Student Research Projects
Cherise Addinsall
Southern Cross University
Honours thesis title: Aboriginal remote tourism entrepreneurship on Country: An exploratory study.
Governments promote tourism as a pathway to reversing the current economic and social trends faced by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remote communities. Yet there remain few Aboriginal-owned and -operated tourism enterprises in remote Australia. This study built understanding of Aboriginal remote tourism entrepreneurship ‘on country’ and the motivations and challenges faced by an Aboriginal-owned and -operated tourism business in the Kimberley region of Western Australia: UPTUYU Aboriginal Adventures and the community-owned Oongkalkada Wilderness Camp.
The study used a qualitative approach based on principles from constructivist/interpretivist and Indigenist paradigms. A sociological approach to inquiry was adopted to examine the role of the entrepreneur within society, internal and external influences shaping their motives and their ability to access resources. These underlying philosophies informed a case study approach and fieldwork strategy based on a set of principles ensuring sensitivity, respect and reciprocity to study participants.
Findings suggest that many challenges faced by the study participants on country may not be apparent when operating privately off country. Findings also suggest that study participants implement diversification strategies in an attempt to deal with the low revenue gained because of the seasonal nature of remote tourism. The study findings suggest that the motivation to operate on country outweighed these challenges. In particular, study participants emphasised that tourism provides an opportunity for cultural preservation, Reconciliation, and importantly, an avenue to remain living on country.
Skye Akbar
Skye has a Bachelor of Management in Marketing and in 2011 completed her Honours thesis. She has experience in marketing, communications and government.
Skye’s passion for supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and enabling participation for everyone in remote communities, comes from her family and country upbringing. Skye is a PhD candidate based at University of South Australia, Adelaide.
UniSA
PhD thesis title: Marketing remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tourism to Australians.
Overview: The aim of this research is to explore the complex branding issues unique to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tourism operators. It seeks to understand branding challenges from the perception of the tourism operator and the consumer, and investigate the capacity of effective branding activities to support and sustain the industry.
The research will also investigate the contribution of this industry to reconciliation.
The research acknowledges that boutique remote tourism operators have limited access to marketing resources. Comprehension of branding within this industry, from operator and consumer perspectives, will strengthen the industry, gauge future capacity for branding activities and facilitate the formation of sustainable economic opportunities.
Janine Ashwell
Flinders University
PhD thesis title: Perceptions and attitudes of international tourists towards Aboriginal tourism.
Overview: Understanding tourist behaviour enables more strategic product and promotional strategies to be developed. Activities and location are of equal importance to most tourists, with the Transferred Loyalty Concept considering tourists retain loyalty to new destinations.
This multi-stage empirical research examines Aboriginal tourists’ destination choice behaviours across Australia using survey and case study data. It examines the sequential process of choice set formation, the influence of personal traits on destination choices, and tests a conceptual model of brand equity which considers how prior involvement in Aboriginal tourism positively influences the other dimensions.
Iris Bendor
Southern Cross University
B.Bus (Hons) thesis title: The use and benefits of ebusiness to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art centres in 2014.
Overview: This project will make both theoretical and empirical analyses of art centre e-marketing from a new media and sociological point of view. It will address consumer behaviour, multimedia opportunities, and resource availability.
It will clarify current and future practices, will examine motivations to invest in eCommerce marketing, and will deepen conceptual understandings of the significance of eCommerce. It also will focus on 1-2 main case studies researching the practices of eCommerce within specific art centres. It will provide solid measures to achieve increase in benefit through eCommerce.
Tessa Benveniste
Tessa has completed Bachelor degree in both Medical Science (Flinders University) and Psychological Science (University of South Australia). In 2012 she completed her Honours degree in Psychology at the Appleton Institute, the newly formed Adelaide research centre for Central Queensland University. She began her PhD candidature in March 2013 and pursuing her passion for equality and cross-cultural education in Australian Indigenous contexts. This continues from a life-long interest in exploring a variety of cultures, languages and backgrounds.
Central Queensland University
Thesis title: Beyond Boarding: An exploration of post-boarding school aspirations and outcomes for Australian Indigenous students, their parents and their communities.
Overview: The project aims to gain insight into the aspirations and outcome expectations of attendance at boarding school for Pitjantjatjara students, their families and their communities.
Employing qualitative research methods such as life history interviews, semi-structured interviews and focus groups will allow data to be collected from families, community members and students. It is intended that this research will assist in policy making and the construction of support structures that allow desired outcomes to be recongnised, vocalised, and achieved for all involved in boarding.
Jessica Booth
UniSA
Masters thesis title: Understanding buyer behaviour in the primary market for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.
Overview: The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art market has experienced an increasing downturn in recent years. Art has been a key source of economic and cultural development in remote Indigenous communities.
The relationships between artists, agents and consumers have not yet been comprehensively documented to assess the viability of existing markets and opportunities for growth.
Research on the market and the ideological frameworks within which art is presented is not sufficiently current or comprehensive to capture rapidly changing production and consumption landscapes.
Further data is required to understand demand in the market and the motivations and preferences of buyers.
Patricia Burke
Originally from Dublin, Patricia Burke has spent the past two and half years teaching in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, Western Australia, at Warburton and Wingellina campuses of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands Remote Community School.
She holds Bachelor degrees in Education and Arts, having majored in social anthropology at the University of Sydney. She holds a Masters in Philosophy from Trinity College, Dublin, and is currently enrolled in a PhD at Flinders University.
Flinders University
Thesis Title: Nomads don’t walk: education and perspiration in remote Aboriginal community.
Overview: The topic is education as development in the Lands, history and future prospects. The central question underlying the research is the extent to which Ngaanyatjarra epistemology and ontology converge with the goals of mainstream education in ways that lead to better outcomes for Ngaanyatjarra people.
Susan Congreve
Susan’s work spans a variety of community organisations and arts companies in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. This work has primarily been focused on remote and regional Aboriginal art centres. She has assisted many organisations to improve their management systems, service delivery and governance structures by providing targeted training and mentoring for management committees and staff.
Susan is keenly interested in the impact of the current political climate on small Aboriginal enterprises in remote communities and has been a passionate advocate for art centres throughout her career.
Curtin University
PhD thesis title: Investigations into the role of the enabling environment in supporting Indigenous economic development: A case study of remote community Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art centres 2007–2013.
Overview: The Art Economies Project is proposing two comparative case study-based analyses of the characteristics and success/failure of community arts enterprises.
This research aims to investigate and understand the interplay between community and cultural forces, commercial opportunity and art centre business practices, including human resources. It is anticipated that this research will provide evidence and information to reduce the fragility that characterises this sector.
Kate Eccles
Kate has undergraduate qualifications in communications and economics and has experience researching economic vulnerability and resilience in remote communities in Melanesia with Oxfam Australia. She is currently a research Masters student at the University of South Australia, undertaking a project aiming to develop knowledge about how remote Aboriginal tourism enterprises remain resilient despite the challenges of their geographically remote context.
University of South Australia
Thesis title: Building resilience through connection: Exploring networking in remote Aboriginal tourism enterprises.
Overview: The project will aim to identify business models characteristics that contribute to resilience in Aboriginal tourism enterprises and share the knowledge in an appropriate way to make a direct contribution to the people impacted by such tourism operations.
Andrew Falk
University of New England
Thesis title: Opportunities for development of carbon economies through land management practices, and grazing management in northern Australia focussing on participation in the Emissions Reduction Fund and direct partnerships with industry.
Overview: Investigate fire management, feral animal control and grazing management land management practices in northern Australia (Arnhem Land) under the Carbon Farming Initiative. Make recommendations on the attractiveness of the different options that will assist in uptake in remote communities outlining economic benefits, environmental benefits and other co-benefits.
Anne Fordham
University of South Australia
Thesis title: Corporate social responsibility of Mining companies in rural communities in South Australian and beyond.
Overview: Assessment of the enduring nature of corporate social responsibility strategies developed through the Wiluna Regional Partnership Agreement (a combined mining company and Martu family groups within the Wiluna Shire) regarding land and resource management/industry partnerships.
Kylie Lingard
Kylie’s previously worked for public libraries in project and event management, public relations and graphic design and during this time she completed a Bachelor of Laws with Honours at the University of New England. The blend of community work and legal study contributed to Kylie’s belief that laws can help people achieve their dreams and desires.
A PhD candidate, Kylie’s research projects are underpinned by a desire to provide practical outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and law reformers. Her PhD research looks at how laws and institutions can help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people achieve different knowledge-related needs and aspirations.
University of New England
Thesis title: Legal and institutional strategies to support the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in bush food commercialisation.
Overview: This PhD research project aims to identify legal and institutional arrangements that best ensure pathways to bush food commercialisation assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in relation to bush food knowledge.
The exciting challenge that lies at the heart of this research project is the identification of arrangements that embrace diverse interests. The project looks at the legal and institutional arrangements invoked along various pathways to commercialisation, and the extent that these arrangements help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people achieve their needs and aspirations in relation to bush food knowledge.
The analysis of current arrangements will help shape a conversation on reforms that may ensure various pathways to commercialisation help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people achieve the most possible outcomes in relation to benefit-sharing and to safeguarding their bush food knowledge.
The project will lead to the compilation of a suite of legal and institutional models and a set of tools that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may adopt to pursue their diverse interests in a variety of ways.
Catherine Joyce
Catherine has a Bachelor of Science with Honours from Griffith University. Recently, she has been researching the effectiveness of community engagement and consultation approaches in the development of wind farms in Australia; the sociocultural dimensions and impacts of renewable energy development; the participation of oil companies in the development of solar technology and the scientific achievements of Aboriginal Australians.
In addition to teaching and researching, Catherine was Project Coordinator in the International Project Management units of Griffith University and UniQuest Pty Limited (University of Queensland) where her role was to support the implementation of AusAID-funded Education and Governance Projects in the Pacific, and research and write tenders for new projects.
Charles Darwin University
Theis title: Climate Change Adaptation in Remote Australia: The potential for renewable energy to support local economic development and sustainable livelihoods in remote Australia.
Overview: This project will explore innovative options for developing renewable and sustainable energy sources to support the livelihoods of remote communities. The inclusion of renewable energy technology in a community’s energy mix has the potential to provide economic opportunities, both directly and indirectly. However, the transition from fossils fuels to renewable energy sources needs to be congruent with community aspirations, plans for building social capacity and respectful of cultural contexts. This transition can be informed by evaluating similar experiences in Australia and internationally, interviewing a diversity of stakeholders and working with remote communities to explore how they conceptualise their energy futures.
Judith Lovell
University of Canberra
PhD thesis title: When the studio left the room : what do Wallace’s paintings and stories of the Eastern Arrernte homelands reveal?
Abstract: The work of this thesis is to construct an intercultural interface in which a sample of eighteen paintings and stories are considered by researcher and artist as a body of knowledge. The sample is drawn from the contemporary painting and storytelling that Eastern Arrernte artist Kathleen Kemarre Wallace produced between 2003 and 2010 and which represents many public attributes of her homelands.
A theory of practice emerges that encompasses the multimodal nature of cultural literacies as deep and cultural knowledge praxis. Wallace’s art objects, one result of cultural literacy praxis, are available to audience who are (a), culturally connected to the homelands source and (b), those engaged through the cosmopolitan Aboriginal arts market or (c), other everyday events.
The artist and the researcher engage in a process of interpretation that determines growing insight of a public homelands habitus, constructed against Wallace’s inheritance of knowledge and her Indigenous Standpoint, and influences of western knowledge the researcher brings.
A Theory of Cultural Literacy Praxis emerges from this thesis as agency of the arts-based and collaborative research.
Jillian Miller
Jillian Miller is a Mirning woman with family ties to the west coast of South Australia. From 2000-2005 she was the state’s Superintendent Aboriginal Education and a member of the National MCEETYA Task Force on Indigenous Education. Jillian initiated and was the inaugural chairperson of the Senior Officers Nation Network Indigenous Education.
From 2002 -2006 Jillian was the Indigenous member of the University of South Australia Council. She also chaired the Indigenous Education and Research Advisory Committee. Jillian is currently a member of the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Advisory Council for the Federal Minister responsible for Higher Education, and the National Tertiary Education Union’s Indigenous Policy Committee.
University of South Australia
Theis title: Aboriginal Student Success: Inclusive effective and transferrable best practices that has enabled SACE completion for Aboriginal students in rural and remote locations.
Overview: Literature review in Australia and internationally suggests that education systems have failed in optimising structures and processes for Indigenous students’ success. This research will explore the area of inclusive curriculum, pedagogy, teacher relationships and the effect of school and systems leadership for senior secondary students to further contribute to the body of knowledge on transferrable best practice for Indigenous student success. It will examine and document transferrable best practice for Indigenous students in rural and remote location who are presently at risk of being excluded from the economic, educational and social advantages available to other Australians.
Htay Htay Nyunt
Curtin University
Thesis title: Women’s wellbeing and social inclusion in remote communities: The role of temporary mobility and access to services.
Overview: The project will explore gendered aspects of patterns of temporary mobility among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders living in remote Australia. It will focus on the inter-relationships between women’s mobility, service access and social inclusion and wellbeing.
The research will follow a mixed methods methodology, first exploiting quantitative survey data gathered in CRC-REP Population Mobility and Labour Markets project, and supplementing with this qualitative data collected in interviews in remote communities.
The results will be used to highlight how government policy and models of service delivery can improve livelihoods of Aboriginal and Torres Strait women in remote Australia.
Amy Parkes
UniSA
Honours thesis title: The dreams of mobile young Aboriginal Australian people.
Abstract: Despite growing interest in mobility patterns and quantification, little is known about the lived experiences of mobile young Aboriginal Australian people. Mobility research to date has focused primarily on remote to remote movements. Supported by a Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation Honours Scholarship, this study feeds into the ‘Pathways to Employment’ research project and develops new knowledge for understanding and enabling education and employment pathways which have relevance to young Aboriginal people from remote Australia. It explores understandings of mobile young Aboriginal Australian people aged between 13 and 25 years, who move in, out and through remote, regional and urban locations.Considering dreams and aspirations in the context of cultural difference is the central focus.
Kim Petersen
Kim has over twenty years of management experience in planning, leading and implementing programs and complex change processes in both the government and non-government sector. This has encompassed both statewide leadership positions and diverse senior management positions in Primary Health Care, Human Services, Drug and Alcohol, HIV and Communicable Diseases, Remote Infrastructure and Aboriginal policy and program development.
Kim’s last position in the South Australian Government was as the Director of Remote Communities in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet. Over the past two years, Kim has been operating her own consultancy specialising in community development, micro enterprise development in Aboriginal communities and social policy development.
Curtin University
PhD theis title: Sustainability of remote Aboriginal art centres in Australian desert communities.
Overview: Remote area art enterprises have a unique place within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art sector, blending creative, social, cultural and commercial roles. They are often the only enterprise in remote locations, support individual livelihoods and contribute to community cohesion.
These art enterprises are also highly variable in location, performance and approach, with a wide spectrum of micro-enterprise business practices in use. While art enterprises are widely acknowledged, they are also poorly understood and under-researched.
To address this lack of knowledge, the Art Economies Project is proposing two comparative case study-based analyses of the characteristics and success/failure factors of community arts enterprises.
This research aims to investigate and understand the interplay between community and cultural forces, commercial opportunity and art centre business practices, including human resources. It is anticipated that this research will provide evidence and information to reduce the fragility that characterises this sector. Research sites will be: Ngaanyatjarra and Anangu, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Lands of WA and SA.
Kate Rampellini
Kate graduated from Curtin University with a Bachelor of Science in Cartography with honours in 2004. She has worked in the Western Australian public service for over 10 years, holding a variety of spatial roles in fields such as geological survey, statutory and regional planning, public transport, land tenure, maritime and nautical charting. She has also been employed as a sessional academic at Curtin University for a number of years, tutoring first and second year spatial sciences students in spatial statistics, mapping coordinate systems and geodesy fundamentals. Kate is interested in using her spatial modelling and GIS experience to create models that can incorporate many factors affecting regional communities in order to make more informed decisions for the planning of regional communities.
Curtin University
Thesis title: Creating multidisciplinary, multi-scale spatial scenario model of the Pilbara region
Overview: This research will use spatial analysis techniques, scenario modelling and systems thinking to undertake spatial and temporal modelling to aid strategic decision making at a local and regional level. Based in the Pilbara region, this research will bring together cultural systems and influences, social networks, regional planning thinking and spatial technologies in order for local governments and policy makers to plan for resilient and sustainable communities that are attractive places to live and work. There are multiple end-users of the research results, some of which are local and state government agencies, traditional owners and Aboriginal corporations as well as major infrastructure and utility providers.
Stuart Robertson
Stuart is a Master of Philosophy candidate at the University of New England and has worked for the New South Wales state government in regional community development roles. In these roles, Stuart worked with many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community organisations and undertook research into the social impacts of the expansion of coal mining in the Gunnedah and Narrabri Shire Councils in NSW. This has led Stuart to develop an interest in the impacts of mining on communities.
University of New England
PhD thesis title: Mine lifecycle planning and enduring value for remote communities.
Overview: This thesis is documenting remote community dependency on mining activities for a range of goods, services, employment and infrastructure.
While many mining companies claim to be independent of communities, their tenure, economic and environmental size, political value and international interface inevitably impacts on the local community and region in a variety of ways.
Using a mapping tool the thesis will analyse the nature and intensity of costs and benefits flowing from resource industries and how they impact on different stakeholders. It will assesses whether company policies and mine lifecycle planning assists communities to properly plan for their future, after mine operations have ceased.
Paulina Sepulveda-Bravo
Paulina was born and raised in Santiago, Chile, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Economics, then a degree in Business Engineering from the University of Chile. In 2009, her husband was transferred to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and it is here she has learnt about and experienced all the facets of life in a remote mining community. Paulina is interested in developing models that could be used to produce social impact and improve conditions for disadvantaged people.
Curtin University
Thesis title: Measuring the economic impact of the minerals sector: a Western Australian perspective.
Overview: The mining sector contributes directly to the Western Australian economy via taxes, royalties and state agreements. This thesis will explore how the sector impacts in an indirect manner (via employment, services, etc.) and through the redistribution of rents such as the Royalties for Regions program.
This thesis will measure the economic impact of the minerals sector over other areas of the Western Australian economy and to determine the enduring benefits derived from royalties, taxes and state agreements for resource communities in remote locations.
Philip Townsend
Phil lived in remote cross-cultural situations from 1984 to 2010 (including three years in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, and most of the next twenty three years in an isolated area of Papua New Guinea).
These experiences enabled him to develop skills in generating positive learning opportunities through creative and flexible approaches for teenagers and adults. While in roles of educational leadership and management he used critical reflective thinking to intentionally foster transformational change.
Flinders University
Thesis title: Travelling together and sitting alongside: How might the use of mobile technologies enhance the professional learning of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school educators in remote communities?
Overview: This research will investigate the use of mobile technologies for indigenous teacher training courses and professional development programs in remote communities in South Australia and the Northern Territory. These locations were chosen because of the large number of remote communities, the length of time such courses and programs have operated, the history of cooperation between the two Education Departments, and the amount of existing data on allied educational issues in the literature. Data collection will be by analysis of existing records, written questionnaires/surveys, interviews with human subjects and compilation of technical results of hardware capabilities from field experiments.
Therese Tyacke
Flinders University
Thesis title: A shared knowledge approach to developing a wellbeing framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote Australia.
Overview: This project aims to develop and implement strategies to actively and effectively engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to identify their own needs and aspirations in relation to education, employment, health and wellbeing, for input into the Interplay Project’s research methodology.
Michelle Whittle
Flinders University
Honours thesis title: Understanding the challenges of managers from non-Indigenous backgrounds working in remote Australia: a cultural competence perspective.
Overview: This project will research into the human resource issues associated with recruiting, retaining and engaging staff for challenging remotely located, cross-cultural jobs. Focusing specifically on the intercultural challenges managers’ face in the art sector, such as linguistic and monetary barriers.
Byron Wilson
Byron is a part-time Masters student through Menzies School of Health Research (Charles Darwin University) and has been living and teaching science in the Northern Territory for the past 7 years. Currently, he is the Science Coordinator at St John’s College in Darwin, a Catholic co-educational boarding school with 450 students.
Byron has also lived in Germany, working with the NGO Jugend Umwelt Projeck Werkstatt where he organised a volunteer exchange program between Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltic region.
Menzies School of Health Research (Charles Darwin University)
Thesis title: The relationship between Education and Wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from Remote Communities.
Overview: The relationship between education and wellbeing will be explored to identify both the role of education in relation to employment and health, and also the characteristics of education that lead to optimal wellbeing outcomes. These include the quality and cultural relevance of education, and experiences of cultural connection, engagement, empowerment and opportunity through education.