Indigenous Australian Research

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          • Harry Blagg

            Law
            UWA Law School

            Professor Harry Blagg has been involved in research, consultancy and policy development around community justice, night patrols, men and women?s safe places, youth justice and family violence. His community level research has taken him across outback Australia, and in particular, the remote communities of the Kimberly Region of WA and the Northern Territory.

          • Emma Carlin

            UWA Medical School

            Research Fellow Emma Carlin is leading a partnership with the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, Broome Regional Aboriginal Medical Service and the Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing research project, to develop and implement Wellbeing Informed Care approaches for Aboriginal Community Controlled primary health care in the Kimberley region.

            Kimberley Empowerment Healing and Leadership evaluation
            This project will use participatory action research methods to evaluate and enhance the Kimberley Empowerment, Healing and Leadership Program (KEHLP).
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            Kimberley Empowerment Healing and Leadership evaluation
            This project will use participatory action research methods to evaluate and enhance the Kimberley Empowerment, Healing and Leadership Program (KEHLP).
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            Nini Healthiwan
            Improving maternal child health systems in the Kimberley.
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            NDIS Equity in Access
            Evaluating NDIA funded roles that are delivered in the Kimberley region to support Aboriginal people's access to NDIS.
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            Enhancing mental health screening for perinatal Aboriginal women
            Utilising Kimberley Mum?s Mood Scale (KMMS), this study aims to improve screening for, and contribute to addressing, mental health issues during pregnancy and the first 12 months after the birth of the baby.
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            Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing
            Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing (TIMHWB) is a ground-breaking research program transforming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health care through Aboriginal leadership and authentic partnerships with Aboriginal organisations.
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          • Joe Dortch

            School of Social Sciences
            Social Science

            Dr Dortch is an archaeologist with wide experience in academic research and heritage management. He completed his PhD at UWA on Aboriginal responses to environmental changes in south-western Australia during and after the last glacial period, from 20,000 years ago to present.

            Aboriginal Landscape Transformations
            Combining archaeological, palaeo-environmental, historical and oral records to investigate Aboriginal use and management of lands in south-western Australia in the recent past and to use this information for present day land management practices.
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            Ancient DNA from cave sediments: a new horizon in the archaeology of Aboriginal Australia
            Enhancing our knowledge of Aboriginal use of plants and animals, and a deeper understanding of past hunter-gatherer practices and traditional relationships with the land.
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            Murujuga: Dynamics of the Dreaming
            The project aims to provide research support for the protection and understanding of the world’s largest rock art galleries of Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula) and the Dampier Archipelago.
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            Ethnobotanical survey at West Angelas
            Creating a new cultural understanding of the West Angelas landscape. Engaging Yinhawangka elders and young people in plant knowledge, and helping Rio Tinto address social impacts in its environmental assessments.
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            How Indigenous burning changed Country
            Investigating important claims that Indigenous burning influenced past Australian environments. The project aims to benefit conservation and land management and help identify the role of Indigenous contributions.
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          • Emilie Dotte

            School of Humanities
            School of Social Sciences

            Emilie's work focuses on the relationships between people and forests in Australia and the Pacific.

          • Brad Farrant

            Centre for child Health Research
            Telethon Kids Institute

            Dr Farrant's research focuses on the importance of early childhood development, with particular interests in how to connect this to strengths of Aboriginal people and culture.

            Ngulluk Koolunga Ngulluk Koort (Our Children, Our Heart) Project
            Raising strong, healthy, confident and resilient children and informing service providers and policy makers on the development of culturally appropriate strategies to improve outcomes for young Aboriginal children and their families.
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            Promoting vitamin D sufficiency among Aboriginal people through dietary strategies and safe sun exposure
            A quantum leap in our understanding of vitamin D which will be a critical, community-driven enabler of new public health nutrition strategies and sun safe messaging for Aboriginal people.
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            Ngulluk Koolunga Ngulluk Koort Early Years Education Support (EYES) Project
            The EYES Program represents a unique opportunity to work with Aboriginal children, parents, families, community and early years education providers to develop and implement an intervention/support program to increase attendance and education for Aboriginal children from pre-Kindergarten into Year 1.
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          • Leon Flicker

            Internal Medicine
            UWA Medical School

            Professor Leon Flicker’s research focuses on the major health issues of older people, exploring dementia, falls, depression and cognitive impairment as well as healthy ageing. He has conducted numerous studies about frailty and successful ageing and has applied these learnings to research the health needs of older Indigenous Australians. This research led to the validation of the Kimberley Indigenous Cognitive Assessment (KICA) tool, which is used throughout Western Australia, the Northern Territory and far North Queensland and has been adapted for Indigenous populations internationally.

            Professor Flicker is a key opinion leader in health and ageing and has published more than 492 peer-reviewed publications and 15 chapters.

            Let's CHAT: Community Health Approaches to Dementia in Indigenous Communities
            This co-designed project looks to improve community health approaches to dementia in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The project is working with 12 Aboriginal community controlled health services across Australia to improve the detection of cognitive impairment and dementia, dementia care and brain health in primary care.
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          • Helen Fordham

            Commnications
            Media
            School of Social Sciences

            Associate Professor Fordham's research interests include the history of intellectual thought; public service and investigative journalism; 20th century press criticism; Indigenous memoir; and social activism.

            Indigenous Memoir and Cultural Memory
            Examining the role of Indigenous memoir in re-negoitating cultural identities and increasing solidarity during the 1980s when Aboriginal Australians experienced setbacks in their quest for the restoration of their land rights.
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            Indigenous Australians and the Media
            This research focused upon the role of the media in the production and circulation of stereotypes that holds racism in place.
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            Changing Conversations about Family and Domestic Violence
            Healthways Conversations for Change has several elements to it including community surveys of attitudes, communication strategies to assist local orgnanisations to communicate their commitment to gender equity and a violence free society and analysis of media coverage of family and domestic violence in the Geraldton media.
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          • David Gilchrist

            UWA Business School

            Professor Gilchrist has published widely as an academic and journalist, and is a principal author of a number of key national reports including the seminal report 'Australian Charities 2013' for the Commonwealth Government and the Australian National Disability Costing and Pricing Framework (2014).

            NDIS Readiness Northern Territory
            Delivering timely, sustainable and efficient disability services across the Northern Territory.
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            NDIS Remote Allied Health Services Delivery
            Focusing on the key inhibitors and challenges in delivering allied health services and supports into remote communities in the Northern Territory, North West of Western Australia, North South Australia and Far North Queensland.
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            Regional and Remote Not-for-profit Success Stories
            Five cases focusing on successful policy formulation and implementation in Indigenous communities in the areas of Employment, Disability Services, Aged Care, Child Protection and Women?s Protection.
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            Northern Territory State of the Sector Report 2020
            Examining the sustainability of human services delivery of non-profit organisations in the Northern Territory.
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            Human Services Data Project
            Developing key data to assist in the evaluation of demand, delivery and outcomes in the areas of aged care, disability services and general human services at all levels.
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          • Joakim Goldhahn

            Archaeology
            School of Social Sciences

            Professor Goldhahn's main research interests includes rock art as a meaning-creating phenomenon, explored both through formal and informed methodologies.

            Pathways Rock Art Project
            Pathways Rock Art Project focuses on rock art in today?s Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia.
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            Art at a crossroads: Aboriginal responses to contact in northern Australia
            Investigating historical Aboriginal responses to `contact? with newcomers to their land.
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          • Darren Jorgensen

            School of Design

            Dr Jorgensen teaches and writes on Australian art and contemporary art history.

            Wanarn Painters
            Collaborating with remote Aboriginal art centres to write art histories of artists working in remote Australia.
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          • Celeste Rodriguez Louro

            Linguistics
            School of Social Sciences

            Dr Rodriguez Louro is a variationist sociolinguist interested in the social and linguistic factors constraining variation in synchrony and diachrony. Her research also examines variation and change in varieties of Aboriginal English.

            Aboriginal English in the global city: Minorities and language change
            Documenting patterns of variation and change in metropolitan Aboriginal English. The first quantitative study of how Aboriginal English storytelling functions cross-generationally.
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            Hearing the voices: Indigenous ways of knowing and Aboriginal English yarning
            Understanding the cultural practice of Aboriginal English yarning - a form of storytelling/conversation. The findings will inform existing medical, educational and legal practice, ensuring a better future for Indigenous Australians.
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          • Julia Marley

            The Rural Clinical School of WA (RCSWA)
            UWA Medical School

            Julia undertakes collaborative research into improving Aboriginal health and build research capacity. By embedding research into primary health services and including Aboriginal people, health service providers, administrators and policy makers as core members of the research team we are better able to determine what information is required to help them improve their services to Aboriginal people, and that the process, interpretation, dissemination and implementation of results are culturally safe.

            ORCHID Study: Optimisation of Rural Clinical and Haematological Indicators of Diabetes
            Maternal hyperglycaemia in pregnancy (HIP) is a significant intergenerational issue. We established the Optimisation of Rural Clinical and Haematological Indicators for Diabetes in pregnancy (ORCHID) study to improve predicting the development of and screening for HIP in regional, rural and remote communities in Western Australia (WA). A collaborative research project between the Rural Clinical School of WA and the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, aimed at improving screening for hyperglycaemia (high blood-glucose levels) in pregnancy.
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            Be Healthy: Implementing culturally secure programs for obesity and chronic disease prevention with remote Aboriginal communities and families
            Aboriginal people from several Kimberley communities have requested support for implementing culturally secure lifestyle modification programs that foster internal motivation, enhance health knowledge, and modify health beliefs and risk perception. We codesigned, piloted and refined the ‘Be Healthy’ program with Derby Aboriginal people. This community-led initiative will be adapted using a similar codesign process with other Aboriginal communities, implemented on a large scale over 5 years and evaluated. This project will empower Aboriginal people to increase exercise levels, improve nutrition and reduce obesity.
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            Investigating progression to type 2 diabetes among Kimberley Aboriginal people to improve screening and prevention
            Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a much higher burden of Type 2 diabetes (T2D). Around one third of Aboriginal adults in the Kimberley region have T2D, which is increasingly occurring at younger ages among Aboriginal people compared with non-Indigenous people. This quality improvement project aims to improve our understanding of the quality of screening for diabetes in the Kimberley region, and factors influencing progression to T2D.
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            KMMS Project: Enhancing mental health screening approaches for perinatal Aboriginal women
            The Kimberley Mum's Mood Scale (KMMS) project emerged from the concerns of Kimberley healthcare professionals that the mainstream perinatal depression and anxiety screening tool, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), was inappropriate for Aboriginal women.
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          • Karen Martin

            Public Health
            School of Allied Health
            School of Population and Global Health
            Social Work

            Dr Martin's research aim is to improve the mental and physical health of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. In particular, promoting trauma-informed and restorative practices to assist with positive behaviours and healthy communities.

            Indigenous DRUMBEAT
            An evaluation of the individualised Indigenous DRUMBEAT program
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          • Nahal Mavaddat

            General Practice
            UWA Medical School

            Associate Professor Mavaddat is a clinical academic. Her research interests include neuropsychology, wellbeing, chronic pain and mental health in primary care.

            Wellbeing and Mental Health of Australian Indigenous youth
            Better understanding Australian Indigenous youth perspectives on mental health and wellbeing. Health care providers and GPs will be better equipped to engage with and provide mental health care to indigenous youth.
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          • Jo McDonald

            School of Social Sciences
            Social Science

            Jo McDonald is an archaeologist and Director of the Centre for Rock Art Research + Management at the University of Western Australia. McDonald is primarily known for her influence in the field of rock art research and her collaborative research with Australian Aboriginal communities.

            Murujuga: Dynamics of the Dreaming
            The project aims to provide research support for the protection and understanding of the world’s largest rock art galleries of Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula) and the Dampier Archipelago.
            Learn more >>

          • Francis Mitrou

            Centre for Child Health Research
            UWA Centre for Child Health Research

             

          • Carol Orr

            School of Population and Global Health

            Dr Carol Orr is a Research Fellow at the School of Population and Global Health. She utilises linked administrative data to investigate the health and social outcomes of children exposed to family and domestic violence.

          • Sven Ouzman

            Archaeology
            School of Social Sciences

            Sven is an archaeologist who specialises in rock art, graffiti, heritage politics, Indigenous knowledge, intellectual property issues, landscape, creolisation & cross-cultural contact, monuments, origins, and understandings of time.

            Kimberley Visions
            Kimberley Visions is a 5-year multidisciplinary and collaborative archaeological project investigating 50,000 years of human life through the many rock art traditions of the East Kimberley. Working with Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, Traditional Owners, Rangers, and partners the fieldwork has yielded the location and recording of >1400 sites covering rock painting, engravings, marking, stone quarries, occupation sites, burials, stone arrangements, standing stones, cached material culture, ochre sources, and sites of memory.

            Photo credit: Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation
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          • Matt Payne

            Obstetrics and Gynaecology
            UWA Medical School

            Matt is a molecular microbiologist whose research is focused on how microbes can influence pregnancy outcomes and early life health.

            Prediction of First Nations women at high risk of preterm birth using vaginal bacterial biomarkers
            Nationally, 14% of babies born to First Nations mothers are preterm, compared with 8% from non-First Nations mothers. One of the leading causes of early preterm birth is bacterial infection; this is also one of the hardest to predict. This team have developed a vaginal microbial DNA test which delivers more accurate prediction.
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          • Maïa Ponsonnet

            School of Social Sciences

            Dr Ponsonnet's research concerns expressivity and emotions in language. Specifically, how languages in Australia and around the world differ or converge in this respect, how this ties with cultural differences, and how the use of language can shape or channel emotional experience.

          • Martin Porr

            Anthropology
            Archaeology
            Forensics
            Geography
            School of Social Sciences

            Martin Porr is Associate Professor of Archaeology and a member of the Centre for Rock Art Research + Management at the University of Western Australia (UWA). He has published widely on Palaeolithic art and archaeology as well as general theoretical aspects of archaeological and rock art research

            Kimberley Visions
            Kimberley Visions is a 5-year multidisciplinary and collaborative archaeological project investigating 50,000 years of human life through the many rock art traditions of the East Kimberley. Working with Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, Traditional Owners, Rangers, and partners the fieldwork has yielded the location and recording of >1400 sites covering rock painting, engravings, marking, stone quarries, occupation sites, burials, stone arrangements, standing stones, cached material culture, ochre sources, and sites of memory.

            Photo credit: Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation
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          • Daniel Schepis

            Business
            UWA Business School

            Senior Lecturer Daniel Schepis specialises in business-to-business marketing, with research focusing on innovation networks and corporate social responsibility.

            Indigenous Business Contracting in the W.A Mining Sector
            Examining the emergence of Indigenous business contracting in the Western Australian mining sector, with a particular focus on privately-owned firms identifying as Indigenous.
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            Corporate Reconciliation Action Plan Use
            Examining the use of Reconciliation Action Plans within the Australian resources sector over the past decade.
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          • Deb Schoen

            Economics
            Political Science
            School of Allied Health

            Dr Schoen has worked in rural podiatry care in the Wheatbelt for 20 years, in High Risk Foot at Royal Perth Hospital and in private practice.

          • Carrington Shepherd

            Telethon Kids Institute

            Carrington has a passionate interest in bridging the knowledge gap on social inequalities in Aboriginal health in Australia and his research explores how social determinants and pathways can lead to enhanced life outcomes. He also leads the Child Mortality Research program which features the use of unique population data to investigate ways of reducing preventable and unexplained deaths in the early life course.

          • Benjamin Smith

            School of Social Sciences

            Professor Smith's research interests include theory and method in rock art studies, rock art dating, digital archiving in archaeology, rock art and identity, contextual approaches to the interpretation of meaning and motivation in rock art, and the role of rock art in modern societies.

          • Kate Smith

            UWA Medical School

            Dr Kate Smith's research expertise includes dementia prevention and management, Aboriginal health, quality of life and ageing well among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Previously, Dr. Smith worked to develop the Kimberley Indigenous Cognitive Assessment (KICA) a memory screening tool for use with older Aboriginal peoples in remote areas. Since its development this tool has been adapted for use in other Indigenous communities. Her recent research includes defining and predicting healthy ageing and developing a quality of life tool for Aboriginal and Torres Islander Australians.

          • Susanne Stanley

            Psychiatry
            UWA Medical School

            Dr Stanley is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow for the UWA Medical School / Psychiatry. Her areas of research interest are the physical health of people with mental health disorders, the impact of Covid-19 on primary healthcare workers, clozapine and polypharmacy, and the genetic metabolism of mental health medications in youth.

            The 'Clinical Guidelines for the Physical Care of Mental Health Consumers' Multi-site Service Evaluation Pilot Project
            The assessment and monitoring package was provided to different mental health services in different contexts across WA to evaluate the effectiveness of the package. As poor physical health is a major issue for Indigenous Australians, there was enormous benefit in their inclusion in the evaluation to promote better physical and mental health.
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          • Gretchen Stolte

            Anthropology
            School of Social Sciences
            Sociology

            Dr Stolte’s research areas focus on the relationship between cultural objects and identity and has published extensively about practice-based research, cultural protocols and the responsibility of western institutions in Indigenous cultural spaces.

          • Jennifer Stone

            Genetic Epidemiology Group
            School of Population and Global Health

            Associate Professor Stone is an epidemiologist and internationally recognised breast density research expert. Her research aims to support accumulating evidence for the clinical use of measures of breast density to improve breast cancer screening.

            Mammographic density as a predictor of breast cancer risk and mortality in Western Australian Aboriginal women

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            Defining and Defeating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Disadvantage In Breast Cancer Survival
            Examining whether there is a higher proportion of more aggressive breast cancer types in Indigenous women compared to non-Indigenous women and whether less treatment is received despite this potentially higher risk.
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          • Mel Thomas

            Law
            School of Indigenous Studies

            Melville Thomas coordinates and teaches in the Indigenous Knowledge, History and Heritage Major at UWA.

          • Shannen Vallesi

            UWA Business School

            Miss Vallesi's research is underpinned by a passion for reducing health inequalities through 'real world' relevant research, specifically around addressing disparities for some of the most disadvantaged people in Australia. With a focus primarily around the complex and intertwined nature of homelessness, poor physical and mental health outcomes, social exclusion and the impact of intervention on these.

            In Their Own Voice
            Evaluating the Heart Health program at Derbarl Yerrigan. The program is a culturally sensitive cardiac rehabilitation program run at the local Aboriginal Medical Service in Perth.
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          • Peter Marius Veth

            Anthropology
            Archaeology
            Forensics
            Geography
            School of Social Sciences

            Pete is an ARC Laureate Fellow 2023-2027, previous Director of the Oceans Institute, Kimberley Foundation Ian Potter Chair in Rock Art and ARC Discovery Outstanding Research Fellow. He has carried out archaeological, ethno-economic, heritage and native title work throughout most of Australia and the Murray Islands.

            The Barrow Island Archaeology Project
            The overall aim of the project was the investigation of coastal societies of north-west Australia and behavioural responses to changing sea levels, coastal productivity and isolation. ARC completed 2016.
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            Dating the Aboriginal rock art of the Kimberley region, Western Australia
            Using the most advanced dating techniques available to determine a sequence of ages for this ancient cultural record, increasing its recognition as a heritage site of international significance.
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            Kimberley Visions
            Kimberley Visions is a 5-year multidisciplinary and collaborative archaeological project investigating 50,000 years of human life through the many rock art traditions of the East Kimberley. Working with Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, Traditional Owners, Rangers, and partners the fieldwork has yielded the location and recording of >1400 sites covering rock painting, engravings, marking, stone quarries, occupation sites, burials, stone arrangements, standing stones, cached material culture, ochre sources, and sites of memory.

            Photo credit: Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation
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            The Canning Stock Route Project
            The recognition, interpretation and management of significant rock art and related dreaming (Jukurrpa) sites on the Canning Stock Route, Western Australia
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            The martu Native Title Determination
            10 years of PT fieldwork, report writing and community consultations towards the successful granting of exclusive native title over 136,000 square square km by (then) Justice French of the Federal Court. 30 years of site documentation, ethnography on country and heritage reports.
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            Martu Native Title Claim
            Expert Witness for the Martu Native Title Claim
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            Desert People: Australian Perspectives
            This project will bring innovative science and Indigenous knowledge together to develop new understandings of the 60,000 year custodianship of Australian deserts. The archaeology will focus on the Ningaloo coast, Pilbara and Western Desert. This globally significant human record is poorly documented and at risk. The Desert People programme will work with Traditional Owners and use novel techniques to document places of the highest value for their management and protection. This will result in vastly improved planning outcomes.
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          • Ingrid Ward

            School of Social Sciences
            Social Science

            Ingrid Ward is a well-recognised geoarchaeologist on both terrestrial and marine archaeological landscapes, authoring a number of concept papers arguing for a multidisciplinary, geoarchaeological approach to investigating submerged landscapes in both Europe and NW Australia.

          • Victoria Winton

            School of Social Sciences

            Vicky specialises in hunter-gatherer archaeology and the analysis and interpretation of stone artefact assemblages. Most recently Vicky has developed particular research interests alongside Aboriginal archaeological consultancy projects in the Mid West region of WA – particularly the Weld Range, where she has initiated a project with Wajarri Traditional Owners to explore the past occupation of the area and trace the Aboriginal use, trade and exchange of Weld Range ochre over time.

          • John Woods

            School of Allied Health
            WA Centre for Rural Health (WACRH)

            John is a health researcher who began his career as a medical practitioner, gaining experience predominantly in acute hospital care and later in clinical trials. His research has focussed on the quality and equity of health services provision for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, particularly in relation to palliative care (the topic of his UWA PhD) and cardiovascular disease.