Collaborative & Indigenous Science

We collaborate to develop and support futures thinking that embeds justice and equity, respects multiple knowledge and governance systems, and delivers solutions to sustainability challenges. We prioritise Indigenous and stakeholder-led research, tailoring our methods to meet diverse contexts and drawing on political ecology, post-colonial, social-ecological systems and other theories. We have co-designed new tools including interactive spatial platforms and participatory power mapping to enable futures thinking that responds to diverse perspectives of risks triggered by climate, environmental and institutional change.

Our vision is to foster new forms of collaboration to mobilise scientific, Indigenous, local and practitioner knowledge to foster pathways to sustainable futures. We work to address policy and practice challenges at local, catchment, national and global scales to build cross-scale and cross-cultural expertise. Through this work, we seek to advance collaborative and Indigenous-led science partnerships that support First Peoples to realise their aspirations for economic participation and wellbeing outcomes. We focus particularly on marine and coastal ecosystems, and on northern Australia.

We partner with a range of Indigenous and stakeholder organisations including the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA), land councils, Native Title Prescribed Body Corporates, Aboriginal Corporations, Natural Resource Management agencies, State and Australian governments, The Nature Conservancy, communities and ranger groups. Internationally we partner with the Stockholm Resilience Centre, IUCN, IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), the Collaborative Governance Working Group of the Program on Ecosystem Change and Society, and multiple other research institutions.

 

Our Team Members