Major new Indigenous Histories and Futures Centre launched at JCU

A major new national research centre has launched in Cairns which aims to set new standards for research and management of land and sea country across Australia and delve into untapped Indigenous knowledge.

The Centre includes world-leading researchers from across the globe with deep expertise encompassing Indigenous knowledges, Indigenous science, archaeology, history, ecology, palaeoecology, mathematics, modelling, remote sensing and genomics. Photo: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures

A major new national research centre has launched in Cairns which aims to set new standards for research and management of Land and Sea Country across Australia and delve into untapped Indigenous knowledge potential.

The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures will be officially launched on Thursday at James Cook University’s Nguma-bada Campus in Smithfield.

Centre director Distinguished Professor Sean Ulm will be joined by community leaders and Elders, partners, and esteemed guests to celebrate the significant milestone.

The Centre’s research program brings together cutting-edge techniques from Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous science, archaeology, history, ecology, palaeoecology, palaeoclimatology, mathematics, high-performance computing, remote sensing, and genomics. Photo: DESI

“Australia’s future depends on learning lessons from the past and applying them to problems that confront our modern world. Yet we know surprisingly little about how tens of thousands of years of Indigenous engagement and management have shaped Australia’s lands and seas,” Professor Ulm said.

The centre includes world-leading researchers from across the globe with deep expertise encompassing Indigenous knowledges, Indigenous science, archaeology, history, ecology, palaeoecology, mathematics, modelling, remote sensing and genomics.

Professor Sean Ulm, archaeologist, James Cook University, Cairns

CIEHF deputy director and ARC Laureate Fellow Distinguished Professor Lynette Russell from Monash University said CIEHF would transform the way the other disciplines such as humanities, arts, science, maths, and engineering engage with Indigenous knowledges.

“The vast store of Indigenous knowledges, in conjunction with historical, archaeological and palaeoecological records, have rarely been employed to inform land and sea management,” Professor Russell said.

Professor Lynette Russell AM FASSA FAHA (Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor and ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Professor at Monash University’s Indigenous Studies Centre) is an award-winning historian and Indigenous studies scholar.

CIEHF deputy director and University of Melbourne Professor Michael-Shawn Fletcher said authentic co-designed research with Indigenous partners was at the heart of the centre.

“A failure in many approaches to working on country in the past has been to impose non-Indigenous research agendas,” he said.

“The research framework and program of this new centre was co-designed with Indigenous partners.”

JCU Chancellor Professor Ngiare Brown said healthy country was at the heart of the centre.

“This is an important investment from JCU, the Australian Research Council, and other partners, healthy country means healthy people, essential for Australia’s future.”

With a focus on training and empowering the next generation of Indigenous researchers, CIEHF aims to influence public policy and land management practices at national and global scales.

Originally published as Major new Indigenous Histories and Futures Centre launched at JCU