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THE MAGAZINE OF CURTIN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY ISSUE 15 SUMMER 2009/10

Adolescents with attitudeThe holistic approach to obesity

Celebrity obsessionWhy are we hooked?

Curtin SingaporeOne year on


Editor-in-chiefVal Raubenheimer

Editor Margaret McNally

Editorial teamKaren Green, Laraine McClelland, Julia Nicol

Creative directionSonia Rheinlander

DesignManifesto Design

Contributing writersClaire Bradshaw, Kitty Drok, Sue Emmett, Glenys Haalebos, Isobelle McKay, Sven Östring

Contributing photographers Paul Foley, Adrian Lambert, James Rogers

Cover photographyJames Rogers

PrintScott Print

Editorial enquiriesMargaret McNally Corporate Communications Curtin University of Technology GPO Box U1987, Perth WA 6845

Tel: +61 8 9266 2200 Email: [email protected]

Cite is available online and in pdf atcurtin.edu.au/news, and in alternative formats on request.

curtin.edu.au

CoverAdam Klashorst, a participant of the Curtin Activity, Food and Attitudes Program.

Cite (s�it)v. To put forwardthought-provoking arguments;to offer insightful discussion andnew perspectives on topics ofsocial, political, economic orenvironmental relevance; to reporton new thinking. Sight (s�it) n.A feature or object in a particularplace considered especiallyworth seeing.v.To frame orscrutinise community, researchand business initiatives; to presentpoints of view on current issues.Site (s�it) n. The location of abuilding or an organisation, esp.as to its environment. v.To placeor position in a physical andsocial context.

ContributorsClaire Bradshaw is a freelance writer and editor. She has worked for many years in communications, including eight years in Curtin’s Corporate Communications area.

Kitty Drok is a freelance science writer and technical editor, with a previous career as a research chemist in the resources sector.

Sue Emmett is a freelance writer and photo-journalist, with special interests in science, technology, Western Australian business, education and the marine environment.

Glenys Haalebos is a freelance journalist, with a specific interest in academic research. She previously worked in public relations and journalism in both the private and higher education sectors.

Isobelle McKay is a freelance journalist who has written broadly for newspapers and magazines. She is a Curtin graduate, with a degree in journalism and professional writing.

Sven Östring is the Multi-Faith Officer at Curtin. His vision is to assist people with integrating spirituality into their lives, to enhance their education, experience and personal wellbeing.

COVER STORY

4 Fit for lifeA multidisciplinary program developed at Curtin to tackle obesity in adolescents is training them for the ‘main game’ – life.

FEATURES

10 Wanted: Celebrities dead or aliveThe public’s hunger for information about celebrities appears insatiable. Why? Cultural commentators from Curtin’s Department of Communication and Cultural Studies explain.

14 Seafood and eat it Fish is the best source of Omega-3s but an unpopular choice at the family dinner table, reveals research undertaken at Curtin. A new research centre is working to turn that around by improving customer perceptions of this vital link in the food chain.

17 Postcards from SingaporeThe opening of Curtin Singapore in November 2008 strengthened Curtin’s presence in Asia. Cite journeys through this first-class facility in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities.

24 Good luck or good management?Economics experts share their views on how Australia’s ‘big four’ banks have weathered the worst of the global financial storm.

SNAPSHOTS

8 Energy exchangeAustralia and China will increasingly be natural partners in the development of ‘green’ energy technologies, as evidenced by Curtin’s pragmatic approach to international research collaboration.

12 Paint the sky with starsAstronomy and art merged in the night sky over Western Australia’s mid-west in March 2009, when Curtin radio astronomers and a team of Indigenous artists exchanged their perspectives about the stars.

23 Knowledge shared, knowledge multipliedIndigenous cultural competency is now a core attribute for Curtin graduates, as the University commits to Indigenising the curriculum to build stronger bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

REGULARS

2 VC’S VIEW

3 NEWS IN BRIEF

7 ALUMNIPerth Zoo’s Curator of Exotics is also President of the Australian Orangutan Project he founded to protect, rehabilitate and repatriate critically endangered orangutans in their natural environment.

9 CAMPUS LIFE

28 PERSPECTIVECurtin’s Multi-Faith Officer, Sven Östring, talks about the personal value in understanding societies’ many faiths.

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VC’S VIEW

I AM pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Jim Gill as Curtin’s new Chancellor. Dr Gill was Western Australia Water Corporation’s inaugural chief executive officer from 1996 until he retired in December 2008. He will bring enormous knowledge and experience to the University’s Council, and I look forward to working with him in 2010. Dr Gill succeeds Mr Gordon Martin, Chairman of Coogee Chemicals. I would like to recognise Mr Martin’s contribution as Chancellor since his appointment in 2006, and to thank him for his leadership. The University has greatly benefited from his term, and he has contributed significantly to the development of Curtin’s new strategic plan and vision to become a top 20 university in Asia by 2020.

Curtin adopted its new vision in 2008: to be an international leader shaping the future through our graduates and research, and positioned among the top 20 universities in Asia by 2020.

It’s a long-term vision towards which the University will face challenges as well as opportunities, particularly as we establish Curtin’s place internationally in a competitive global higher education environment. I am pleased to say, however, we are taking great strides.

Curtin has joined an elite group of research universities by being ranked in the top 500 of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s 2009 rankings of world universities, a global listing published annually by Shanghai Jiao Tong University since 2003. I am enormously proud of this ranking, which confirms Curtin’s status as a serious international research university.

Curtin actively engages in the ongoing development of our leadership capabilities; embraces new technologies for teaching; and forges collaborative international partnerships, to keep us at the cutting-edge of research and education for our students and the communities we serve.

Read about the diverse ways we are working towards our vision in this issue of Cite.

The University strengthened its international presence in Asia with the opening of Curtin Singapore in 2008. See how this modern teaching facility has flourished 12 months on in ‘Postcards from Singapore’, Cite’s colourful photo essay.

During 2009, I led delegations to China to establish formal research links in the area of energy research with leading Chinese research institutes in energy science and engineering. On page eight, ‘Energy Exchange’ highlights Curtin’s international collaboration for the development of ‘green’ energy technologies with the establishment of the Curtin and Huazhong University of Science and Technology Joint Research Laboratory for Coal and Biomass Utilisation.

Our commitment to the communities we serve starts at home. The Mooditj Katitjiny – Indigenising the curriculum – project, underway at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies, is another step by Curtin towards building stronger bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The project involves integrating information about Indigenous knowledges and cultures into courses content, University-wide, to ensure graduates leave Curtin with demonstrated cultural awareness and understanding of Indigenous Australia.

Cite’s cover story addresses obesity in adolescents, an issue facing many young Australians and their families. A multidisciplinary program developed at Curtin tackles the problem by focusing on healthy lifestyles, and not just weight loss, to prevent overweight and obese adolescents from becoming obese adults. Read more in ‘Fit for Life’.

As 2009 draws to a close, I wish you and your family a safe and happy holiday season, and l look forward to sharing more news and information about our great University in 2010.

Professor Jeanette HacketVICE-CHANCELLORCURTIN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

NEWS IN BRIEF

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Precinct opens its doorsThe purpose-built Curtin Resources and Chemistry Precinct at the University’s Bentley Campus is now operational, five years after planning began.

The $116 million facility, supported by BHP Billiton, Curtin and the Federal and State governments, establishes Curtin as an internationally acknowledged leader in chemistry for the minerals, energy and chemistry sectors.

Officially opened by Western Australian Premier The Hon. Colin Barnett on 13 November 2009, the precinct started operating in August 2009, when staff and research students from Curtin’s Department of Chemistry moved into a wing of the building.

The extensive research capacity of chemistry, which comprises expertise in all facets of chemistry analysis, from forensic, medicinal, biological and computational to spectroscopy and laser, means the precinct is at the forefront to deliver innovative and collaborative research and education.

ChemCentre, the Western Australian Government’s leading analytical chemistry facility, relocated after 60 years in East Perth into the precinct, occupying the building’s second wing.

Curtin’s undergraduate chemistry classes now take place at the precinct, with almost 1,200 students attending weekly. Designed to create a vibrant setting for those involved in the related

industries of minerals, energy and chemistry, the precinct provides an unparalleled environment, where students are co-located alongside international scientists in the modern complex.

New Chancellor for CurtinCurtin University of Technology has appointed former chief executive officer of WA Water Corporation Dr Jim Gill AO as its new Chancellor, effective early 2010.

Dr Gill succeeds Gordon Martin, Chairman of Coogee Chemicals, who has been Chancellor since 2006.

Gill received the International Water Association’s Grand Award, in September 2008, in recognition of Western Australia’s leadership in adapting to a drying climate – a major concern for him while he was at the Water Corporation.

Under his leadership, seawater desalination was introduced to Australia, and this has now been adopted by four other states.

Gill has degrees from The University of Western Australia, Cambridge University and Harvard University.

He is excited about coming to Curtin because he regards the University as a well-led and well-managed organisation.

“It’s my belief that Curtin can play a very important strategic role in adding value to the future of Western Australia and the region,” he says.

“Curtin has this ‘can do’ quality about it, and is evolving very well. It’s highly valued

by the WA public as well as the people throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

“One of the most important things for any nation to do is educate people from other nations because it builds tolerance and friendship. Curtin has been doing that for many years.”

WA a hub of international astronomy researchThe $100 million International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) joint venture between Curtin University of Technology and The University of Western Australia (UWA) has the potential to make WA an international hub of radio astronomy and computing research.

Launched by Western Australian Premier The Hon. Colin Barnett in September 2009, ICRAR is designed to play a pivotal role in Australia’s effort to secure the $2.5 billion Square Kilometre Array (SKA), by coordinating WA’s radio astronomy research.

ICRAR is sponsored by the WA Government. CSIRO and iVEC are collaborating partners.

When considered in conjunction with the recent $80 million Federal Government investment in the Pawsey High-Performance Computing Centre for SKA Science, to be based at Technology Park, Bentley, the establishment of ICRAR in Perth makes it one of the largest hubs for radio astronomy research in the world.

Curtin Vice-Chancellor Professor Jeanette Hacket says the development of ICRAR, combined with large investments from Curtin, UWA and government, would help to make Australia an attractive location for the SKA.

ICRAR is led by some of Australia’s eminent astronomers who are based at the two universities. They include ICRAR Director Professor Peter Quinn, from UWA, Deputy Directors Professors Steven Tingay and Peter Hall, from Curtin, and Professor Lister Staveley-Smith, from UWA.

Quinn, Tingay and Staveley-Smith are Western Australian Premier’s Fellows, and Hall is Australia’s only Professor of Radio Astronomy Engineering.

The SKA will be the most powerful radio telescope ever constructed, with the ability to examine the formation of galaxies, stars and planets. Australia is one of only two countries shortlisted to be the home of the SKA, which would be based north-east of Geraldton, WA, if the bid is successful.

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COVER STORY

“My personality has changed so much – I’m a totally different person. I’ve gone from a size 18 to a size 12. I felt down and lacking in confidence, but now I’m happy and have lots of confidence.”

IT could be a TV ad for a diet franchise or weight loss program, but it’s not. It’s an excited and justifiably pleased-with-herself Jessica Blackburn talking. The 16-year-old, year 11 student from Perth has turned her life around. These days, you’ll find her jogging, playing tennis or softball, laughing off her school mates’ jokes about the ‘healthy’ contents of her lunch box, and generally enjoying life as a fit, healthy, happy adolescent should.

From a path that could have led to adult obesity and all its related health and social issues, Blackburn has got herself back on track with the help of the Curtin Activity, Food and Attitudes Program (CAFAP), a multidisciplinary program aimed at helping overweight and obese adolescents, not to simply lose weight; rather to adopt healthy lifestyles – permanently.

Blackburn had become one of an alarmingly large group of Australian children and adolescents who fall into the overweight or obese category. In 2007, the Australian National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey of 4,487 boys and girls aged from two to 16 years, conducted by the Department of Health and Ageing, estimated that almost one-quarter of Australian children were overweight or obese.

To give this figure context, the 1985 Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey data showed overweight and obesity rates among boys and girls aged seven to 15 years at 10.7 per cent and 11.8 per cent respectively. A decade later, the 1995 National Nutrition Survey showed that 20 per cent

of boys and 21.5 per cent of girls in that age group were either overweight or obese. Shockingly, overweight and obesity rates almost doubled in that decade, and the prevalence of obesity alone among seven-to-15-year-olds more than tripled.

THE most recent 2007 data shows that childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity rates have continued to rise, though not at the staggering pace of the 1985–1995 decade. And there is much heated debate among researchers as to whether the ‘childhood obesity epidemic’ is increasing, or if overweight and obesity levels have plateaued. However, there is little comfort in having about a quarter of our children and adolescents trudging down a road that, research shows, more often than not takes them from overweight children to overweight adults.

And it’s a dead-end road.

Obese children have a greater risk of developing asthma and Type 2 diabetes. In extreme cases, they can even suffer from gallstones, hepatitis and sleep apnoea.

Other research shows that overweight children who become overweight adults have an elevated risk of heart disease, certain cancers, osteoarthritis and endocrine disorders. And with these chronic conditions absorbing nearly 80 per cent of the total burden of disease and injury in Australia, and more than two-thirds of all health expenditure, it’s small wonder that in late 2008 the Federal Government launched the $30 million national Measure Up campaign to tackle obesity.

But illness is only one aspect of the picture. Often as debilitating are the social and personal issues triggered by childhood weight problems and obesity – teasing, discrimination, victimisation, bullying, poor peer relationships, reduced societal participation and depression. Research from Yale University’s Rudd Centre for Food Policy and Obesity has noted that teachers consistently hold lower expectations of overweight children – apparently the problem can even spill over into academic achievement.

Because it’s an issue that affects the whole person and all of society, Curtin has applied a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to nipping the adolescent overweight and obesity problem in the bud. The CAFAP program involves physiotherapy, dietetics, psychology, social work, general practice and health promotion.

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Weight loss isn’t the primary focus of a holistic health program developed at Curtin that is tackling obesity in adolescents.

STORY Glenys HaalebosPHOTOGRAPHY James Rogers

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STORY Isobelle McKayPHOTOGRAPHY James Rogers

LEIF COCKS chuckles as he admits he was often thrown out of his year 11 and 12 biology classes at Rossmoyne Senior High School in Perth, for not doing his science homework. To the chagrin of his teachers, he was consistently top of his class, with a natural affinity for the logic and understanding required to excel in the subject.

Born in Sydney and raised in Hong Kong until the age of 15, Cocks says he was always interested in animals, even as a child, but was limited to budgies, cats, turtles and fish in the busy urban environment. However, after finishing school in Perth, he went straight to Curtin University of Technology to complete a Bachelor of Applied Science, with no specialities in mind.

Having worked in the fast-food industry and Army Reserve, he was more interested in getting out of university and into full-time work than a career in the sciences. That is, until he met Curtin School of Biomedical Sciences lecturer George Newland, in third year.

“George Newland was my human biology and evolution lecturer who taught us about anthropology, the study of [the human being’s] origins and great apes. I was impressed by his enthusiasm and intelligence,” Cocks says.

“That was my favourite subject. It was exciting enough to make a career out of. It was dealing with ethics, rights and cognitive ability as well as genetics – far deeper, and more complex and interesting than studying some algae or plankton.”

Two years after graduating, aged 23, Cocks applied for a job at Perth Zoo. Two weeks later, they called him in for an interview.

“They rang me the next day and said, ‘come in and get your uniform’. That’s where I’ve been ever since,” he says.

EMPLOYED as a bird keeper for the first 18 months, he was then transferred to carnivores, elephants and ungulates (hoofed animals) for six months. Cocks then leapt at the chance to become the Zoo’s orangutan keeper when Charlie Broomfield,

orangutan keeper of the past 20 years, retired and he was asked to step in. It was the beginning of his lifelong passion for the primates.

“The orangutans liked me and I liked them – I could go inside the enclosure and build up their trust, and not be injured, whereas other keepers couldn’t,” Cocks says.

He spent the next 12 years working as the orangutans’ keeper, while completing a Graduate Diploma in Natural Resources at Curtin, studying primate behaviour. His research led to the redesign of primate enclosures at the Zoo, when he discovered that primates were far less stressed when they were higher than human eye level. He then completed a master degree, examining the factors affecting the health and wellbeing of captive orangutans.

“I wasn’t really interested in getting qualifications for the sake of it – I was interested in getting information that I could use to help the animals,” he explains.

He found female orangutans were dying from faster intra-breeding periods, and that Sumatran and Bornean orangutans – then thought to be the same species – when cross-bred were weaker and dying at a greater rate, suggesting they were different.

“I came to the conclusion that orangutans don’t belong in captivity and cannot survive through the captive breeding programs alone – the only way to ensure their survival was to save them in the wild,” Cocks says.

Spurred into action, he started the Australian Orangutan Project (AOP) 11 years ago, in a bid to raise public awareness and funds to increase numbers of the critically endangered species.

Today, about only 6,000 Sumatran orangutans are estimated to be left in the wild, and those remaining are under increasing threat from an intense pulp and paper industry, and palm oil and logging activity in their forests.

WITH the fight to save the orangutans now even more critical, Cocks has encouraged Perth Zoo to get involved in ensuring their long-term survival. In 2006, in a world-first, Temara, a Sumatran orangutan reared by Cocks at Perth Zoo, was released into the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, in central Sumatra – a 144,000-hectare park protected by anti-poaching and logging units, and funded by Perth Zoo and the AOP.

More than 100 Sumatran orangutans now live alongside Temara, and a new sanctuary funded by the Zoo, which opened early in 2009, means even more animals have a chance at survival.

“Perth Zoo is now heavily involved with not only breeding animals for release, but also building sanctuaries in the wild and protecting habitat,” Cocks says.

Under his watch, the AOP has gone from a meeting of three volunteers after work at the Zoo to a million-dollar-a-year operation, employing more than 60 staff, and with major projects in Indonesia.

“It’s the ability of the AOP to effect real change for the survival of the orangutans in the wild that is meaningful,” Cocks says of his job.

“It’s an all-consuming thing which might not necessarily bring financial or academic rewards, but the rewards are achieving a higher goal for conservation and animal welfare.”

For more information: orangutan.org.au

ALUMNI

Leif Cocks is Perth Zoo’s Curator of Exotics and President of the Australian Orangutan Project – and he is leading the worldwide charge to protect, rehabilitate and repatriate critically endangered orangutans in their natural environment.

DESIGNED by a team led by Curtin’s School of Physiotherapy Director of Research, Professor Leon Straker, CAFAP is provided free of charge and targets adolescents aged 12 to 16 years who have a Body Mass Index above the 85th percentile, and whose obesity is unlikely to be the result of genetic, metabolic or endocrine issues. The program expands on a pre-existing program developed at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. It requires a strong family commitment – parents and children attend two-hourly sessions twice weekly for eight weeks. Children must be reviewed by a GP or paediatrician before they can start the program.

Straker says CAFAP is a response to a community need.

“I’ve been involved in children’s health for quite a while,” he says, “and there’s clearly been a change in this generation in terms of more kids being obese. It’s related to many things that are happening in their lifestyle. Technology has delivered a range of sedentary leisure occupations to kids today – particularly electronic games and computer/internet usage. We tend to live in houses with smaller backyards, we’re worried about our children’s safety and security – so they’re not riding their bikes around the neighbourhood or playing in the park – and then there are significant changes in dietary habits.

“Busy households have less time to prepare and sit down for leisurely meals; takeaways are more common; and children are bombarded with advertising promoting high-fat, high-sugar, low-nutrient foods.

“All of these issues mean we need to make lifestyle changes. CAFAP focuses not on weight loss, but on changing behaviours around activity, eating and attitudes, to develop lifelong healthy habits.”

CAFAP coordinator and physiotherapist Nicola Hamilton coordinates the program’s exercise component.

“For the children, the first 45 to 50 minutes are spent in the gym – doing weight and resistance training, balance, and cardiovascular and coordination exercises. They monitor their own exercise weights and progression as we intensify the program week by week. It’s been great to see how their stamina increases,” she says.

“Parents do a parallel program while the children are exercising, learning useful skills and gaining support during ‘walk and talk’ sessions around the University’s campus. The second hour can have both parents and adolescents in a session together, depending on what we’re working on at the time.”

Because nutrition is a major part of a healthy lifestyle, CAFAP dietitian Kyla Smith’s role is to work with both parents and children to help them understand and adopt healthy food habits.

“We’re focusing particularly on reducing total energy intake while maintaining nutrition, so that means increasing fruits and vegetables and decreasing fats and sugars,” Smith explains.

“We run cooking classes for the parents, showing them how to prepare easy and nutritious meals – these are fun and well-received. We also go on a shopping expedition, where we explain food labelling, and demonstrate that healthy food options can also result in a reduced grocery bill.”

Program participants commence a food diary prior to the program, to give the team an idea about their eating habits. This is reviewed throughout and beyond the program’s duration.

SO that’s eating and exercise, but why have a psychologist and a social worker on board?

Says clinical psychologist Dr Melissa Davis: “The main psychological component is helping participants overcome the barriers they might have to changing their lifestyle, helping them to develop problem-solving and coping strategies, and setting achievable goals. It focuses on their thoughts about themselves and their competencies, their body image and self-esteem. It’s not just a matter of saying, ‘you just have to be positive and you can be the fastest runner’ – that doesn’t work. We show the parents how they can support and encourage their adolescent. We talk about communication and family relations, and show them that psychological health is just part of general wellbeing.”

For social worker Dr Angela Fielding, head of Curtin’s Department of Social Work, her specialty takes her right into the families’ homes.

“We visit families at home and together explore activity and behaviour patterns they have established, and how we can work through the program to change these,” she says.

“We also take a very practical approach. If, for example, they would like to jog or play in the park but the nearby parks are dangerous, then we’ll work with the local council to make the parks safer, more attractive. We’ll work with schools to improve things there, if that’s what’s needed. We’ve designed a game for the young people to support their goal-setting activities and record their achievements.”

And it’s not only parents and adolescents who’ve gained from CAFAP. For the professionals involved it has been a valuable, collaborative learning opportunity that has given each of them new perspectives on the adolescent obesity issue and on the different expertise each discipline brings to the table.

But the eight-week program is not the end of things. Follow-up is considered essential to measuring and sustaining success. At three months and six months after completing CAFAP, participants are tested to determine how well the results have been maintained.

Says Straker: “We tell the adolescents it’s like pre-season training in football. The eight-week program is not life, it’s the pre-season training for life – getting them a bit fitter, stronger, more knowledgeable about food, and helping them to develop skills and attitudes that facilitate change. In short, getting them ready to play the main game – which is life.”

For more information: healthsciences.curtin.edu.au/faculty/ipe_news.cfm


Each year, prior to first and second semesters, up to 9,000 new students arrive at Curtin’s Bentley Campus for StartUp Week to acquaint themselves with all points on the Curtin compass. To ensure they are on the right track, the Student Transition and Retention Team (START) and their band of student volunteers are never far away. The week-long program, organised by START, covers all aspects of orientation, from the formal welcome address by Curtin’s Vice-Chancellor to information about classrooms, campus security and timetables. There are even scenic tours of Perth – all to enable students arriving at Curtin for the first time to find their bearings. Any one of START’s 50 student volunteers can be found around campus. And they’re hard to miss – wearing luminous vests and a welcoming smile to answer questions and point students to the right places.

SNAPSHOT

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ALONG with Australia’s role as the world’s largest exporter of coal comes the responsibility of developing technologies for clean coal utilisation. Similarly, China’s increasing energy requirements are motivating its energy science researchers to advance their capabilities in this area.

Compatibility between Australian and Chinese aspirations in the area of new energy technologies has been confirmed by Curtin’s recent international research partnerships. The University particularly focuses on establishing strategic alliances with key and internationally renowned partners in the regions – and in the areas of scientific endeavour – most important to Australia.

During 2009, Curtin Vice-Chancellor Professor Jeanette Hacket led delegations to China to establish formal research links in the area of energy research with two leading Chinese research institutions in energy science and engineering – the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Process Engineering and Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST).

The strategic partnerships reflect the confidence in Australia and China’s commitment to practical collaborations, and in the ability of the two countries to lead in the development of ‘green’ energy technologies.

Curtin’s own capability to secure successful partnerships has eventuated, in part, from its increasing support for energy-related research within its Faculty of Science and Engineering. Foremost among recent initiatives is the establishment of the Curtin Centre for Advanced Energy Science and Engineering (CCAESE) and the appointment in 2009 of world-renowned chemical engineer Professor Chun-Zhu Li as the centre’s director.

“Complementary partnerships build global capability to address critical research problems,” Li says, “and Australia and China must jointly focus on clean coal and other low-emission energy technologies.”

A key achievement for the centre in 2009 in terms of international collaboration is the establishment of the Curtin and HUST Joint Research Laboratory for Coal and Biomass Utilisation. This joint venture between the CCAESE and the State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion at HUST further builds on the research collaboration between Curtin and HUST that was initiated in 2005. The joint laboratory formally opens in December at the 2009 Sino-Australia Symposium on Advanced Coal and Biomass Utilisation Technology, in China, to be chaired by Curtin’s Associate Professor Hongwei Wu.

“Curtin’s partnership with HUST includes the joint hosting of a biennial symposium series. These are prime research events for Australian and Chinese researchers developing advanced coal and biomass energy technologies,” Wu says.

ENERGY EXCHANGEGlobalisation has dismantled boundaries and provided international partners new opportunities to share high-level research expertise. Curtin’s pragmatic approach to research collaboration reminds us that Australia and China will increasingly be natural partners in many areas of science endeavour.

RESEARCHERS at the Curtin-HUST joint research laboratory are now progressing four projects that focus on harnessing new (biomass) energy sources, and developing technologies to reduce emissions from coal combustion. New projects are also being developed as part of the laboratory’s activities.

One of the biomass projects focuses on advanced biomass co-firing in conventional coal-fired power stations – a cheap and rapid approach for uptaking biomass in our energy market. Led by Wu, the project is being funded under the Australia–China Special Fund for Science and Technology Cooperation, established by the Federal Government and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology.

A second project focuses on improving the cost-effectiveness of biomass energy generation, and comprises one of Australia’s most signficant

international research collaborations in renewable energy. Led by Professor Chun-Zhu Li, the project aims to develop a flexible biomass gasification technology for distributed power generation. The technology will realise the great potential of biomass as a near-carbon-neutral and economically competitive renewable energy source. The project forms part of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, a major international partnership involving Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United States.

“These collaborations will greatly contribute to the development of advanced clean coal and biomass technologies in Australia and China,” Li says. “They also provide excellent new research opportunities and international experience for Curtin’s staff and students.”

STORY Karen GreenPHOTOGRAPHY James Rogers

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STORY Isobelle McKayPHOTOGRAPHY iStockphoto

FEATURE

ON 25 June 2009, Michael Jackson died – and the world briefly went mad. Within minutes, news of the pop star’s demise was circulating via social networking sites and websites, kicking off a massive, global outpouring of grief. Grim footage of Jackson’s withered body was beamed worldwide by countless news channels, their analysts speculating for days about the fate of Jackson’s children and the mysterious manner of his death.

Within hours, tribute websites were created and videos posted online, and reports dissecting every aspect of Jackson’s personal and public life were published in almost every major newspaper. Recently it emerged that Jackson’s death has already raised an estimated USD$80 million for his estate from marketing, merchandising and film deals – and with his death declared a homicide, the circus shows no signs of abating.

Death of a celebrity, it seems, is big business. Is this evidence of our growing taste for ‘grief porn’ – and is the media, which salivates over and shares every gory detail of a celebrity’s death, to blame for our desire to know?

Not quite, according to Professor Jon Stratton, of Curtin’s Department of Communication and Cultural Studies. He says the media contributes to the construction of celebrities but is not responsible for people’s fascination with them, in life and death.

“We create celebrities – they don’t just happen,” Stratton says. “They’re created by managers and agents and, of course, the media. We, the audience, are complicit in that creation because we want them.”

Stratton says celebrities, with their desirable traits of glamour, beauty and youth, occupy a complex place in our psyche.

“In a democracy, there’s a sense that everybody is equal – and the celebrity then becomes the special person that we aspire to be, with the lifestyle that we’d like to have,” he says.

“Most people think of their lives as fairly banal, or humdrum, so we think of celebrities as these special people who are always doing something exciting.”

As a result, we willingly familiarise ourselves with every public and private aspect of the celebrity’s life – and because we know what they wear, how much they weigh, who they date and when their babies are born, we feel as if we know them intimately. Consequently, when they die, we grieve as if we’ve lost a close friend or relative.

“When a major figure like Michael Jackson passes, or Princess Diana or Kurt Cobain, people feel as if they’ve lost somebody who is a part of the fabric of their life,” Stratton says.

It would be all too easy to blame the mass media – especially the internet and tabloids – for feeding our obsession by pumping out information about celebrities as fast as it is extracted.

HOWEVER, according to Curtin cultural studies lecturer Dr Christina Lee, our obsession with the minutiae of stars’ lives began many decades ago with the advent of the ‘studio system’.

Lee says the idea of the performer as a star and a drawing card first came to prominence in the early twentieth century, when audiences began to show great interest in the lives of the actors contracted to Hollywood studios. She says the studios released industry magazines and press kits with carefully controlled information about the stars, which was snapped up by the public.

“The studios really moulded the actors a certain way to project a particular image, not only in the films, but also in real life,” she says.

Almost 100 years later, publicists faced with a plethora of information sources will send out information about almost every aspect of their charges’ lives: their romances, meltdowns, pregnancies, marriages and admittance to rehabilitation centres.

“The public has a real hunger to know the actors behind the public face,” Lee says.

“We have an investment in these personalities, so anything that happens to them – births, marriages, divorces and death – we want to know. The sense of private and public is blurred to the point that we could even say it’s virtually non-existent. Where there’s a demand, there’s supply.”

That includes a demand for details about celebrities’ deaths. “Death, like sex, sells,” Lee says.

However, for some it’s a step too far.

WHEN actor David Carradine’s body was found hanging in a Bangkok hotel room in mid-2009, debate raged about whether he had committed suicide, was murdered by ninjas or had died from auto-asphyxiation in a sex game gone wrong. If that wasn’t tawdry enough, a Thai newspaper then published photos of his naked corpse.

“Too many of us … think that real celebrities are inhuman, celluloid creatures without the right to the privacy or decency befitting other human beings,” one commentator raged.

It’s a fair point. However, Stratton says our fascination with celebrities’ deaths stems from the very fact that, along with sex, death is one of society’s final taboos. Because we tend to view celebrities as immortal (think of all those post-mortem sightings of Elvis Presley), it’s often hard for audiences to believe they have died, and they demand evidence that it has happened, he says.

“Seeing that image is not going to convince people that someone is dead, but what it does is trigger that massive outpouring of grief,” he says.

When our stars are in proximity to where we live, our collective sense of grief intensifies.

When Perth-born Hollywood star Heath Ledger died in New York from a drug overdose in 2008, the media went into overdrive. More than 50 journalists and photographers flooded the airport, hoping for a glimpse of the 27-year-old’s coffin, before setting up camp outside his family’s home during the week before his funeral. Televised images from Ledger’s funeral and wake were then beamed across Western Australia and the world, creating a sense that we were all somehow part of proceedings.

“Even if you weren’t a fan, somehow you felt part of the community mourning for him,” Lee says.

Stratton says the deaths of local personalities – such as Wally Foreman or Chris Mainwaring – can have a similar impact on a smaller scale.

“When Wally Foreman died, there were hundreds and hundreds of people grieving as if they knew him, when they’d only ever heard him on the radio,” he says. “They’re real people, but at the same time they’re special and different, and when they die, it’s really shocking.”

With the advent of social networking, audiences feel closer to celebrities than ever before. It’s no surprise, therefore, that audiences turn to those same technologies to communicate their grief and shock at a celebrity’s death – an act that increases their feeling of connectedness to the event.

“It enables the audience to become active contributors, and it increases the spectacle around the celebrity,” Stratton says.

“People feel somehow more closely connected; that they’ve entered a shared community. It’s part of the way it becomes a global phenomenon.”

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Cultural commentators from Curtin’s Department of Communication and Cultural Studies say the media alone is not responsible for feeding the public’s obsession with celebrities.


EVERY Australian has looked up at the night sky and seen the Southern Cross, but have you seen the Emu in the sky?

In March 2009, radio astronomers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and Indigenous artists made the trek to Boolardy station, in Western Australia’s mid-west, where they explored different perspectives on the night sky, and celebrated the connection between astronomy and Indigenous culture through the creation of original artworks.

Boolardy station is Australia’s location for the proposed $2.5 billion Square Kilometre Array (SKA) – the next generation of large radio telescope – and the site for several cutting-edge SKA precursors such as the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). There, the astronomers explained the latest telescope projects, and gave the artists and custodians of the land a unique view of the night sky through binoculars and telescopes. Professor Steven Tingay, a Deputy Director of ICRAR and Co-Director of the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy, says: “We wanted to spend some time together, talking about the country, talking about Indigenous and Western views of the

sky, getting different perspectives and looking at the instruments under development within that landscape.”

“The proposed SKA site is on Wajarri Yamatji land. It’s an area rich in Indigenous culture, but it is also one of the most interference-free places on Earth, making it an ideal location to operate the sensitive radio telescopes needed for the SKA.”

Many of the artists were pleasantly surprised to discover that new-generation radio telescopes aren’t huge dishes on enormous concrete footings. As Tingay describes, “the MWA antennas simply sit on metal mesh on the ground. They’re a low-impact installation. You can literally pick them up and throw them in the back of a truck if you want to take them off site”.

Charmaine Green, a Yamaji Art coordinator and one of the artists to travel to Boolardy, concurs. “They didn’t interrupt the surface, and the radio astronomers showed respect for the land. It is fairly low and scrubby bushland up there, but it was good to know that lots of trees didn’t need to be cut down either,” she says.

A collaborative project between the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and Yamaji Art, in Geraldton, saw an unlikely gathering under the stars to celebrate the 2009 International Year of Astronomy.

SNAPSHOT

DR MEGAN ARGO, a postdoctoral research fellow with Curtin’s radio astronomy group, reflected the enthusiasm felt by all those present once they started stargazing.

“It’s so different looking at the sky through a telescope rather than with the naked eye, and it was all completely new to many of the artists,” Argo says. “We showed them things like the rings of Saturn, the colours in nebulae, star clusters, constellations...”

Conversations subsequently flowed around the campfire, with the artists sharing Indigenous stories about the night sky.

“The stories they were telling us were fantastic; the best thing I got out of the whole trip,” enthuses Argo.

“Many of their patterns in the sky are made up of dust lanes rather than the actual stars themselves. Most Westerners don’t see them because they’re living in places where it’s too light to see even the fainter stars clearly.

“They showed us the Emu – its head is a dark dust cloud near the Southern Cross, its neck passes between the two Pointers and it stretches down to the lower left across the sky, taking up a large part of the Milky Way. The first time you see it you wonder why on Earth you’ve never spotted it before!”

Green explains the significance of the Emu further: “It’s really important for our older people to pass on these stories like the Emu in the sky. The sky is linked to the land and how we look at the environment. It foretells seasonal changes and the availability of food sources. For example, when the Emu appears in its entirety over the horizon at a particular time of night, that’s when you should hunt for emu eggs. It’s directly relevant to the way we live our lives.”

AS stories were shared, the artists were busy scoping exploratory artworks, inspired by traditional and telescopic views of the night sky and the Wajarri Yamatji landscape around them. The dozen artists on the trip later shared their experience with other artists in the region, and 30 artists eventually created about 90 finished works.

The resulting art exhibition, Ilgarijiri – things belonging to the sky, had an extremely successful launch at the Geraldton Regional Art Gallery in June 2009, and ran for five weeks. The exhibition then moved to the Curtin Resources and Chemistry Precinct in September, and then to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, in Canberra, late in November.

Tingay plans to take the exhibition to Cape Town in South Africa, in March 2010, for the Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2010 conference, as an example of educational outreach using astronomy.

Tingay says the exhibition explores a rich vein of Indigenous culture that few Australians are aware of. “I think it’s important that all Australians get to recognise these aspects of Indigenous culture, the strong connections to the sky and the wonderful stories describing those connections,” he says.

For more information: astronomy.curtin.edu.au

STORY Kitty DrokPHOTOGRAPHY James Rogers

1. Christine Collard, Seven Jija’s over Yamaji Country 2. Sam Maher, Southern Cross 3. Barbara Merritt, Seven Sisters and the Hunter 4. Wendy Jackamarra, The Trip to Boolardy 5. Olive Boddington, Seven Sisters 6. Teresa Lawson, De Grey Stock Route 7. Krocette, Celebrations 8. Margaret Whitehurst, Meteorite Shower 9. Debra Maher, Seven Sisters. Images have been reproduced with permission from Yamaji Art, and copyright of works remains with the artists.

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FEATURE

IN a classic case of ‘everything old is new again’, it seems that fish oil capsules are replacing a spoonful of cod liver oil as the daily ‘wonder’ dose for staving off a range of health problems.

While the delivery system might have been updated for a new generation, the remedy being offered is, of course, no different: the common ingredient in these convenient cure-alls is long chain Omega-3 fatty acids, vital nutrients required by every cell in the body and essential to brain growth and visual development.

The revival in interest of these multi-functional Omega-3s is perhaps no surprise. In health environments overshadowed by ageing populations and a rapid increase in lifestyle-related chronic diseases, Omega-3s have a lot to offer: they are credited with, among other things, reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke; helping to manage diabetes; relieving the symptoms of inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune disease; and protecting against asthma and allergies in young children. There are also strong indications that they can help fend off dementia and depression, and assist in the treatment of behavioural problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Because our bodies cannot make Omega-3s, they need to be ingested, and fish – particularly oily fish – is the best source. Not surprisingly, in an age where the convenience factor plays a dominant role in many people’s lives, fish oil capsules are regarded as a fast track to boosting our Omega-3 input.

But health and nutrition experts like Associate Professor Alexandra McManus, Director of the newly established Centre of Excellence for Science, Seafood and Health (CESSH), based at Curtin, are keen to point out that there is an even more effective way of getting our necessary intake of Omega-3s: simply by eating more fish.

“Getting your nutrients directly from food, rather than a food supplement, is the preferred option because supplements vary greatly in content and quality,” McManus explains.

“There are also concerns about the levels of active ingredients that are actually available to consumers once these supplements have sat on a shelf. For those who prefer supplements to the ‘real thing’, it is advised they choose their product very carefully.”

McManus hastens to add that Omega-3s aren’t the only good thing that eating fish in its original form has to offer.

“Fish is an excellent source of protein, minerals and vitamin B12, and it is low in saturated fat,” she says. “It is also a good source of iodine and zinc, both of which are lacking in the Australian diet. And there is emerging evidence that oily fish, such as Atlantic salmon, Australian sardines and mackerel, consumed in conjunction with an iron-rich food, can increase the absorption of iron. This is exciting, given that combating iron deficiency through diet is one of the current initiatives of the World Health Organization.”

McMANUS says the centre will be looking at the full range of reasons why seafood consumption isn’t high on the dietary agenda for many Australians – and determining what can be done to turn that around.

“This will cover a lot of areas – from farming and harvesting research aimed at improving product quality and sustainability, through to the development of point-of-sale resources to improve customer understanding and perceptions of different types of seafood and their ‘manageability’ in the kitchen,” she says.

“There’s also a need to develop more user- friendly dietary guidelines that GPs and other health professionals can give to patients to help manage conditions such as arthritis, diabetes and heart disease.

STORY Claire BradshawPHOTOGRAPHY James Rogers

A fresh look at fish by a new research centre at Curtin promises much for the health of Australians and the sustainable development of our seafood industry.


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“The centre will take a multidisciplinary approach to these issues, working closely with industry, and drawing on the skills of food scientists, aquaculture specialists, social marketers, sustainability experts, health promotion professionals, business managers and retail education experts, among others. We need to cover all bases to get Australians eating more seafood.”

A recent study undertaken by McManus and her Curtin colleagues is already helping them understand some of the reasons why fish might not be featuring more strongly on the family shopping list.

Given that dietary habits are often formed early, the team interviewed mothers of children aged four to six years to see what sort of influences were at play around the dinner table that might influence early exposure to different types of seafood.

While most of the children concerned had tried fish and seafood products, many from an early age, interviewees indicated there were a number of factors that prevented them from serving seafood on a regular basis. These included issues around ready availability of fresh seafood, its perceived cost, and their own level of confidence in preparing and cooking a seafood meal that all the family would enjoy. Those households with younger children

tended to prefer processed fish that didn’t raise issues around the sometimes-distinctive taste and smell of fresh seafood, or its variable quality and supply.

Interestingly, too, it was revealed that fathers or male partners played a very strong role in determining the type and frequency of fish meals served, and the presence of teenagers in a household tended to negatively influence seafood consumption. Overall, it seemed that personal perceptions of seafood overruled dietary considerations in deciding whether fish would be served.

According to McManus, such insights will help the centre to better understand attitudes and behaviours around seafood, and develop resources and strategies to make its consumption more desirable.

“For a start, we need to look at whole-of-family educational strategies to encourage greater awareness of seafood’s health benefits, and we need to provide simple recipes to families that can help them prepare fish meals in tasty, healthy ways,” she says.

“At the moment, we’re working with the National Marine Discovery Centre at Hillarys Boat Harbour [north of Perth], to develop an online program for primary school children that will educate them in an engaging way about the benefits of eating seafood. At the same time, it will teach them about different fish ecosystems, and help them to understand why we need to manage our aquatic resources in a sustainable way.”

THE establishment of CESSH provides an excellent opportunity for the seafood industry to get its collective act together and start connecting more strategically with the consumer, according to the chair of its Industry Advisory Group, Angus Callander.

Callander has worked for 25 years in the Australian seafood sector, and has represented his industry in many and varied advisory roles, including nine years as a director of the Western Australian Fishing Industry Council. He says the time is now right for the industry to start realising its full potential.

“Development and marketing within the Australian seafood industry has been very fragmented; we’ve never really tackled the big, industry-wide supply chain issues or promoted ourselves in a whole-of-industry way to encourage broad consumption of our product like, for example, the meat and livestock industry has,” he says.

“Only around 30 per cent of the seafood consumed in Australia is caught or farmed here. The challenge before us is to build up the iconic value of our seafood industry, and to encourage investment in aquaculture operations to complement the premium quality and long-term sustainability that has been delivered by the wild-caught fish sector.

“We also need to make it easier for consumers to choose fish to suit their particular dietary and financial circumstances, and help them understand why sustainability issues will cause the price of some species of wild-caught fish to increase over time.”

Curtin Singapore opened in November 2008, giving students access to a quality education in modern facilities, in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities. Building on a 20-year relationship with established teaching institutions in Singapore, Curtin Singapore delivers innovative courses taught by highly qualified staff from one central location, just 10 minutes from the central business district.

Postcards from Singapore

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Which fish is best?With the evidence on the health benefits of fish centring on Omega-3 fatty acids, Associate Professor Alexandra McManus says those fish packing the highest nutritional punch include Atlantic salmon, Australian salmon, trout, Australian sardines, seabream, yelloweye mullet, oysters, silver perch and blue mussels. At least two serves a week are recommended for the general population, with serving sizes determined by the type of seafood consumed as follows:

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PHOTOGRAPHY Paul Foley


Curtin University of Technology has been delivering programs in Singapore since 1986 through the Marketing Institute of Singapore, the Singapore Institute of Materials Management and the Singapore Human Resources Institute. These relationships continue, while global education services provider Navitas Singapore manages and operates the facility.

There are about 950 students enrolled at Curtin Singapore. Curtin Business School courses continue to be offered, and in March 2009, Curtin Singapore made available its first undergraduate degree – a Bachelor of Commerce, with a range of single and double majors. Postgraduate courses are also available. Plans for new courses in health sciences are afoot, with more programs to be developed according to student demand.

Committed, friendly staff and strong links to industry help ensure the student experience at Curtin Singapore is dynamic and richly satisfying.

rich pickings

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Curtin Singapore emerged from extensive renovations to the 1960s-built Kim Keat Primary School, where Suzanne Chew, former student and local resident, moved with her family when the school opened. Chew and her family were involved with the primary school: her seven siblings also attended; her parents ran the school’s ‘sweets’ stall; and her father tended to the many trees and shrubs that he planted at the time, including the stands of shady Angsana trees which remain at Curtin Singapore.

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locationa primaryPostcard, right: The Merlion is the symbol of Singapore.

The iconic statue appears in various locations around Singapore. Meaning ‘sea lion’, the Merlion has the body

of a fish and the head of a lion. The fish represents Singapore’s origins as a fishing village, while the lion

represents Singapura – Singapore’s original name, which means ‘lion city’.


Curtin Singapore produces academically successful graduates who are highly employable. With Singapore’s glittering skyline as the backdrop, Curtin Singapore is within easy reach of the magical offerings in this multicultural country of more than four million people. It’s enough to write home about…

first classall the way

SNAPSHOT

A project underway at Curtin will build stronger bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and ensure graduates have Indigenous cultural competency.

STORY Glenys HaalebosPHOTOGRAPHY James Rogers

WHEN it comes to knowledge systems, Australia is in a unique position. Within our shores, in the minds and hearts of Indigenous peoples, lie the oldest living knowledge systems in the world – stretching back eons, preceding all known Western thought traditions. And yet, many non-Indigenous Australians are unfamiliar with Aboriginal knowledge systems; how they inform Indigenous life, culture, history and interactions, or how Australian society could benefit from a better understanding of them.

Bringing this knowledge into the mainstream professional arena, giving it its due respect, and aiming, as a result, to build stronger bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, is a project underway at Curtin – Mooditj Katitjiny: Indigenising the curriculum.

Curtin is the first Australian university to launch a Reconciliation Action Plan, and the plan’s core vision is that the University will be “a place of learning that respects Indigenous culture and diversity; a place where Indigenous and non-Indigenous people come together to learn their chosen discipline, contextualised within Indigenous culture and history”. Indigenising the curriculum – by integrating substantive Indigenous content into the curricula University-wide – is a part of the realisation of that vision.

“There are many reasons why Indigenising the curriculum is important,” says passionate

advocate and Mooditj Katitjiny project coordinator Dr Michelle Carey.

“First and foremost, it acknowledges the role [academia] has played in the colonisation of Australian Indigenous peoples, cultures and knowledges. It’s a very tangible action towards reconciliation – something Curtin is strongly committed to. It validates and legitimises the place of Indigenous knowledges and cultures within the University; it gives Indigenous people agency; and it provides opportunities for genuine connection between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the academy.”

Beyond academia, the flow-on effects of Indigenising the curriculum will be seen in the way non-Indigenous graduates and staff deal with Indigenous people in their professional lives – in service provision and negotiations, for example. Here, Carey says Aboriginal people should have the reasonable expectation that their non-Aboriginal counterparts can work with and for them effectively, empathetically and flexibly. Also, the inclusion of Indigenous studies value-adds to all disciplines because it diversifies the knowledges and skills with which students will leave university.

At a national level, the Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Council (IHEAC) is progressing the development of Indigenous cultural competence as a higher education graduate attribute.

The IHEAC maintains that Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous education are core university business, which will pay dividends globally and locally. They will provide better services to, and outcomes for, Indigenous people, particularly on critical health, education, social justice and economic issues.

CURTIN has “demonstrating cultural awareness and understanding” as one of its nine graduate attributes, but has now extended the concept of cultural competence through its adoption of the ‘triple-i curriculum’, which is being implemented in Curtin courses from 2010. A feature of the

triple-i curriculum is Indigenous, intercultural and international (for global citizenship) competencies. As part of this triple-i component, Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff from Curtin’s Centre for Aboriginal Studies (CAS) have worked together to define generic competencies, and designed an Indigenous cultural competence matrix against which curricula could, in future, be mapped.

Mooditj Katitjiny research officer Jeannie Morrison says: “We did this exercise about 12 months ago addressing the question: ‘What would we want non-Indigenous people on campus to know about Indigenous culture or Indigenous people?’ This gave us a framework for the process, and enables us to identify what we’ve achieved and what needs to be done on a continuing basis.”

Achieving a University-wide Indigenised curriculum involves ongoing, meaningful dialogue between CAS and Curtin’s other faculties and schools – “an interdisciplinary and intercultural conversation”, as Carey calls it – to gain staff understanding and commitment. Carey stresses the importance of demonstrating to students that an Indigenised curriculum makes pedagogic sense, and will enrich both their professional and personal life experiences.

CURTIN has already begun Indigenising the curriculum. For 2010, the major in the Indigenous Australian Cultural Studies course will be offered both as stand-alone units and as a double major with humanities courses as part of the new ‘Super’ Bachelor of Arts.

Carey’s vision for Mooditj Katitjiny’s ultimate outcomes is clear: “We’re moving towards a place where Curtin graduates have some degree of expertise on how to work with Indigenous people with sensitivity; that we help develop people who can participate in public conversations on Indigenous issues in an informed way; and that relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people are framed by respect and acknowledgement for the longevity and importance of Indigenous culture to Australia.”

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FINANCIAL downturns, or ‘credit crunches’, have a long and painful history in Australia, and until the 1990s hardly a decade passed without the population experiencing one to a greater or lesser degree.

So familiar were credit squeezes on our economic landscape that in the 1980s then prime minister Paul Keating even injected some humour into the occasion, referring to the financial plight of the time as “the recession we had to have”.

In the late 1990s, the global economy moved into an unprecedented boom period. Australia, as a major exporter of raw materials to the developing world, benefited considerably from the economic upswing, and was consequently caught up in the global financial ‘meltdown’ following the collapse of the US subprime mortgage market 18 months ago.

Fearing a repetition of the 1930s Depression, both the Australian Government and the Reserve Bank of Australia acted quickly to maintain the liquidity of the economy. As legendary international financial and banking institutions fell to their knees, Australians prepared for the crisis to flow on to their own banks.

Although the Australian economy wavered on the edge of recession, it did not succumb to recession, thus creating something of an economic milestone, and leaving many wondering how we had managed to avoid it.

Financial Economist John Simpson believes there are a number of reasons why Australian banks appear to have survived the global financial crisis.

SIMPSON is an Associate Professor in the Department of Finance at Curtin’s School of Economics and Finance. At a seminar recently, he presented a cross-disciplinary study on the topic, based on a joint paper with colleague Jennifer Westaway, a lecturer in the School of Business Law and Taxation at Curtin Business School. The paper has been approved for a chapter in a book on the financial crisis, to be published by Taylor & Francis, in the United Kingdom.

“Australia’s relatively safe positioning in the global financial crisis has been a combination of good luck and good management. I am brave enough to say we also have a well-regulated banking system, and generally, sound credit risk assessment and credit risk management practices are observed by Australian bankers,” Simpson says.

“The fact that our banking system is concentrated might be construed as being good management, when compared to the very fragmented US banking market.

FEATURE

STORY Sue EmmettPHOTOGRAPHY James Rogers

Additionally, our major banks remain in the top 100 global banks, in terms of market capitalisation.”

Simpson believes the good luck part is that Australia is a comparatively small and easier to manage economy. Another factor is that there has been less exposure by Australian banks in the subprime mortgage market and the Euro currency market in inter-banking borrowing and lending than, for example, British banks.

IF some Australians had any doubt about the stability of their banks, then it may surprise them to learn that the four major banking institutions, namely Commonwealth, Westpac, ANZ and NAB, are among only 11 in the world to have retained AA credit ratings or better.

Former ANZ Bank Chief Economist Saul Eslake says: “The fact that Australian banks have retained their credit ratings, have not needed one cent of taxpayer money by way of capital injection and, for the most part, have continued to carry out their daily banking transactions, indicates they have survived the crisis fairly well.”

Measured by market capitalisation (rather than assets or deposits), Australian banks are now also among the world’s largest because their share prices have fallen much less than those of banks in Northern America or Europe.

Eslake, who recently joined the Grattan Institute at the University of Melbourne as its program director of productivity growth, says the fact that some 55 per cent of our exports are commodities, and that a growing proportion of these commodities are exported to China, has helped to shield Australia from the global financial crisis.

“I think it’s reasonable to put Australia’s good economic performance through the global crisis down to a combination of good luck and good management,” Eslake says.

“The good management factor comes from the effective and timely policy responses of both the Reserve Bank and Federal Government. In the Reserve Bank case, this good management goes back to 2002 when, almost alone in advanced economy central banking circles, it began raising interest rates.

“Not having cut rates as much as some other international central banks had done over the previous two years, our Reserve Bank avoided the mistake made by the US Federal Reserve and other central banks of leaving interest rates too low for too long, therefore significantly fuelling unsustainable housing market bubbles.

“Consequently, fewer Australians were induced by inappropriately low interest rates to take on mortgages they could no longer service when interest rates eventually rose to more ‘normal’ levels, as in the case of Britain and the US.”

Eslake says the Reserve Bank entered into the most serious phase of the financial crisis in 2008 with considerable room to bring interest rates down, which they did. As most Australians’ mortgages are at variable interest rates, the banks could pass these declining rates on to end borrowers, making our monetary policy more effective than in most other Western countries, where mortgages are more typically at fixed rates.

The Reserve Bank was also quite creative in devising new ways of getting liquidity to our major banks when they needed it, although their needs were not as great as had been first envisaged.

SO were Australian banks in the right place at the right time, with the right resources and financial management?

Peter Kenyon, Professor of Economic Policy at Curtin’s Graduate School of Business, says Australia was coming off a pretty dramatic boom when the financial crisis hit, and so we were reasonably well placed to ride the economic storm.

“Australian banks are well-regulated by the Reserve Bank and by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, and they do not have the same exposure to the international financial crisis as perhaps the US and some European and British banks,” he says.

“Combined with the fact that many of our major trading partners in Asia, particularly China, are recovering faster than was first thought, Australians may have good reason to feel the lucky country syndrome is happening again.”

Westaway agrees Australians can be thankful that, unlike Britain, their financial success is not heavily reliant on the success of their financial sector. She presented a paper on the Australian banking and regulatory system at a conference in Prague recently, and feels it is presumptuous for us to say that our smooth ride through the financial crisis is purely good management.

“Certainly our fiscal system here is well-managed, it’s well-regulated and it’s not as open to the more liberalised financial products that the US and European markets were exposed to,” she says. “But we also have a strong economy and the additional advantage of a financial/banking sector that is reasonably balanced with our Gross Domestic Product.”

Westaway says Eastern European-block delegates at the conference wanted to know more about Australia’s regulatory system. She is pleased that in the Financial Services White Paper that US President Barack Obama released recently, a number of the recommendations that were considered desirable were similar to the system that already exists in Australia.

Good luck or good management? “It’s probably a bit of both,” Westaway says.

GOOD LUCK OR GOOD MANAGEMENT?

As the financial backbone of this country, Australia’s banking system relies on overseas wholesale borrowings, and is consequently exposed to the turbulence of the current economic downturn. Yet, our major banks are having a relatively soft ride, leaving the Australian community wondering just how have Australian banks survived the global financial crisis?


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Education and football: a winning combination for Indigenous youth

A researcher on Indigenous players in Australian Rules football and author of Brotherboys, a book about the famous Indigenous footballers, brothers Phillip and Jim Krakouer, was recently appointed research fellow in Curtin’s Centre for Aboriginal Studies.

Dr Sean Gorman plans to extend his research on the transitioning in and out of the Australian Football League (AFL) by Indigenous players, basing his research in Western Australia because it provides a unique set of circumstances.

“The main stakeholders of WA football are in Perth, and there are quite a few educative agencies that also use football as an incentive for Indigenous ‘at risk’ youth to make good life choices,” Gorman says.

His book and research is not just about the journey of the Krakouer brothers through the AFL, but also an exploration of how football for Indigenous youth is changing from a negative to a positive experience.

“Today we are seeing in the AFL positive initiatives converging with real outcomes – more Indigenous players winning prestigious awards. This is evidence that education and football can enable social and economic change for Indigenous individuals and communities,” he says.

Indigenous participation in the AFL is increasing, and if it continues, Gorman says the AFL will be one of the most successful Australian corporate employers of Indigenous Australians.

“Once strategies for the AFL have been developed, they will serve as best practice for the employment of Indigenous staff in other organisations,” he says.

Published in 2005, Brotherboys became a play by Perth writer Reg Cribb, in May 2009.

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A national program in schools is aiming to develop a greater interest in science by way of a partnership between scientists and school communities.

Aptly titled Scientists in Schools, the 2007 initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations allows the scientist and education community to develop a mutually acceptable project.

Associate Professor Simon Lewis, of Curtin, and Sara Waugh, part-time teacher at the Oberthur Primary School in Perth, put their project to a seven-week trial in 2008.

Entitled CSI Oberthur PS, the project is regarded as an exemplar because of its successful outcomes. For many of the students science became real because they were involved in authentic experiments, using specialist equipment such as forensic light sources.

Lewis says the program needed to be collaborative from the outset to ensure the greatest benefit to everyone concerned: the students, teacher and the scientist.

“Sara and I plotted and planned activities to ensure that our expertise dovetailed in each of the lessons,” he says.

“Students in the year 6/7 class had practical sessions on identifying individual fingermarks, the development of latent fingermarks, lip prints, ink analysis by paper chromatography and, lastly, processing a classroom crime scene.

“Personally, it was morale boosting to see children having fun with science – it was like a tonic.”

He says the project’s successful repeat with a year 6 class in the second term of 2009 has meant they can be optimistic about the future of CSI Oberthur PS.

up coming events

SNAPSHOTS

Hayman TheatreThe Three Sisters By Anton ChekhovMarch 2010

Directed by Phil Miolin, from Perth, this play about the decay of the privileged class in Russia and the search for meaning in the modern world is considered by many as Chekhov’s greatest work.

Hayman Theatre Upstairs at 8pmTel: +61 8 9266 2383 [email protected]

John Curtin Gallery Art in the Age of Nanotechnology4 February – 30 April 2010

The first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, this exhibition is a series of collaborative projects designed to challenge, explore and critique our understanding of the material world. It brings together artists and scientists from around the world to merge art, science and technology, and presents new ways of seeing, sensing and connecting with matter that is minuscule and abstract.

Using state-of-the-art technologies like the atomic force microscopy, works include audio recordings of cells touching, audio speakers made from bone at the nanoscale, and a visual landscape projection produced from the surfaces of dead and living cells to show their differences below a cellular level.

The exhibition is a part of Curtin’s dedication to science and its applications, and will feature a video link to the i500 Project that will be beamed directly from the Curtin Resources and Chemistry Precinct, at the Bentley Campus.

The i500 Project uses cutting-edge projection technology to display work undertaken at the precinct onto the walls and ceiling of its foyer, as well as into the John Curtin Gallery.

Tel: +61 8 9266 4155johncurtingallery.curtin.edu.au

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3iZONE A WINNING DOUBLE

An Aboriginal leader, widely referred to as the “father of Australian reconciliation”, was awarded the prestigious John Curtin Medal at a ceremony in October 2009.

Patrick Dodson was announced a worthy winner of the award for his outstanding contribution to the Australian community over many years. As one of Australia’s most respected and influential Aboriginal leaders, he has articulated a vision for an Australian society that is reconciled with, and inclusive of, all its members, and particularly the nation’s Indigenous peoples.

Dodson is only the second Australian recipient of the international Sydney Peace Prize, which he received in 2008.

He has worked tirelessly to promote reconciliation through his many roles, and through a range of forums from his time at the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation through to the Australia 2020 Summit, and his participation in The Australian Dialogue.

Born in Broome, Western Australia, in 1948, Dodson grew up in the Northern Territory. After losing both parents in 1961 he was sent to Victoria to complete secondary school. On completion, he studied for the priesthood and became Australia’s first ordained Indigenous Catholic priest, in 1975.

Finding ways to bridge Aboriginal and European–Australian cultures motivated Dodson’s subsequent involvement in a range of significant activities, which have included Indigenous land rights, the reconciliation movement and his work as a commissioner on the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

The John Curtin Medal is Curtin’s highest non-academic award, given to citizens who have exhibited John Curtin’s qualities of vision, leadership and community service.

A vision for Curtin to have a self-learning area for students in the Robertson Library, at the Bentley Campus, has been realised beyond expectations, with iZone being a winner among students and a winner of two WA Architecture Awards.

The iZone’s combination of clever lighting and innovative carpet treatments to floors and walls to achieve individual ‘zones’ won Perth architects Taylor Robinson both the Mondoluce Lighting Award and The Mondoluce Architecture Award, for interior architecture.

While the library’s primary requirement was an open-plan area with informal settings for peer interaction or self-learning, it also needed to cater for the traditional presentation-style teaching formats.

“Current approaches to the education environment are seeing a move towards more open-plan and informal settings, encouraging a community aspect to self-learning,” Taylor Robinson director Leigh Robinson says.

“Therefore flexibility of use was paramount, as was openness – both spatially and visually – which meant that on a practical level, power and lighting arrangements as well as acoustic treatment were critical factors in the design.”

Located in the library’s traditional surrounds, the iZone provides an interactive environment with varying degrees of containment, acoustic separation and an appropriate ambience for each space.

Marilyn Coen, the library’s corporate services administrative officer, says student feedback has been extremely positive.

“The technology-rich iZone has large LCD screens throughout the area as well as wireless access, Bluetooth and webcams, and power points for laptops, iPods and mobile devices,” she says. “And it will continually evolve.”

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CSI in the classroom

A published work in progressAssociate Professor Niall Lucy, a research fellow in Curtin’s Faculty of Humanities, along with colleague Dr Chris Coughran, from the University of Melbourne, spent nearly four years compiling and editing the recently published Vagabond Holes: David McComb and The Triffids (Fremantle Press).

The book is a collection of vignettes – written by musicians, scholars, poets and others, including the editors – that relate to David McComb and his band, The Triffids, who emerged in Perth in the early 1980s and went on to international acclaim.

Deliberately wide-ranging in style, the book avoids familiar associations with structure and chronological narrative. Photographs, illustrations and theoretical essays are mixed with poetry, paintings and memoirs.

Lucy, who was a friend of McComb and a long-time Triffids fan, says the book was not meant to be a rock biography, to tell the story of McComb’s life or explain his music as an expression of that story.

“It was David’s work I was interested in, with no interest at all in providing a psychological profile of ‘the man’. I believed his work was deserving of serious national and international attention,” Lucy says.

“For us, McComb’s work is more than capable of sustaining a wide-ranging and varied discussion, and we didn’t want that discussion to be constrained by a single point of view.

“We were interested in other ways of looking at the topic which, once [the contributions] were collected, would constitute less of a work and more of a work in progress. A vagabond collection, full of holes.”

McComb attended Curtin during the 1980s. The Triffids got their first big break when they won a competition on Curtin’s community radio station, Curtin FM 100.1.

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Curtin’s Multi-Faith Officer, Dr Sven Östring, says a greater understanding of societies’ many faiths will enrich our own spiritual journey.

I had never come across the term Multi-Faith Officer (MFO) before I saw it advertised on Curtin’s job website, and I dare say you may have never come across it before either. Actually, I doubt whether you have ever met someone in an office or at a cocktail party who confidently informed you that they were explicitly a multi-faith believer, per se. So it has taken me some time to work out how the MFO hat and gown fits or, more specifically, how to explain what the role is to other people. However, in spite of the general lack of past experience with ‘real live’ MFOs, the descriptor ‘multi-faith’ is actually very apt for the world in which we live.

Within weeks of accepting the MFO role, I was led into a nexus of circumstances that gave rise to a launch of a weekly distribution of free bread, kindly donated by a Brumby’s bakery in Perth, at the Bentley Campus. This forced me to learn, without any official Brumby’s training, what all the different types of bread were. It was when I was packaging the 102nd multi-grain loaf that I suddenly made the connection to my role, and I wondered if I should not submit a request to the Vice-Chancellor to have it changed to Multi-‘Grain’ Officer.

Even though it was a flippant thought, the proposal does actually provide a remarkable analogy to the world in which my role is focused. Rather than being homogenous white or brown or wholemeal, the world we all face daily is much more like a multi-grain world. That is one factor that makes my role so appealing.

SO how can we thrive in a multi-faith world rather than a monochromatic world that, at times, societies have appeared? The first thing I would encourage us all to do is explore more deeply the spirituality or faith that attracts us individually. Or perhaps we have a sense that we would need to explore two or three different faiths in order to build our personal world view? I would encourage we all do so.

There is real value in understanding, in greater depth, the reasons each one of us holds on to particular values or beliefs.

Am I trying to push us into a particular spiritual box? Definitely not. I feel there is a subtle tragedy in either rejecting all spiritual faiths or claiming to accept all faiths, based on a superficial understanding of each faith. The appeal of the multi-grain loaf is not the fact that a single grain endeavours to have no grainy qualities at all, or that it claims to possess the flavours of wheat, oats, rye and barley all at once. Instead, it is the combination of the richness of all the grains possessing their individual flavours which gives the loaf its texture and its taste.

A review of anthropological studies points to the reality that there is a spiritual dimension to every person, as spirituality is actually rooted in the fundamental life values we hold. Hence, a journey of exploration into our personal spirituality actually follows the ancient Greek advice, “know thyself”. Whether this involves discovering a richness to our spiritual world view that we did not know was there, or discovering a potentially destructive value or a belief we realise would be wise to abandon or change, this journey of self-awareness is incredibly valuable for being able to live life more effectively and richly.

ON a practical note, authors such as Victor Frankl, who wrote Man’s Search for Meaning, point to the fact that spiritual properties like meaning and hope provide human beings with the greater ability to survive tragedy. Other research studies point to the value of regular spiritual disciplines, like prayer and meditation, to cope with pain and hardship. While it is obvious that faith and hope can provide a priceless ability to cope in times of crisis, it also makes sense to be storing these valuable resources so that we have the spiritual reserves we need, when we really need to draw on them.

At the same time that we are deepening our personal spiritual awareness, it is essential to develop respect for the spirituality and faith of other people. The world has seen too many tragedies, too many wars, where this respect has been absent. The reality is every person is at a different stage, or in a different region, in their spiritual journey. We could perhaps learn something about spirituality from another person, and an appropriate respect will ensure we are open to doing so.

Let us enjoy the spiritual richness of the world in which we live, without trying to suppress either our own spirituality or the spirituality of others around us.

PERSPECTIVE

STORY Sven ÖstringPHOTOGRAPHY James Rogers

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The great university... should look ever forward; for it the past should be but a preparation for the greater days to be.

John CurtinPRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA(1941–1945)

Curtin aspires to be a leading-edge university of technology. To fulfil this vision, we strive to be innovative and forward-looking in everything we do. It’s in our approach to teaching and learning. It’s in our research. It’s in our staff, our students, and our graduates. It’s in the way we think and act. It’s what we call Curtinnovation.

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