960s, Aboriginal people started to collect these material objects, defined as 'Aboriginalia'. This interdisciplinary project aims to examine Aboriginal collectors' representations of 'Aboriginalia'. This is the first study to examine Abori ....Aboriginalia: Collecting Histories of Aboriginal Representation. Since Federation, non-Indigenous people have produced material objects for the home depicting Aboriginal bodies, artefacts and designs and marketing these as the truly Australian look. Since the 1960s, Aboriginal people started to collect these material objects, defined as 'Aboriginalia'. This interdisciplinary project aims to examine Aboriginal collectors' representations of 'Aboriginalia'. This is the first study to examine Aboriginal collectors' representations of non-Indigenous historical depictions of Aboriginality within Australian material culture. The research and associated publications will explore the Aboriginal social life of material objects in historical perspective.Read moreRead less
The basis of oyster resilience to global environmental change. This project aims to investigate the impact of global environmental change on the survival of Australia’s oyster industry, by combining the science of genetics, physiology and ecology to identify already resilient oysters. Through the first complete understanding of resilience in oysters, including the trade-offs they have made in other fitness traits, the project develops new capacities to 'climate and future-proof' our natural oyst ....The basis of oyster resilience to global environmental change. This project aims to investigate the impact of global environmental change on the survival of Australia’s oyster industry, by combining the science of genetics, physiology and ecology to identify already resilient oysters. Through the first complete understanding of resilience in oysters, including the trade-offs they have made in other fitness traits, the project develops new capacities to 'climate and future-proof' our natural oyster populations and the Australian oyster industry, to enable the restoration of degraded oyster habitats. This project will ensure the future of an iconic and economically important national industry and food source and contribute to preserving the critical cultural links of Indigenous Australians with their lands.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