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Research theme

Contemporary Indigenous, knowledge, governance, and science

Collaborative approaches to working across Aboriginal and Western knowledge systems that help stakeholders to ask difficult questions and achieve shared community, industry, and government goals.

Overview

The Contemporary Indigenous, knowledge, governance, and science team has worked closely with Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge and governance authorities from Northern Territory communities for over 30 years.

Collaborating with civil society and government organisations, the research theme examines organisational knowledge and cultural practices while designing new institutions and governance practices.

Team members have many years of experience working with Aboriginal knowledge and cultural authorities and greatly respect their philosophies, knowledge practices and languages.

Collaborators include Indigenous enterprises, organisations and corporations across the NT and Australia.

Language and cultural renewal in the intergenerational passage (often exploring the potential of digital technologies) is particularly interesting for this research theme.

The cross-generational renewal can allow multiple generations to maintain and revitalise languages and cultures, formally and informally, through consultation and collaborative design (facilitated by our team members).

The team works collaboratively with Indigenous knowledge authorities (including internationally in Europe and Africa) to build governance and leadership capacities in remote communities.

Anne Lowell and Elaine L Maypilama discussing project

They focus on specific local issues, respecting community knowledge and cultural practices as they work in engagement and agreement-making practices.

They also engage with people on the ground in urban and remote communities, across all levels of government, to identify and support successful and productive local practices, which are often invisible in mainstream policy research.

The team acknowledges that NI’s location within the northern region provides a further focus for their knowledge and cultural collaborations. Members foster and strengthen national and international strategic links between people, ideas, institutions, places, and contexts, seeking to understand how research and service delivery work can be embedded as they are in changing political economies and policy areas in the northern region.

 

Research strengths

  • Indigenous policy development and implementation.
  • Indigenous languages and linguistics.
  • Indigenous philosophy and cultural practices.
  • Indigenous education development Indigenous knowledge and resources management.
  • Indigenous ecological knowledge and biosecurity.
  • Indigenous community development and engagement.
  • Indigenous enterprise development.
  • Indigenous governance.
  • Indigenous archaeology
  • Indigenous research development
  • Bushfire and communication and training for best-practice Indigenous-led fire and land management
  • STEM and teaching through tactile/digital games
  • Indigenous carbon industry
  • Sea country mapping and marine conservation
  • Indigenous land and sea management strategies and country-based planning
  • Environmental politics and decision-making practices
  • STEM and teaching through tactile/digital games

 

Contemporary Indigenous knowledge, governance and science

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