Deadly Research

About the Event:

Celebrating NAIDOC Week, the Northern Institute proudly presents ‘Deadly Research’, in collaboration with the Library and Archives NT. Honouring this year's National NAIDOC Week theme, ‘50 Years of Deadly’, this special event shines a spotlight on the incredible contributions of First Nations academics. 

First Nations academics and researchers are driving critical, ground-breaking discoveries across the country. Yet, their voices remain underrepresented in the research sector. This NAIDOC Week, we're bringing together four outstanding Aboriginal researchers to share their world-class insights - work that's shaping communities, knowledge, and the future.

Whether you're a student wondering if research could be a career path, an academic keen to connect, or simply curious about the brilliant work being done, this event is for you.  

Come along, bring your curiosity, and celebrate NAIDOC Week 2026! 

Program:

Abstract and Presenter Bios:

Welcome to Country | Sage RJ Birdimba Lee

Sage RJ Birdimba Lee is a loud and proud Larrakia, Wardaman and Karajarri person, with strong connections to several large Aboriginal families from across the Northern Territory. Sage’s name, Birdimba, is a Gulumoerrgin word that means steady and persistent rain. Guided by family, culture and community, Sage is committed to creating opportunities that empower future generations and celebrate the strengths of First Nations peoples. Sage currently works within First Nations Leadership at Charles Darwin University, supporting initiatives that strengthen First Nations education, partnerships and community outcomes.

Seminar 1 - Trapped in a strategic imaginary: How Australian settler-colonial narratives shape strategic thinking in northern Australia | Christian Miller-Sabbioni

Why has tropical northern Australia repeatedly been imagined as vulnerable, underdeveloped, and in need of protection? This seminar explores how Australian strategic imaginaries have been shaped by settler-colonial understandings of the North from the nineteenth century to the present. Drawing on historical sources, I examine how narratives of abandonment, invasion, and contamination have framed northern Australia as a strategic frontier and informed state responses through defence planning, strategic postures, and development initiatives. My research offers a historical explanation for contemporary security practices in northern Australia and highlights the enduring influence of settler-colonial thinking within Australian strategic affairs. 

Christian Miller-Sabbioni holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations from UWA and is currently completing Honours in International Relations. His research focuses on Australian strategic thought, geopolitics, and the historical imaginaries that shape defence and security policy in the Indo-Pacific. His Honours thesis examines the origins and persistence of the “empty north” narrative in Australian strategic thinking and its influence on defence planning and perceptions of regional threat. In 2025, he was awarded the National Neville Bonner Memorial Scholarship to support his Honours research.

Seminar 2 - Unearthed: Indigenous Women's Experiences Working in NT Mining | Dr Jodi Cowdery

The Australian mining industry has and continues to significantly under employ Indigenous women. In the NT, where numerous large-scale mines operate, an even smaller portion of Indigenous women are employed by mining companies. Little is known about Indigenous women's unique experiences within the mining workforce, obscuring our understanding of why this underrepresentation and exclusion persists.   

This research sought to rectify this by centring the voices and stories of Indigenous women and their nuanced experiences working at large-scale mines in the NT. As such, this research provided a unique opportunity to learn from Indigenous women about the realities of working in the sector, the reasons why mining employment is exclusionary, and potential ways to improve the industry for Indigenous women seeking to work in large-scale mining.  

Jodi is an Adjunct Research Fellow from Charles Darwin University’s Northern Institute in the Faculty of Arts and Society. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), a Bachelor of Laws, a Master of Justice, and a Doctorate in Philosophy. Jodi completed her PhD with the Northern Institute in 2026, which examined and highlighted Indigenous women’s employment in and experiences of large-scale mining in the Northern Territory of Australia. Jodi has over 17 years of experience working for both the Federal and Northern Territory governments, including senior roles in law, policy, and regulation. Jodi’s research interests include social justice, lived experience, Indigenous perspectives, intersectionality, and settler-colonialism. Her current project focuses on Aboriginal people’s experiences of exemption from the Aboriginal ‘Protection’ Acts and the impact on family, connection, identity, culture, and community. This research forms part of the ARC Discovery Project Aboriginal Exemption: History, Truth-telling, and Healing with La Trobe University.    

Seminar 3 - Disrupting the Axis: A Warumungu Luritja Standpoint on Educational System Reform | Associate Professor Tracy Woodroffe

This presentation draws on Associate Professor Tracy Woodroffe’s work as a Warumungu Luritja researcher and educator to explore how Indigenous Knowledge Systems are reshaping Australian education. Grounded in over 30 years as an educator, the session positions research as advocacy—demonstrating how Indigenous Women’s Standpoint Theory and culturally grounded methodologies challenge and transform dominant Western frameworks. Through a focus on teacher workforce pathways and Higher Degree by Research (HDR) development, the presentation highlights the need for coherent, Indigenous-led research education systems. Introducing the Indigenous Research Education Program (IREP), it offers a practical, system-level model connecting community knowledge, education, research, and policy impact.

Aligned with the NAIDOC theme 50 Years of Deadly, this session celebrates Indigenous excellence while presenting a powerful vision for building research leadership and creating more inclusive, culturally responsive education systems.

Tracy is a local Warumungu Luritja woman, who completed her PhD with Northern Institute in 2019 and brings extensive experience across Early Childhood, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary classrooms. Her expertise spans educational pedagogy, identity, perspective, and cultural responsiveness, with a particular interest in the use of Indigenous Knowledge to improve Indigenous academic achievement. Tracy specialises in Education, Teaching Indigenous Learners, and Indigenous Knowledge in Education. Her research draws on Indigenous methodology in examining the Australian education system through an Indigenous Women's Standpoint. Her research interests include Indigenous education and leadership, knowledge systems, classroom practice and assessment, and teacher education.  

Seminar 4 - Technology for Storytelling | Dr Cat Kutay

Using AI and existing tools for game making, students have developed games for players to explore the technology of Aboriginal construction pre colonisation. We have used AI to create animations, and generate text to speech using the voice of those who talk about these sites on the web, to speak to the player in the game. There are also tools to export satellite images of locations in good detail. The aim is to replicate these as templates for people from communities to animate their stories, using their artistic and storytelling to provide new ways to engage with the community knowledge held within the stories. 

Cat is descended from seafarers of Aboriginal and Celtic origin. A Computer and Electrical Engineer, she works with Aboriginal communities on online language learning, story sharing, and data analysis to integrate Aboriginal perspectives into Australian engineering practice and our designs. She manages projects building software for Indigenous Knowledge sharing and embedding it in university teaching, using narrative techniques, simulations, games, and multimedia for immersive, practice-based learning. Her current work includes Natural Language Processing and AI models for speech-to-speech translation of local languages, supporting business, service provision, and bilingual school programs.

After the event: Digital game trial & Feedback

Join us after the presentations to try the games developed by our students. You can learn about the Budj Bim eel traps and Brewarrina fish traps in scenes generate from satellite images. We want to know what you think of the game design and how we can make these more engaging.

The games are the first ones to incorporate Indigenous culture and knowledge and we hope to encourage more First Nations to provide their own material for further games, however the design of the gameplay is crucial so we need your help to improve these games.

This event is brought to you in collaboration with Northern Institute and the Library and Archives NT. 

Registration for the event:

In-person: RSVP here
Please RSVP here to attend in person—limited seating. 

Online registration: Register here 
Once you register, you will receive an individual link from Microsoft Teams.

Getting there:

Level 2, Library & Archives NT 
Danala | Education and Community Precinct
54 Cavenagh Street, Darwin City, NT 0800