Noongar kaatdijin bidi: Noongar knowledge networks; or, Why is there no Noongar Wikipedia? This project will use the Noongar language to model and assess the extent to which minority languages can thrive by using globally accessible internet technologies. It will generate critical insights into the relations between knowledge, culture and technology and investigate how oral and informal knowledge sources can be accessed for a text-based website in the digital era. The outcomes of this project wi ....Noongar kaatdijin bidi: Noongar knowledge networks; or, Why is there no Noongar Wikipedia? This project will use the Noongar language to model and assess the extent to which minority languages can thrive by using globally accessible internet technologies. It will generate critical insights into the relations between knowledge, culture and technology and investigate how oral and informal knowledge sources can be accessed for a text-based website in the digital era. The outcomes of this project will include a greater understanding of how to link technology with users for community sustainability, as well as further insights into how social learning can be improved via interacting online networks.Read moreRead less
Aboriginal remote narrowcast TV and the audio-visual archive. This project aims to investigate the world’s best practices in community narrowcast digital TV and contemporary methods for the long-term storage of both digital and analogue audio-visual cultural materials. This will assist in the long-term preservation of Indigenous languages and culture and will investigate whether health promotion and other messages in Aboriginal languages community impacts on community well-being.
Children born of war: Australia and the War in the Pacific 1941 - 1944. Many thousands of mixed-race children were born in Australia due to a range of circumstances when more than one million allied troops were stationed here during the Second World War. These children are the embodied challenge to all of the nations involved, to provide the opportunity for a family background for identity and wellbeing. In seeking to understand the circumstances that brought them into the world, some have been ....Children born of war: Australia and the War in the Pacific 1941 - 1944. Many thousands of mixed-race children were born in Australia due to a range of circumstances when more than one million allied troops were stationed here during the Second World War. These children are the embodied challenge to all of the nations involved, to provide the opportunity for a family background for identity and wellbeing. In seeking to understand the circumstances that brought them into the world, some have been able to resume relationships with family in the United States of America. This project will contribute to addressing the unanswered questions of these children by exploring the social contexts and interplays of gender and race in the extremities of wartime.Read moreRead less
Still in my mind: Gurindji experience, location and visuality. This project will develop an innovative historical account of the effects of pictorial representation of Aboriginal identity, using visual, ethnographic and archival sources. It will investigate and critique the impact of ethno-centric codification through which Aboriginal peoples have been framed and refracted throughout the 19th century and into the 21st century, from a specific Gurindji standpoint.
Using genetics to reconstruct the peopling and diversification of Sahul. A recent landmark study has revealed that people who first arrived on Sahul (the landmass connecting Australia with New Guinea) remained largely genetically isolated from subsequent migrations. However, there is still little known about the route(s) taken into Sahul, or how adaptation has shaped the enormous diversity now observed across Indigenous Australians and Papuans. This project aims to look at these issues by applyi ....Using genetics to reconstruct the peopling and diversification of Sahul. A recent landmark study has revealed that people who first arrived on Sahul (the landmass connecting Australia with New Guinea) remained largely genetically isolated from subsequent migrations. However, there is still little known about the route(s) taken into Sahul, or how adaptation has shaped the enormous diversity now observed across Indigenous Australians and Papuans. This project aims to look at these issues by applying phylogenetic and population genetic tools to the largest genetic dataset yet analysed from populations across Australia, New Guinea, and Island South East Asia. The outcomes of the project should reveal both the route(s) taken into Sahul and how adaptation has shaped the diversity now observed in descendants of the colonisation.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
Representation, Remembrance and the Monument. This project is designed to respond to the repeated high-level calls for a national memorial to Aboriginal loss. The project considers the crucial role that contemporary memorials play in societies that are increasingly addressing traumatic histories, and how international memorial projects shift public memory and cultural understanding. As Australia continues to strive for reconciliation, this project embraces the potential for memorials to become p ....Representation, Remembrance and the Monument. This project is designed to respond to the repeated high-level calls for a national memorial to Aboriginal loss. The project considers the crucial role that contemporary memorials play in societies that are increasingly addressing traumatic histories, and how international memorial projects shift public memory and cultural understanding. As Australia continues to strive for reconciliation, this project embraces the potential for memorials to become powerful public spaces where the history of the Frontier wars can be addressed. Ways of representing and remembering this past will expand and strengthen civil society.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
Promoting positive perinatal mental health, parenting, cultural and spiritual wellbeing, and resilience in Aboriginal parents in Western Australia. With community engagement, this three year study will use existing and new data to investigate the relationships between selected indicators of perinatal mental health and positive parenting. It will promote positive perinatal mental health, parenting, cultural and spiritual wellbeing, and resilience in young Aboriginal parents in two sites in Weste ....Promoting positive perinatal mental health, parenting, cultural and spiritual wellbeing, and resilience in Aboriginal parents in Western Australia. With community engagement, this three year study will use existing and new data to investigate the relationships between selected indicators of perinatal mental health and positive parenting. It will promote positive perinatal mental health, parenting, cultural and spiritual wellbeing, and resilience in young Aboriginal parents in two sites in Western Australia.Read moreRead less
The genomic history of Indigenous Australia. The aim of the project is to analyse genomic DNA from historic hair samples collected by anthropological expeditions in the early 20th century to generate a detailed genetic map of Aboriginal Australia and to reconstruct Australia’s pre-European genetic history. The genomic data and detailed contextual and genealogical information from museum archives will be used to work with Aboriginal individuals to trace past population movements and augment oral ....The genomic history of Indigenous Australia. The aim of the project is to analyse genomic DNA from historic hair samples collected by anthropological expeditions in the early 20th century to generate a detailed genetic map of Aboriginal Australia and to reconstruct Australia’s pre-European genetic history. The genomic data and detailed contextual and genealogical information from museum archives will be used to work with Aboriginal individuals to trace past population movements and augment oral historical records. The project aims to reconstruct the first detailed genomic history of indigenous Australia, including adaptation to the challenging Australian environment, and to generate important information for indigenous communities and the Australian public more widely.Read moreRead less