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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Investigation of atypical bushfire spread driven by the interaction of wind, terrain and fire. Large bushfires continue to pose a significant risk to communities in south-eastern Australia. Despite this, there is still very little known about the processes driving the development of large bushfires. This project aims to improve understanding of extreme fire processes and thus improve mitigation planning, community safety and environmental outcomes.
Saibai Island language and cultural knowledge project. This project aims to record the Saibai Island Kalaw Kawaw Ya dialect, using the Australian Descriptive Framework. The diaspora of Saibai Islanders, the impact of climate change, and the ageing and passing away of knowledge custodians make it crucial to capture the language and cultural knowledge. Under the direction of elders and cultural knowledge custodians, this project will record and document the dialect, particularly ‘Big’ Sabai langua ....Saibai Island language and cultural knowledge project. This project aims to record the Saibai Island Kalaw Kawaw Ya dialect, using the Australian Descriptive Framework. The diaspora of Saibai Islanders, the impact of climate change, and the ageing and passing away of knowledge custodians make it crucial to capture the language and cultural knowledge. Under the direction of elders and cultural knowledge custodians, this project will record and document the dialect, particularly ‘Big’ Sabai language. It will use recording technology and digital analysis to document cultural knowledge and language for current and future generations of Saibailagal (Saibai people). A culturally appropriate endangered language community methodology that preserves language and cultural knowledge will benefit Indigenous communities and researchers.Read moreRead less
Understanding the role of deep flaming in violent pyroconvective events. This project aims to improve the prediction of firestorms by combining state-of-the-art knowledge of dynamic bushfire behaviour with atmospheric models to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the heat and moisture released by a bushfire interacts with ambient atmospheric instability to produce extreme fire events. Firestorms represent the most extreme and catastrophic phase of development of a bushfire. They often c ....Understanding the role of deep flaming in violent pyroconvective events. This project aims to improve the prediction of firestorms by combining state-of-the-art knowledge of dynamic bushfire behaviour with atmospheric models to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the heat and moisture released by a bushfire interacts with ambient atmospheric instability to produce extreme fire events. Firestorms represent the most extreme and catastrophic phase of development of a bushfire. They often cause broad-scale loss of property, environmental damage and human fatalities. Firestorms cannot be suppressed, and so accurate and timely warnings of their occurrence, combined with appropriate community responses, are the only way of mitigating their effects. Better understanding of extreme fire processes may improve mitigation planning, community safety, environmental outcomes and emergency response measures.Read moreRead less
Understanding the role of terrain geometry in eruptive bushfire behaviour. This project aims to improve understanding of the physical processes that cause eruptive bushfire behaviour, otherwise known as fire blow-up. Eruptive fire behaviour, characterised by rapid and unexpected escalation in fire intensity and rate of spread, is a global phenomenon that poses a major threat to fire-fighter safety and can seriously compromise bushfire suppression efforts. This project will address the role that ....Understanding the role of terrain geometry in eruptive bushfire behaviour. This project aims to improve understanding of the physical processes that cause eruptive bushfire behaviour, otherwise known as fire blow-up. Eruptive fire behaviour, characterised by rapid and unexpected escalation in fire intensity and rate of spread, is a global phenomenon that poses a major threat to fire-fighter safety and can seriously compromise bushfire suppression efforts. This project will address the role that terrain geometry plays in the incidence of fire eruption, through consideration of its effect on the attachment of flames to a surface. Expected outcomes include a dynamic fire spread modelling framework and the provision of better advice to bushfire authorities concerning fire blow-up.Read moreRead less
Has it always burned so hot? Fuel and fire in southeast Australian forests. Indigenous cultural burning has been raised as a way of mitigating against climate-driven catastrophic bushfires in southeast Australian forests. It is argued that returning an Indigenous style fire regime will keep landscape fuel loads low, thus reducing the frequency and intensity of bushfires and mitigating against large catastrophic bushfires. While based on enormous reservoirs of traditional fire knowledge in Indige ....Has it always burned so hot? Fuel and fire in southeast Australian forests. Indigenous cultural burning has been raised as a way of mitigating against climate-driven catastrophic bushfires in southeast Australian forests. It is argued that returning an Indigenous style fire regime will keep landscape fuel loads low, thus reducing the frequency and intensity of bushfires and mitigating against large catastrophic bushfires. While based on enormous reservoirs of traditional fire knowledge in Indigenous communities, this assertion needs empirical testing within these highly flammable forests. This project aims to empirically test how fuel loads, fuel type, fire frequency and fire intensity have changed over the past 500 years in southeast Australian forests, spanning the period of indigenous to British management.Read moreRead less
Western Desert speech styles and verbal arts. Verbal arts are central to social interaction. In the Western Desert Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra people use special speech styles to mark particular occasions and life transitions. Led by Ngaatjatjarra linguist, researcher and educator Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis, the research team aims to build on a corpus of these endangered oral traditions. Following in-depth linguistics analysis the project aims to implement strategies to revitalise these endan ....Western Desert speech styles and verbal arts. Verbal arts are central to social interaction. In the Western Desert Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra people use special speech styles to mark particular occasions and life transitions. Led by Ngaatjatjarra linguist, researcher and educator Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis, the research team aims to build on a corpus of these endangered oral traditions. Following in-depth linguistics analysis the project aims to implement strategies to revitalise these endangered styles through dynamic contemporary applications thus reintegrating them into the language socialisation framework of youth. The project aims to assist Aboriginal people to safeguard their heritage and contribute to a wider public appreciation of Aboriginal languages and cultures.Read moreRead less
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ participation in political parties. This project aims to examine the participation of, leadership opportunities for, and challenges faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians participation in Australia’s major political parties. Working with major political parties, this project encompasses both Australia-wide research and in-depth case studies. The project will provide evidence-based research and policy advice on factors affecting the adva ....Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ participation in political parties. This project aims to examine the participation of, leadership opportunities for, and challenges faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians participation in Australia’s major political parties. Working with major political parties, this project encompasses both Australia-wide research and in-depth case studies. The project will provide evidence-based research and policy advice on factors affecting the advancement of Indigenous Australian party members into leadership roles and the recognised challenge of continued political marginalisation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in party hierarchies, representative institutions and decision-making processes. This project is expected to understand and help redress a key issue for Australian democracy.Read moreRead less
‘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
Indigenous Storytelling and the Living Archive of Aboriginal Knowledge . No archiving system adequately responds to the interconnected and relational knowledge systems of Indigenous peoples'. This project aims to explore the potential of Indigenous Storytelling, which supports the interconnection of everything, as a way of intervening in the linear structure of institutional archives. A non-linear, interactive archiving system will be developed in collaboration with Aboriginal people. Such a sys ....Indigenous Storytelling and the Living Archive of Aboriginal Knowledge . No archiving system adequately responds to the interconnected and relational knowledge systems of Indigenous peoples'. This project aims to explore the potential of Indigenous Storytelling, which supports the interconnection of everything, as a way of intervening in the linear structure of institutional archives. A non-linear, interactive archiving system will be developed in collaboration with Aboriginal people. Such a system aims to better reflect Aboriginal perspectives about culture and histories in relation to collections held in galleries, libraries, archives and museums. An evaluation of museums globally will advance understandings of the opportunities for greater Indigenous co-management of their dispersed collections. Read moreRead less