From Baskets to Boomerangs: Knowledges, Lifeways and Colonial Legacies. This project aims to transform our understanding of Australian Aboriginal lifeways by undertaking a comprehensive study of objects made from fibre and wood, from iconic boomerangs through to woven basketry. Although crucial to toolkits for millennia, systematic research about plant-based technologies has been limited, even though knowledge about their creation has been passed down across generations. This project, initiated ....From Baskets to Boomerangs: Knowledges, Lifeways and Colonial Legacies. This project aims to transform our understanding of Australian Aboriginal lifeways by undertaking a comprehensive study of objects made from fibre and wood, from iconic boomerangs through to woven basketry. Although crucial to toolkits for millennia, systematic research about plant-based technologies has been limited, even though knowledge about their creation has been passed down across generations. This project, initiated by River Murray Traditional Owners, will employ innovative archaeological science techniques, explore colonial legacies and use creative engagement methods to provide new insights into the diversity of Aboriginal experiences and connect Traditional Owners with their material cultural heritage housed in museums.Read moreRead less
Closing the gap in Aboriginal maternal and child health outcomes. This project will build the evidence base needed to design and implement effective strategies to close the gap in Aboriginal maternal and child health outcomes and reduce Indigenous disadvantage across the life course.
Strengthening the evidence: how community-based Indigenous health and wellbeing interventions work to improve policy and practice. Indigenous Australians suffer high rates of premature morbidity and mortality. Despite the need for programs to improve Indigenous health and wellbeing, there is little evidence to indicate which community-based programs are effective and why they are effective. This research program addresses this 'need-evidence' gap to inform policy and practice.
Tracing connection and change in deep-time landscapes. This project aims to develop new insights into Australia’s past by telling the story of Aboriginal people’s long-term connections and changing relationships with prominent places. Building on new discoveries in the northwest arid zone, the project will conduct archaeological research at landforms in the eastern Pilbara. The project will analyse rock art and excavated materials from key sites to learn how they acted as beacons through time to ....Tracing connection and change in deep-time landscapes. This project aims to develop new insights into Australia’s past by telling the story of Aboriginal people’s long-term connections and changing relationships with prominent places. Building on new discoveries in the northwest arid zone, the project will conduct archaeological research at landforms in the eastern Pilbara. The project will analyse rock art and excavated materials from key sites to learn how they acted as beacons through time to structure and shape people's movements, encounters and connections with others. This is expected to promote Indigenous connection with cultural heritage, help facilitate cultural education programs in remote areas, and offer new insights into the relationship between cultural heritage and Indigenous health and well-being.Read moreRead less
Graphic Encounters: Colonial Prints and the Inscription of Aboriginality. This project plans to collate the archive of prints depicting Indigenous Australians, from national and international collections, to ask how people's place in this newly encroached territory was inscribed by colonial prints. Before the 1890s, prints (engravings, etchings and lithographs) were the principal means of reproducing images. Prints disseminated imagery of Indigenous people and determined how they were 'put in th ....Graphic Encounters: Colonial Prints and the Inscription of Aboriginality. This project plans to collate the archive of prints depicting Indigenous Australians, from national and international collections, to ask how people's place in this newly encroached territory was inscribed by colonial prints. Before the 1890s, prints (engravings, etchings and lithographs) were the principal means of reproducing images. Prints disseminated imagery of Indigenous people and determined how they were 'put in the picture' of settlement. Our colonial-era cultural heritage includes many prints (engravings, etchings, lithographs, etcetera) of Aborigines, yet they have been overlooked and the story of their production, dissemination and consumption is untold. This project aims to collate and trace this visual archive of Indigenous Australians and present its imagery to all Australians, including descendants, in an exhibition and conference, catalogue, monograph and online database.Read moreRead less
Indigenous Living-Legacy Archives: Memory Story Innovations for our Time. This project aims to investigate Indigenous community and colonial archives as powerful sites of social and cultural memory, and creative intervention. These sites can locate, repatriate, and transform fundamental narratives of history and collective memory to reassert and determine Indigenous voice and agency. This work partners with peak Indigenous arts and archive networks to demonstrate the value of Indigenous living-l ....Indigenous Living-Legacy Archives: Memory Story Innovations for our Time. This project aims to investigate Indigenous community and colonial archives as powerful sites of social and cultural memory, and creative intervention. These sites can locate, repatriate, and transform fundamental narratives of history and collective memory to reassert and determine Indigenous voice and agency. This work partners with peak Indigenous arts and archive networks to demonstrate the value of Indigenous living-legacy archive innovations and initiatives for cultural preservation and renewal, through unique community-led modes of storytelling. It benefits community wellbeing and healing through self-determined knowledge production and memory stories of local and global impact, and truth-telling legacy work for future generations.Read moreRead less
Painting Country: the life and legacy of western Arnhem Land rock painters. This project aims to generate new understandings of Australia’s past by exploring the lives and legacies of known Aboriginal rock art artists. It addresses key questions in global archaeology relating to when, where and why rock art was created. Using innovative methodologies, this project intends to create a unique archive of 20th century rock art and oral history recordings from western Arnhem Land. The anticipated out ....Painting Country: the life and legacy of western Arnhem Land rock painters. This project aims to generate new understandings of Australia’s past by exploring the lives and legacies of known Aboriginal rock art artists. It addresses key questions in global archaeology relating to when, where and why rock art was created. Using innovative methodologies, this project intends to create a unique archive of 20th century rock art and oral history recordings from western Arnhem Land. The anticipated outcomes will include new internationally significant knowledge concerning the impacts of colonisation on artistic practices in Australia. Furthermore, the project aims to contribute new information and data that can be used to inform cultural heritage management and education programs both locally and across Australia. Read moreRead less
Submerged cultural landscapes and the underwater heritage of Sea Country. This project aims to substantially extend our knowledge of the vast but poorly characterised submerged cultural landscapes on the Australian continental shelf, which remains one of the critical gaps in Australian archaeology. Original fieldwork will target locations in Western Australia and the Northern Territory to enrich and contextualise the submerged archaeological record within the broader discourse. The project will ....Submerged cultural landscapes and the underwater heritage of Sea Country. This project aims to substantially extend our knowledge of the vast but poorly characterised submerged cultural landscapes on the Australian continental shelf, which remains one of the critical gaps in Australian archaeology. Original fieldwork will target locations in Western Australia and the Northern Territory to enrich and contextualise the submerged archaeological record within the broader discourse. The project will combine archaeology, marine science and Indigenous knowledge to enhance our understanding of Pleistocene and early Holocene human-environment dynamics. Research will be undertaken in partnership with Traditional Owners and will support a national policy for the protection of Indigenous underwater cultural heritage.Read moreRead less
Pathways for Indigenous and Western knowledge into Environmental Policy. The aim of this project is to identify the ways in which all knowledge, particularly Western and Indigenous knowledges can work together to inform environmental policy, with a focus on climate change adaptation. Using participatory methodologies and supported by an Indigenous led advisory group, the project will partner with Indigenous Ranger groups to interrogate three key knowledge management concepts: integration, co-pro ....Pathways for Indigenous and Western knowledge into Environmental Policy. The aim of this project is to identify the ways in which all knowledge, particularly Western and Indigenous knowledges can work together to inform environmental policy, with a focus on climate change adaptation. Using participatory methodologies and supported by an Indigenous led advisory group, the project will partner with Indigenous Ranger groups to interrogate three key knowledge management concepts: integration, co-production and co-existence. Based on communities of practice, in the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre Basin, Australia, the Fellowship seeks to produce mechanisms of knowledge co-existence and maintenance that will contribute to stronger environmental policies and create spaces for Indigenous voices to be represented within them.Read moreRead less
Stories from the past: the impact of industrialisation on the human microbiome. This project aims to explore the history and origin of ‘Industrial’ diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and autism. Non-communicable, ‘Industrial’ diseases are rising at an alarming rate in Australia, and changes to the beneficial microorganisms within the human body (microbiota) may be to blame. This project will explore how human microbiota have changed over the past 100 years in response to cultural, ....Stories from the past: the impact of industrialisation on the human microbiome. This project aims to explore the history and origin of ‘Industrial’ diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and autism. Non-communicable, ‘Industrial’ diseases are rising at an alarming rate in Australia, and changes to the beneficial microorganisms within the human body (microbiota) may be to blame. This project will explore how human microbiota have changed over the past 100 years in response to cultural, environmental, and lifestyle factors linked with Industrialisation. This approach will allow stories from the past to inform modern medical treatment strategies and public health decisions in the future. The project will identify changes in environment, diet, hygiene, and medicine that have altered human microbiota in the past and sparked the Industrial disease epidemic in Australia today.Read moreRead less