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Indigenous research and innovation

We are committed to completing Indigenous research that works with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. A summary of some of our research themes and projects is provided below.

Jobs, land, water and economy

We run several programs relating to Indigenous land use, monitoring and management, including our flagship program run in close collaboration with the Yawuru people of in and around Broome, Western Australia. This partnership with the Fenner School of Environment & Society focuses on developing practical uses of GIS to support Native Title decision making and provided the community with strategic intelligence for post native title governance.

Some of our other projects include:

Cultural and social issues and history

We are involved in multiple research projects that relate to Indigenous cultural and social issues and Indigenous history. One of our strengths in this area is dating historical and pre-historical events, including though the following projects:

Education

The ANU College of Science runs three education programs in Indigenous communities, covering the fields of biodiversity and land management, seismology, rock art dating and mathematics.

Highlights

Cultural burning
  • Impact story (giving)
  • Research story

ANU ecologists and a cohort of New South Wales Local Aboriginal Land Councils are joining together on a project to re-introduce cultural burning in box-gum grassy woodlands and to monitor the…

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Headshot of a woman
  • Research story

There's a growing movement to decolonise mathematics. Professor Rowena Ball explains what this means and why it is important.

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An elder points to a carved tree trunk in a paddock, while a group of small children look on
  • Research story

The biologists and the linguists at ANU might sit on different sides of the campus, but Professor Lindell Bromham from the ANU Research School of Biology says it wasn’t difficult to see the benefits…

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Kate at walking along a storm water drain in Canberra.
  • Research story

“Imagine how different it could be?” Kate asks. “Even if you didn’t get rid of the concrete, if you could just get the channel looking attractive!”

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Brooke Roy, an apprentice at the Earth Sciences Engineering Workshop.
  • Research story

Where does an ANU researcher go when they need to get a meteorite cut?

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  • Academic profile

During the drought that dominated Australian life at the start of the 21st Century, Dr Virginia Marshall noticed something was missing.

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  • Research story

Associate Professor Rowena Ball shares her experiences of working with students in remote Queensland communities for the STEM Professionals in Schools program.

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