Reciprocal Accountability and Public Value in Aboriginal Organisations. This project aims to examine the different meanings of ‘public value’ and accountability in the work of Aboriginal organisations. Aboriginal organisations in the Kimberley region are funded by governments to deliver services that are of value to the public. They also reflect Aboriginal culture and identity, and represent Aboriginal interests. This also creates value for their own publics. This project investigates the tensio ....Reciprocal Accountability and Public Value in Aboriginal Organisations. This project aims to examine the different meanings of ‘public value’ and accountability in the work of Aboriginal organisations. Aboriginal organisations in the Kimberley region are funded by governments to deliver services that are of value to the public. They also reflect Aboriginal culture and identity, and represent Aboriginal interests. This also creates value for their own publics. This project investigates the tension between these two ways of understanding public value. It investigates accountability for public value creation, whether it reflects the real value of Aboriginal organisations, and whether it can be done better. The project plans to draw on anthropology and public administration theory.Read moreRead less
Exploring the middle ground: new histories of cross-cultural encounters in Australian maritime and land exploration. This project seeks to reinvigorate Australian exploration history by examining it through the lens of cross-cultural encounters and relations. This will bring to the fore the experience of Aboriginal people who came into contact with explorers, as well as the experience of Aboriginal people who participated in exploration parties.
The coming of the dingo and its interaction with Indigenous Australians. This project will identify more precisely the time of the entry of dingoes into Australia and will investigate their impact on the lives of Indigenous Australians. Archaeological and anthropological evidence suggests that Indigenous people rapidly incorporated dingoes into their lives. Dingoes were used for a variety of purposes and were particularly valued as hunters by women, effectively increasing their access to meat. ....The coming of the dingo and its interaction with Indigenous Australians. This project will identify more precisely the time of the entry of dingoes into Australia and will investigate their impact on the lives of Indigenous Australians. Archaeological and anthropological evidence suggests that Indigenous people rapidly incorporated dingoes into their lives. Dingoes were used for a variety of purposes and were particularly valued as hunters by women, effectively increasing their access to meat. Impact would include a re-organisation of gender roles and an associated improvement in women's fecundity. By examining evidence for such changes, this project will significantly contribute to knowledge about implications of the arrival of a living technology in Australia and, more generally, the human/dog relationship.Read moreRead less
Hearing histories of the western Pilbara. This project aims to investigate Indigenous song traditions of the western Pilbara through current practice and legacy recordings. It aims to show how public song traditions were used through the twentieth century as tools to manage environmental change. By recording and documenting songs and histories, and curating and developing an online collection of song-based digital heritage items with a virtual landscape interface, the project is expected to prod ....Hearing histories of the western Pilbara. This project aims to investigate Indigenous song traditions of the western Pilbara through current practice and legacy recordings. It aims to show how public song traditions were used through the twentieth century as tools to manage environmental change. By recording and documenting songs and histories, and curating and developing an online collection of song-based digital heritage items with a virtual landscape interface, the project is expected to produce knowledge about the role of digital collections and cultural mapping in supporting the sustainment of endangered song traditions. It also aims to develop tools for use by communities and researchers to secure legacy, crowd-sourced and newly created records of intangible cultural heritages for the future.Read moreRead less
Water and the making of urban Australia since 1900. This project aims to produce new understandings of both the historical drivers of today’s urban water systems, and how these systems have impacted on human and ecological welfare. This will be achieved through the first integrated and comparative historical study of the provision, use and cultures of water in Australia’s five largest cities from 1900 to the present. Such historical knowledge is critical at a time when the water systems of Austr ....Water and the making of urban Australia since 1900. This project aims to produce new understandings of both the historical drivers of today’s urban water systems, and how these systems have impacted on human and ecological welfare. This will be achieved through the first integrated and comparative historical study of the provision, use and cultures of water in Australia’s five largest cities from 1900 to the present. Such historical knowledge is critical at a time when the water systems of Australia’s largest cities are under growing pressure from environmental change and population growth. Project findings will inform the development of policies and practices that produce sustainable, equitable urban water systems.Read moreRead less
Culturally inclusive language assessments for Indigenous Aboriginal students. This project aims to improve the literacy outcomes for Aboriginal students. It focuses on the assessment of oral language, the foundation for written literacy skills, and the mode of communication most common for this student cohort. The project will collect school-based oral language data from rural and remote educational sites and use it to develop supplementary assessment tools for multilingual education. The assess ....Culturally inclusive language assessments for Indigenous Aboriginal students. This project aims to improve the literacy outcomes for Aboriginal students. It focuses on the assessment of oral language, the foundation for written literacy skills, and the mode of communication most common for this student cohort. The project will collect school-based oral language data from rural and remote educational sites and use it to develop supplementary assessment tools for multilingual education. The assessment tools will be validated in workshops with teachers and expanded with descriptors for assessing Aboriginal students’ communicative competence. The project aims to improve educational outcomes for rural and remote Aboriginal students.Read moreRead less
Modern human origins and early behavioural complexity in Australia and Southeast Asia. This project tackles a fundamental issue in world prehistory: how and when did humans first cross from Southeast Asia into Australia. Three new archaeological excavations using novel methods of analysis will assess the nature of behavioural complexity and human evolution at the time when Australia was first colonised over 45,000 years ago.
Heritage in the limelight: the magic lantern in Australia and the world. The project aims to discover and analyse the large number of glass magic lantern slides that remain under-used in our public collections. International scholarship has recently begun to show that lantern slide shows were a ubiquitous, globalised and formative cultural experience. The project aims to explore the international reach and diversity of this globalised modernist apparatus from the Australian perspective. It plans ....Heritage in the limelight: the magic lantern in Australia and the world. The project aims to discover and analyse the large number of glass magic lantern slides that remain under-used in our public collections. International scholarship has recently begun to show that lantern slide shows were a ubiquitous, globalised and formative cultural experience. The project aims to explore the international reach and diversity of this globalised modernist apparatus from the Australian perspective. It plans to understand how diverse audiences affectively experienced these powerful forms of early media, and to develop ways for today’s Australians to re-experience their magic, invigorating and expanding our cultural heritage.Read moreRead less