Palaszczuk Government support for Indigenous Centre of Excellence

• The Palaszczuk Government is providing funding of $350,000 for the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures.
• The Centre of Excellence, headquartered at the Cairns campus of James Cook University, is expected to be fully established by mid-2024 with specific projects co-designed with Indigenous partners.

The Palaszczuk Government will provide $350,000 in funding over seven years for the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures at James Cook University, Cairns’ campus.

The Centre will prioritise sustainable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led approaches to land and sea management planning and develop complementary Indigenous and Western frameworks to model environmental, cultural, and historical change in Australia.

Benefits from the Centre’s work will include improved forecasting of environmental change, an increased capacity of Indigenous research, opportunities for Indigenous students, and evidence-based policy making.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Environment and Science, Leanne Linard:

“As we celebrate NAIDOC Week, I am proud to announce that the Palaszczuk Government will provide funding to support the work of Ethnobotanist Gerry Turpin, a Mbabaram Traditional Owner with familial links to Tableland Yidinji, Ngadyan and Kuku Thaypan.

“Mr Turpin manages the Tropical Indigenous Ethnobotany Centre, an Indigenous-driven initiative to support Traditional Owner groups in north Queensland to record and use Indigenous ethnobiological and ethnoecological knowledge for cultural use on Country.

“Combined with other partners’ co-funding, this investment will also see a new Indigenous-identified research officer being employed to work with Mr Turpin, and support two postgraduate student interns per year.”

Quotes attributable to Member for Cairns, Michael Healy:

“The Palaszczuk Government’s involvement in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures is an excellent opportunity for us to further support ethnobotany and Indigenous engagement in north Queensland.

“It also aids our commitment of supporting the aspirations of Indigenous communities throughout Queensland, while working closely with our scientific partners such as CSIRO and James Cook University.

“Mr Turpin’s work will give the Centre access to collections and scientific expertise in both the Queensland Herbarium, based in Brisbane, and Australian Tropical Herbarium, based in Cairns.”

Quotes attributable to Ethnobotanist, Gerry Turpin:

“I am very excited to be working with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures.

“Indigenous knowledge can make a valuable contribution to Western sciences in managing major challenges like climate change, food security and biodiversity. 

“My work with the centre will help bridge Indigenous biocultural knowledge and Western science, with an aim of strengthening community awareness of cultural biodiversity and how it can play a role in a sustainable future.

“I can bring to the centre and the people that work in it my many years researching the history of ethnobotany in north Queensland and recording and documenting traditional plant use with various Indigenous communities, particularly on Cape York Peninsula.

“The centre’s outcomes will benefit many in our north Queensland communities.”

Further information:

Among other things, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures intends to: 

• Develop and communicate an integrated history of cultural and environmental change in Australia over the past 1000 years, informed by transdisciplinary Indigenous knowledges; Indigenous science; and Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) and Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) research, using diverse cultural, environmental, historical and climatic records.
• Inform on-the-ground Land and Sea Caring for Country activities, strategies and policies by providing long-term, high-resolution hindcasting (testing a scientific model by using data from a past event) to situate current environmental issues.
• Forecast future change in land-use, management, and climate-change scenarios.
• Recruit, empower, and inspire the next generation of Indigenous researchers to create a “pipeline” of Indigenous undergraduate and postgraduate students.
• Train the next generation of researchers in transdisciplinary and cultural protocols, with a particular focus on advancing women and gender-diverse people in research careers in STEM and HASS.
• Become the catalyst for a deeper recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led approaches to managing Land and Sea Country, positively influencing public perceptions and evidence-based policy making on the role that Indigenous knowledge and science must play in shaping sustainable and inclusive futures for all Australians.

Further information on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, including its partnering organisations, is available here.

ENDS

Media contact: Scott Chandler – (07) 3719 7339