Indigenous project receives $360,000 ARC grant

The Australian Government has awarded almost $360,000 to a Charles Darwin University research project that will focus on aspects of the Yolngu people in North-east Arnhem Land of the Northern Territory.

The Minister for Education, Senator the Hon. Simon Birmingham, this morning announced the outcomes of the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, Discovery Indigenous and Discovery Projects schemes for funding in 2017.

A Senior Research Fellow at CDU’s Northern Institute, Dr Linda Ford, was awarded $358,313 funding under the Discovery Indigenous scheme.

Vice-Chancellor of CDU Professor Simon Maddocks congratulated Dr Ford on securing funding for her ground-breaking research.

“One of the goals in CDU’s strategic plan is to be a leader in Indigenous tertiary education in Australia and research of the nature that Dr Ford is undertaking will help us to achieve this and also deliver benefits to Indigenous communities,” Professor Maddocks said.

In her application, Dr Ford said the project would examine the nature of Aboriginal or Yolngu cosmology and its meaning for and effect on public policy for women and gender.

In the North-east Arnhem region of Elcho Island at Gawa, the project would identify the Djurrwirr Yalu guiding principles used to enhance the levels of governance and other systems applied to their community, culture, traditional ecological environmental knowledge and skill sets.

The anticipated benefits included supporting and retaining established Yolngu Australian researchers in traditional ecological environmental knowledge, and improving Yolngu wellbeing and quality of life.

The research project will begin in 2017.