higher degree research retreat 2013 … · higher degree research retreat 2013 program overview...

National Centre for Indigenous Studies

18—20 September 2013Ibis Styles Canberra Eagle Hawk Resort999 Federal Highway(North ACT/NSW Border)

H I G H E R D E G R E E R E S E A R C H R E T R E A T 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M A N D P R O C E E D I N G S

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T O F C O U N T R YWe acknowledge and celebrate the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet,

and pay our respects to the elders of the Ngunnawal people past and present.

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H I G H E R D E G R E E R E S E A R C H R E T R E A T 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M

OverviewWelcome to the 2013, Higher Degree by Research (HDR) retreat hosted by the National Centre for Indigenous Studies (NCIS). A key aim of this research retreat is to provide an opportunity to specifically support Indigenous research and researchers. Importantly, this retreat also aims to provide an atmosphere of collegiality and a relaxed environment in which to discuss intellectual concepts and foster professional development.

The HDR research retreat has a focus on the importance and relevance of research to the broader concerns and issues of Indigenous peoples. NCIS is very pleased to have you join with our HDR candidates, staff, adjuncts and guest speakers in a program of presentations, discussions and workshops. We trust that you will find the retreat enjoyable, inspirational and intellectually stimulating.

General timetableWednesday 18 September

> 9 am – 4.30 pm Engaging Our Mob workshop (attendance by registration)

> 6.30 pm Welcome dinner & short film (NCIS members & invited guests only)

Thursday 19 September > 9 am – 5.30 pm HDR candidate presentations (attendance by invitation)

> 6.30 pm Retreat dinner & guest speaker (NCIS members & invited guests only)

Friday 20 September > 9 am – 3.30 pm Workshops for NCIS HDR candidates (NCIS members & invited guests only)

VenueThe HDR research retreat will be held at Ibis Styles Canberra Eagle Hawk resort, located on the Federal Highway at the northern ACT/NSW border. It is approximately 16km north-east of the ANU campus:

If you need transport to/from the venue or if you have any special dietary or other requests, please contact Costanza Maffi on: [email protected] or 6125 8371.

Check in/out NCIS members and invited guests only

Wednesday earliest check-in: 2pm

Friday latest check-out: 11am

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Wednesday 18 September

9 – 9.15am (0:15) Engaging our Mob workshop – Registration

> Osprey room

9.15 – 11am (1:45) Engaging our Mob workshop

> Panel: Professor Mick Dodson AM, Ms Kerrie Doyle, Dr Bill Fogarty

11 – 11.20am (0:20) Morning tea

11.20am – 12.50pm (1:30) Engaging Our Mob workshop (cntd)

12.50 – 1.30pm (0:40) Lunch

1.30 – 3pm (1:30) Engaging Our Mob workshop (cntd)

3 – 3.20pm (0:20) Afternoon tea

3.20 – 4.20pm (1:00) Engaging Our Mob workshop (cntd)

4.20 – 6.30pm Free/Discussion time

6.30pm Welcome BBQ and short film (NCIS members and invited guests only)

> Falcon room

Thursday 19 September

8–9am (1:00) Breakfast (NCIS members and invited guests only)

> Winter-garden Restaurant

9–9.15am (0:15) Welcome and opening remarks: Professor Mick Dodson AM

9.15–10.15am (1:00) Keynote address: Dr Gary Foley

10.15 – 10.55am (0:40)

Chair: B. FOGARTY

Theme 1: Development

How can development transform conflict in Indigenous communities? The role of Elders in the maintenance of integral traditional values during times of rapid socio-economic transformation

> Sophia Close (0:20)

‘Jimbin Kaboo Yimardoowarra Marninil’ – Nyikina women, from the inside to the outside

> Magali McDuffie (0:20)

10.55–11.10am (0:15) Morning tea

11.10–11:50am (0:40)

Chair: A. WOOD

Theme 2: Indigenous Cultural and Natural Resource Management

Consultation with Maori regarding mineral and petroleum extraction

> Sarah Down (0:20)

Indigenous Protected Areas: autonomy and flexibility?

> Helen Fraser (0:20)

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11:50 – 12:50pm (1:00)

Chair: A. WOOD

Theme 3: Law

Gender violence and the ‘Rule of Law’: Indigenous communities in Australia and post-war Liberia

> Veronica P. Fynn (0:20)

Mr Bugmy’s appeal to the High Court and the idea of ‘Indigenous sentencing principles’

> Mary Spiers Williams (0:20)

Legal protection of national minorities in China

> Yan Li (0:20)

12.50–1.35pm (0:45) Lunch

1.35–2.15pm (0:40)

Chair: J. GUTHRIE

Theme 4: History and Sociology

The Murdering Gully Massacre

> Alycia Nevalainen (0:20)

The changing nature of kinship and marriage rules in two contrasting Aboriginal communities

> Jeanie Bell (0:20)

2.15–3.15pm (1:00)

Chair: J. GUTHRIE

Theme 5: Health

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment among male inmates in NSW: Determining social capital indicators for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men accessing treatment and changes in QALYs post-treatment

> Lise Lafferty (0:20)

Towards an ethical analysis of public health reform: Why it matters among the Indigenous communities in the Philippines

> Klein R. Fernandez (0:20)

Risks and predictive factors of psychological distress among the Indigenous people of New Zealand

> Kerrie Doyle (0:20)

3.15–3.30pm (0:15) Afternoon tea

3.30–4.10pm (0:40)

Chair: C. FFORDE

Theme 6: Cultural Heritage

Farmers’ perspectives of Aboriginal cultural heritage [Tatiara]

> Gary Toone (0:20)

The Wudjari People of Esperance, at the Frontier; archaeological investigation of mobility, communication and identity in late-Holocene Aboriginal society, Western Australia

> Myles Mitchell (0:20)

4.10 – 4.50pm (0:40)

Chair: C. FFORDE

Theme 7: Indigenous Music, Dance and Art

A post-Western narrative of Australian art

> Rosie Goldfeder (0:20)

Indigenous Australian and South Indian classical dance dialogues: An ontological and epistemological performance-based study

> Sidha Pandian (0:20)

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4.50–5.10pm (0:20) Open panel discussion

5.10–5.25pm (0:20) Concluding comments and close

5.25 – 5.40pm (0:20) NCIS staff debrief

5.40 – 7pm (1:20) Free/Discussion time

7pm Retreat dinner (NCIS members and invited guests only)

> Guest speaker: Professor Tom Calma AO

> Falcon room

Friday 20 September

8–9am (1:00) Breakfast (NCIS members and invited guests only)

> Winter-garden Restaurant

9–9.10am (0:10) Opening remarks: Professor Mick Dodson

9.10–11.10am (2:00) Workshop – topic TBC

> Dr Gary Foley

11.10 – 11.25am (0:15) Morning tea

11.25am – 12.55pm (1:30) Workshop (HDR candidates only)

> Dr Hamish Dalley, Learning Adviser, ANU Academic Skills and Learning Centre

Thesis structure

12.55–1.25pm (0:30) Lunch

1.25 – 2.55pm (1:30) Workshop (HDR candidates only)

> Dr Hamish Dalley, Learning Adviser, ANU Academic Skills and Learning Centre

Literature review

2.55 – 3.15pm (0:20) Concluding comments and close

3.15 – 3.30pm (0:15) NCIS staff debrief

3.30pm Depart Eagle Hawk

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Dr Gary Foley

Gary Foley was born in Grafton, northern NSW, of Gumbainggir descent. He spent most of his youth in Nambucca Heads, and came to Sydney as a 17-year-old apprentice draughtsperson. Since then he has been at the centre of several major political activities, including the 1971 Springbok tour demonstrations, the 1972 establishment of the Tent Embassy in Canberra, the Commonwealth Games protest in 1982, and the protests during the 1988 bicentennial celebrations.

Dr Foley was also involved in the formation of Redfern’s Aboriginal Legal Service in Sydney and the Aboriginal Medical Service in Melbourne. In 1974, Dr Foley was part of an Aboriginal delegation that toured China, and in 1978, he was with a group that took films on black Australia to the Cannes Film festival and then to Germany and other European countries. He returned to England and Europe a year later and set up the first Aboriginal Information Centre in London. Dr Foley has been a Director of the Aboriginal Health Service (1981) and the Director of the Aboriginal Arts Board (1983-86) and the Aboriginal Medical Service Redfern (1988). He has been a senior lecturer at Swinburne College in Melbourne, consultant to the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody (1988) and a board member of the Aboriginal Legal Service. He has also served on the national executive of the National Coalition of Aboriginal Organisations.

Dr Foley’s acting career began in 1972 with the revue Basically Black. Since then, he has appeared in Backroads, Going Down, Buckeye & Pinto, Pandemonium, Dogs in Space, Flying Doctors and A Country Practice.

Late in life, Dr Foley became a student at The University of Melbourne where he studied history, cultural studies and computer science. He completed his BA with majors in History and Cultural Studies in 2000, and gained first class Honours in History at the end of 2002. Between 2001 and April 2005, he was also the Senior Curator for Southeastern Australia at Museum Victoria. Between 2005 and 2008, he was a lecturer / tutor in the Education Faculty of University of Melbourne. Dr Foley completed a PhD in History in 2013, at the Australian Centre, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne. He is currently a lecturer and tutor at Moondani Balluk Academic Unit, Victoria University.

Dr Tom Calma AODr Calma has been involved in Indigenous affairs at a local, community, state, territory, national and international level and worked in the public sector for 38 years. From 1995-2002, he worked as a senior Australian diplomat in India and Vietnam representing Australia’s interests in education and training. During his time in India, he also oversaw the management of the Australian Education International offices in Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Dr Calma has been actively involved in the formation of the Close The Gap for Indigenous Health Equality Campaign and the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. He delivered the 2009 Mabo Oration; has continued to advocate for members of the Stolen Generations; and delivered the formal response in Parliament House on their behalf to the Prime Minister’s National Apology.

Dr Calma has been a White Ribbon Day Ambassador since 2005. White Ribbon Day is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. In addition to being the Patron of the Rural Health Education Foundation, Dr Calma is also the National Patron of the Wakakirri National Story Festival (since 2006), National Patron of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health Network and Deputy Chair of the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation. He served as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission from 2004 to 2010, and as Race Discrimination Commissioner from 2004 until 2009. Dr Calma was appointed the inaugural National Coordinator for Tackling Indigenous Smoking (Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing) in March 2010 to lead the fight against tobacco use in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. In May 2010, Dr Calma received an honorary doctorate (Honoris Causa) from Charles Darwin University, and in June 2010, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of Reconciliation Australia. In 2011 he became that Board’s Co-Chair. Dr Calma was appointed as Deputy Chancellor of the University of Canberra in early 2013, and will officially take over as Chancellor of that University on January 1, 2014.

Over the past 38 years, Dr Calma has addressed many conferences and community and religious groups about Indigenous, multicultural, discrimination and social inclusion issues. He was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in June 2012 for distinguished service to the Indigenous community as an advocate for human rights and social justice, through contributions to government policy and reform, and to cross-cultural understanding.

K E Y N O T E S P E A K E R S

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Professor Mick Dodson AM

Professor Mick Dodson is a member of the Yawuru peoples – the traditional owners of land and waters in the Broome area of the southern Kimberley region of Western Australia. He is Director of the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at The Australian National University and Professor of law

at the ANU College of Law. Mick Dodson was Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner with the Human Rights Commission. Mick Dodson has been a prominent advocate on land rights and other issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as well as a vigorous advocate of the rights and interests of indigenous peoples around the world.

In 2009, Mick Dodson was named Australian of the Year by the National Australia Day Council. From September 2011 to February 2012 inclusive, Professor Dodson was at Harvard University where he was the Malcolm Fraser & Gough Whitlam Harvard Chair in Australian Studies and a Visiting Professor, Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Dr Jill Guthrie

Jill joined NCIS in April 2012 as its Research Fellow. Her PhD, undertaken through the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales, is titled A phenomenological exploration of the experiences of families of Indigenous children hospitalised in the Australian Capital Territory. Jill is a graduate of the Master of Applied Epidemiology (MAE) Program at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH) at ANU. Jill Guthrie is a descendant of the Wiradjuri people of western NSW, and has lived in Canberra ACT for over twenty years. Following graduation from the MAE Program, Jill worked as an academic member of the MAE staff and continues to work in the program. In March 2009 she was appointed as a Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra, working on health-related research projects with a particular focus on the relationship between criminal justice and health. She is a member of the NHMRC-funded Indigenous Offender Health Research Capacity Building Group (IOHR-CBG).

Dr Bill Fogarty

Bill joined NCIS in April 2012 a Research Associate. He was previously a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) Bill has a PhD from The Australian National University, on the topic Learning Through Country: Competing Knowledge Systems and Place Based Pedagogy, and a Masters in Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development (MAAPD) from the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences. Bill has lived and worked in remote communities for over 15 years and has extensive experience in research on Indigenous education, employment policy and service provision. He has qualifications in anthropology, communications, social research methods, education and applied development.

He has worked on projects with a diverse range of organisations concerned with Indigenous Australia such as the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation, the Northern Land Council and the Northern Territory Government. Bill has a particular interest in the relationship between Indigenous and Western knowledge and the development of sustainable education and employment pathways in remote communities.

Dr Asmi Wood

Asmi joined NCIS in April 2012 as its Senior Research Fellow and manager of the NCIS Higher Degree by Research (HDR) student program. He has been an academic advisor to the ANU College of Law since 2002 and holds a position in the College as Senior Lecturer. Asmi gained a Bachelor of Engineering/Science (BE) from The University of Melbourne and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) with Honours from The Australian National University.

He completed his PhD in 2011 and his doctoral thesis is titled The regulation of the use of force by non-State actors under international law. He is also a practising barrister and solicitor in the ACT. Asmi received the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence from The Australian National University in 2010. Before commencing work at the College, Asmi worked in private practice and in government, both in Australia and overseas. Asmi’s field of research is the use of force in international law, terrorism, international humanitarian law, legal ethics, comparative law, jurisprudence and legal interpretation, and Indigenous peoples and the law. He has contributed papers and submissions to various governmental agencies

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on the computer industry, Indigenous issues, and issues affecting refugees and asylum seekers. He is also interested in indigenous music and language, religion, and religious studies.

Dr Cressida Fforde

Cressida joined NCIS as its Deputy Director in November 2011. Cressida has a PhD from the Department of Archaeology, Southampton University, UK, on the topic Controlling the Dead: An analysis of the collecting and repatriation of Aboriginal human remains. Cressida’s doctoral research investigated the history of the removal and subsequent study of Indigenous human remains by European institutions in the 19th century and the rise of the reburial movement. Completing her PhD at the University of Southampton, UK in 1998, she continued working within the repatriation field for Indigenous communities and museums in Australia, Hawaii, New Zealand and the UK, particularly in the location and identification of Ancestral Remains through archival research. Her extensive work in this area is also reflected in her publication record. In January 2009 she joined the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) as its Coordinator of Research Publications and Public Programs. This role included convening the 2009 and 2011 AIATSIS National Indigenous Studies Conference and a range of symposia and seminar series, as well as editing the AIATSIS journal, Australian Aboriginal Studies, and its Discussion Paper series.

Cressida’s primary area of research focus has been the history of the removal and subsequent study of Indigenous human remains by European institutions within the ‘race’ paradigm in the 19th century and the campaigns to secure their return.. She is also interested in the communication of information about the meaning and value of cultural heritage, particularly in relation to local communities and Indigenous cultural heritage housed in museums and other collecting institutions.

Dr Hamish Dalley

Hamish Dalley is a Learning Adviser at the Academic Skills and Learning Centre (ASLC), The Australian National University. This year he was awarded his PhD in English for research that explores the historical novel from a postcolonial perspective, with a focus on contemporary writing from Australia, New Zealand and Nigeria. His work has been published in a number of international journals, including Clio: The Journal of History, Literature and the Philosophy of History, the Journal of Postcolonial Writing, and Research in African Literatures. He has also contributed to edited collections on historical fiction. Hamish has a number of years of tertiary teaching experience, and has been with the ASLC full-time since January 2013.

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Theme 1: Development

Sophia Close

PhD candidate, National Centre for Indigenous Studies

How can development transform conflict in Indigenous communities?

Many Indigenous peoples experience high levels of community conflict and human insecurity, and are governed by weak or unsustainable non-Indigenous systems and institutions. They are often unable to access service delivery and are dislocated from customary structures of law, leadership and decision-making. In line with the 2007 UN Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, indigenous communities worldwide are seeking to engage with development actors to assist them to attain their rights to self-determined development. I argue that the current development system may create further conflict in Indigenous communities because it often overlooks or does not value or empower Indigenous worldviews or governance processes. This fundamental flaw in the current development system indicates that using development as a tool to achieve self-determination in Indigenous communities is risky.

My research specifically examines development-related conflict in Timor-Leste and investigates how, in the future, transformation of the current development system can build a different relationship between Indigenous peoples and development actors to create self-determination in Indigenous communities.

Magali McDuffie


‘Jimbin Kaboo Yimardoowarra Marninil’ – Nyikina women, from the inside to the outside

Magali was introduced to Western research principles during her post-graduate research degrees in French, American, and Australian Universities. As a professional filmmaker, she has worked closely with Indigenous groups for the past nine years, who have informed her of their particular expectations regarding Indigenous ethical principles and the necessity to use an Indigenist approach. Magali has been privileged to receive advice

and guidance from senior Aboriginal women, particularly regarding cultural protocols, consultation, and community engagement.

Magali’s on-ground experience working on community-based projects underpins her collaboration with Nyikina women in the Kimberley and has led her to her PhD studies in which she privileges the voices of Nyikina women, and looks at how these have influenced cultural actions, economic and self-determination initiatives, through filmed interviews and narratives, using film as an advocacy tool. Magali’s interest lies in empowering the women in their constantly evolving social and political roles on a community, regional, national and international level.

Magali privileges the voices of three sisters, Lucy Marshall, Jeani Wabi and Anne Poelina, and looks at how they have influenced cultural actions and economic and self-determination initiatives at a local and national level. Through filmed interviews and narratives of their lived experiences, spanning 80 years and three generations, and an analysis of power relationships and the women’s agency and roles in their at times challenging relationships with the State, Magali examines how the three sisters have responded and adapted to different waves of government policies, and how their political role has evolved in the current context of Native Title and rampant industrialisation of their country.

Theme 2: Indigenous Cultural and Natural Resource Management

Sarah Down


Consultation with Maori regarding mineral and petroleum extraction

In New Zealand, there are plans for the further exploitation of natural resources which have been coupled with major changes to the primary legislation governing this area. Maori as tangata whenua (people of the land) have a fundamental interest as indigenous people about whether - and if so how - such developments occur within their takiwa (tribal district). How iwi (tribes) choose to respond, and their ability to influence decisions that are made is evolving into a major issue as they consider the impacts such

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developments may have on their on their ancestral lands and people. This thesis will explore how the Crown and resource companies are engaging with iwi over prospecting and permitting in their takiwa.

Helen Fraser

PhD candidate, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research

Indigenous Protected Areas: autonomy and flexibility?

Nearly 20 years ago Indigenous leaders agreed to establish a partnership with the government, under which Indigenous owned land would become part of the conservation estate in return for annual land management funding; landowners would maintain control of their land, the government would adopt the role of ‘good neighbour’ and landowners could live on country at the same time as contributing to the health of Australia’s ecosystem.

I want to examine whether landowners are still in control, or whether the autonomy of communities in the IPA program is threatened by growing funding and administrative pressures.

Theme 3: Law

Veronica P. Fynn


Gender violence and the ‘Rule of Law’: Indigenous communities in Australia and post-war Liberia

The gender agenda is borderless. Violence against women, clad in myriad shapes, forms, structures and categories, pervades cultures, societies and states. In particular, Indigenous women and girls in Australia and post-war Liberia, irrespective of cultural dissimilarities are impacted disproportionately by violence (institutional, structural and physical) perpetrated and orchestrated at three main levels: domestic, national and international. The law on one end of the spectrum is seen as an emancipatory tool, yet on the other, it has also been used to discriminate against Indigenous peoples. Grounded in theories of decolonization, (legal) feminism, and intersectionality, this research adopts a mixed methodology drawing on case law, secondary statistical data and semi-structured interviews with public officials and service providers working with/on Aboriginal women and girls. The main objective is to examine the principle of the “rule of law” in

restoring justice to Indigenous women and girls who have suffered gender violence.

Mary Spiers Williams

PhD candidate, ANU College of Law

Mr Bugmy’s appeal to the High Court and the idea of ‘Indigenous sentencing principles’

This paper outlines the approaches of Courts to sentencing Indigenous people, exploring the development of what came to be known as “Indigenous sentencing principles” in the case of Fernando, and recent concerns that there has been a “retreat” from these principles. The High Court has recently granted leave to consider the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal’s decision that the disadvantage that Mr Bugmy experienced as a child has less relevance as time goes on. It is likely that the High Court will consider whether there is such a thing as Indigenous sentencing principles and this paper speculates about what guidance the Court may provide.

Yan Li

Visiting Fellow, NCIS/ANU College of Law

Legal protection of national minorities in China

Firstly, I will present a brief introduction to the current Chinese legal protection of national minorities. This will help you understand the related situation in China and my research background. Secondly, I will describe the research I am carrying out during my one-year Visiting Fellowship at ANU, which involves a comparative study of legal protection of Indigenous traditional cultural expression in Australia and China.

Theme 4: History and Sociology

Alycia Nevalainen


The Murdering Gully Massacre

The Murdering Gully Massacre occurred in 1839 in the Western District of Victoria, where 40 Aboriginal men, women and children were slain by white station hands. Whilst the Murdering Gully Massacre is alluded to in colonial correspondence (both government and private) and regional histories, this fragmentary evidence has never before been analysed in its entirety. My research unites this fragmentary

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evidence with oral history gathered from both Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal peoples possessing knowledge of the massacre. The use of post-colonial theory enables the voice of the victims of the Murdering Gully Massacre, long silenced by colonisation, to at last be heard by the world.

Jeanie Bell

PhD candidate, Linguistics, Languages & Cultures, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

The changing nature of kinship and marriage rules in two contrasting Aboriginal communities

My PhD thesis looks at the social systems of the Kabi and Wakka groups which formed the basis of relationships and marriage within and between family groups from these two tribes of SE Queensland. My research is through historical linguistic and language documentation and taped interviews with available descendants.

The ‘Both-Ways’ methodology is being applied to the research and writing of this thesis which respects the work of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers.

The Wakka and Kabi people have experienced upheaval and removal from traditional lands and severe loss of language and culture over the past two centuries with almost total loss of skin names and kinship terms which were still being used into the mid-20th Century. (Tennant-Kelly: 1994-5)

Theme 5: Health

Lise Lafferty

PhD candidate, The Kirby Institute, The University of New South Wales Medicine

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment among male inmates in NSW: Determining social capital indicators for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men accessing treatment and changes in QALYs post-treatment

There are approximately 260,000 people living with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Australia1. The primary mode of transmission is through intravenous drug use2-4. As users often commit crimes to support their addiction, HCV is common among inmates, accounting for 30% of the male prison population5 in NSW.

This study seeks to identify social capital predictors of accessing treatment in custody and measure comparisons between Indigenous and non-Indigenous inmates. The study will also conduct an economic analysis of HCV

treatment to provide better understanding of the physical and social improvements gained following treatment.

References

> 1. Razali K, Thein HH, Bell J, Cooper-Stanbury M, Dolan K, Dore G, et al. Modelling the hepatitis C virus epidemic in Australia. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2007;91(2–3):228-35.

> 2. Josephine Norman NMW, Janette Mugavin, Mark A Stoové, Jenny Kelsall, Kirk Austin, Nick Lintzeris. The acceptability and feasibility of peer worker support role in community based HCV treatment for injecting drug users. Harm Reduct J. 2008;5(8).

> 3. AIHW. Australia’s Health 2010. In: AIHW, editor. Canberra: AIHW, 2010.

> 4. Novick DM, Kreek MJ. Critical issues in the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection in methadone maintenance patients. Addiction 2008;103(6):905-18.

> 5. Butler T, Papanastasiou C. National Prison Entrants’ Bloodborne Virus and Risk Behaviour Survey Report 2004 & 2007. : NDRI Curtin, NCHECR UNSW, 2008.

Klein R. Fernandez

PhD candidate, Centre for Health Stewardship, ANU Medical School

Towards an ethical analysis of public health reform: Why it matters among the Indigenous communities in the Philippines

While epidemiological bases and the social determinants of health are now mainstreamed in the health planning, policy, and program evaluation, ethical analysis of public health reform programs in the Philippines is rarely looked upon. Thus, this study explores the ethics of public health reform in the Philippines by investigating on the structural relationships between the national government and local government units as the principal providers of health services to the indigenous population. It also focuses its attention to the structural dynamics between and among social actors present within the health system.

In here, the life-stories of rural health doctors are interesting points of discourse for they occupy a strategic proximity in the whole gamut of power relations in health service delivery. As they become more engaged with indigenous communities, they possess an emphatic understanding that borne out from their daily interaction on the complex determinants of indigenous health. As active players, each of their experiences is an interesting sounding board of ideas to which future policies and programs can be derived in a manner that reflects the real health needs of the indigenous communities. Out of their narratives, this study follows a Spinozan style of ethical analysis, which puts emphasis on the interrelated aspects of knowledge system, positioning of laden interests, and the formation of conative power to achieve the desired health outcomes.

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Kerrie Doyle


Risks and predictive factors of psychological distress among the Indigenous people of New Zealand

Background: Maori people are the Indigenous people of New Zealand. Like other post-colonial people, Maori have poorer physical and mental health outcomes when compared to non-Maori New Zealanders, and Maori as a sub-group are at a significant risk of psychological distress. Even though psychological distress is a precursor to more serious mental health conditions such as depression, there is minimal research into risks and predictive factors that are peculiar to Maori.

Objectives: The aims of this study are to i) identify major risk and protective factors associated with Maori ethnicity and psychological distress in a rural and an urban area; and ii) test a hypothesised ecological model of factors.

Methods: Sixty five participants were recruited from an urban (n=33, 51%) and rural area (n=32, 49%) in the North Island of New Zealand, using an opportunistic sampling methodology, with whole natural groups surveyed. There were 33 men (50.7%) and 32 women (49.3%) ranging in age from 19 to 75 years (M= 37.03; SD = 14.6). Participants completed the Measure of Indigenous Racism Experiences and the Kessler 10, providing scores on Perceived Racism and Cultural Inclusion variables and psychological distress. A comprehensive literature review informed a hypothesised ecological model for psychological distress which was tested through multivariate logistic regression, controlling for covariates of age, gender and location.

Results: In this sample, 28% (n=18) did not demonstrate psychological distress, while 15% (n=10) scored ‘mild’, 17% (n=11) scored ‘moderate’ and 40% (n=26) scored ‘severe’ levels of psychological distress. Perceived Racism and Cultural Inclusion significantly predicted psychological distress (F(3, 61) = 51.478, p < .0005). The hypothesised ecological model of Perceived Racism, Cultural Inclusion, gender, age, and location accounted for 80% of the variation in psychological distress, over other untested factors such as education and poverty.

(R2 = .827, F(6, 64) = 46.195, p < .000).

Conclusion: Results indicate that Maori women living in urban areas are at the highest risk of psychological distress. However, only 28% of participants scored no distress, leaving three in four Maori at risk of psychological distress. Being included in one’s culture was a protective

factor, even with participants with high perceived racism scores. Although results of a cross-section study must be interpreted with caution, especially given the small sample size in this study, the relationship between lived experiences of racism predicting psychological distress, and being culturally included reducing that risk, needs further research. Polices and interventions must address access to cultural inclusion, reducing racism in NZ society, and implementing culturally safe early interventions to manage psychological distress in Maori people.

Theme 6: Cultural Heritage

Gary Toone


Farmers’ perspectives of Aboriginal cultural heritage [Tatiara]

The focus of this research project is the protection and preservation of Aboriginal cultural heritage on farms. Fundamentally, cultural heritage management is about managing cultural heritage in the face of change (State of the Environment Committee, 2011). However, theoretical and practical approaches of heritage management systems and processes excluding or marginalising relevant cultural groups are unsatisfactory (Chirikure & Pewit, 2008; Greer, Harrison & McIntyre-Tamwoy, 2002; Harrison, 1999). In certain situations (areas of intensive farming is one example), Aboriginal cultural resources (ACR) may be out of the reach of Aboriginal people. Research results are indicating current Aboriginal heritage legislation, regulation, and management protocols are not effective in enforcing, enabling or encouraging farmers to engage with Aboriginal cultural resources and heritage (ACR (H) on their land. Consequently, locating, protecting and preserving ACR (H) on farms is considerably reliant on farmers’ knowledge, interest and ethics. Therefore, understanding the attitudes of farmers is crucial in developing management policies and strategies for effectively protecting and preserving the heritage of Aboriginal people on farms.

Myles Mitchell


The Wudjari People of Esperance, at the Frontier; archaeological investigation of mobility, communication and identity in late-Holocene Aboriginal society, Western Australia

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This paper presents a discussion of my doctoral research, which I will be submitting as a Thesis by Compilation. The research conducts an analysis of rock-art, stone arrangements, and flaked stone assemblages at two important Wudjari cultural places in the Esperance region, south coast Western Australia. The preliminary results suggest that these places - Marbaleerup and Belinup - functioned as important aggregation locales (regional meeting places), facilitating dynamic negotiations of identity, territory and lore during the past 500 years, which has implications for understanding more about the dynamics of shifting alliances and territorial affiliation in past Aboriginal society. This leads to a discussion about the historical construction of modern Wudjari identity, drawing on ethnographic information provided through the two-way knowledge exchange that underpins a research partnership with the Wudjari Elders.

Theme 7: Indigenous Music, Dance and Art

Rosie Goldfeder

MA candidate, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

A post-Western narrative of Australian art

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art was belatedly recognised as contemporary by the Western art establishment. Ian Mclean suggests this led to recognition of the limitations of the previous Western story of Australian art. Parallel but linked histories are now broadly accepted. Mclean calls art made after this shift in thinking ‘post-Western art’. I will extend this concept by examining two ‘Contemporary Australia’ exhibitions from the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. Featured artists including Tony Albert, Judy Watson, Fiona Hall and James Dodd challenge outdated Western definitions of contemporary art. The post-Western narrative is a useful approach to examining the current cultural focus in Australian art.

Sidha Pandian


Indigenous Australian and South Indian classical dance dialogues: An ontological and epistemological performance-based study

This project is an investigation of the ontological and epistemological foundations and similarities between Indigenous Australian and South Indian classical dance practices. This relationship will be explored by means of an innovative dance dialogue involving a practice-based methodology between these dance practices. The primary question of my thesis is: “What are the spiritual, corporeal, emotional and intellectual possibilities of collaboration, dialogue and exchange between Indigenous Australian and South Indian Classical dance expressions of culture?”

higher degree research retreat 2013 … · higher degree research retreat 2013 program overview...

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