I have a background in anthropology complemented by eight years working in the Indigenous land and sea management space, with a focus on Sea Country. My current projects centre on supporting Indigenous-led management of Sea Country.
Recognising the important contributions Indigenous Sea Country managers make to protecting the cultural and ecological resources of Australia's coastal and marine estate, my research seeks to deliver tangible benefits to Indigenous communities whilst supporting the conservation and academic sectors to better understand how they can meaningfully partner with Indigenous Sea Country managers.
This includes taking seriously Indigenous knowledge authorities and the ways in which they see, know, feel and understand Country and the people-place relations embedded in it. All projects in which I am involved respond to Indigenous research priorities and are fully co-designed and co-implemented with collaborating Indigenous partners.
I am interested in supervising PhD topics which explore the following issues:
- Protected area and fisheries governance: improving models of collaboration between governments and Indigenous Sea Country Managers to better recognise Indigenous modes of decision making and knowledge authority
- Knowledge mapping: supporting Indigenous knowledge authorities to create resources which articulate the multidimensional values of their Sea Country, which they can utilise when navigating complex cross-cultural knowledge authority domains