As a contribution to the celebration of history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that is NAIDOC Week 2020, Wiley recently interviewed a number of researchers to see what led them to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the opportunities their research brings to communities, and what this year’s NAIDOC Week theme — ‘Always Was, Always Will Be’ — means to them.

INTRODUCING DR EMMA LEE
Dr Emma Lee, Swinburne University of Technology

Dr Emma Lee
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Fellow, Adjunct Lecturer
Centre for Social Impact, Swinburne University of Technology

Dr Emma Lee is a trawlwulwuy woman of tebrakunna country, north-east Tasmania.

As an Aboriginal researcher, Dr Lee’s fields of work are ‘anchored in country and all the threads and parts that allow me to care for it’. She often publishes under the authorship of ‘tebrakunna country and Lee, E.’ to denote country as a co-author and to signal an Indigenous practice of centring identity connected to place.

‘I work in land and sea governance and management, policy and regulatory environments, and social impacts of Indigenous-led regional development.

My current research is focused on establishing a market for cultural fisheries in Tasmania, where we are able to use our cultural strengths and assets of connections to sea country to build strong and healthy communities alongside sustainable business.’

Country and research has also led Dr Lee into democracy, voice and self-determination projects. She is a sitting member to the National Co-Design Group, Australian Government, for developing models for a Voice to Parliament.

‘It is of the highest honour to engage with this level of public service and build on the many Indigenous, and other Australian, voices who are creating the good negotiating environment that allow for transparent, inclusive and diverse democracy.’

Read the full article and the rest of the researcher’s stories, for free on the IPAA National Website, here….

THE ‘ALWAYS WAS, ALWAYS WILL BE’ RESEARCH COLLECTION IS FREE TO ACCESS

Wiley has brought together a collection of over 80 research papers from its stable of journals as contribution to NAIDOC Week.

The collection includes Dr Emma Lee’s 2015 paper on protected areas, country and value, Professor Catherine Althaus’ 2020 paper on different paradigms of evidence and knowledge, and Dr Michael Doyle’s 2020 paper on the onset and trajectory of alcohol and other drug use among Aboriginal men entering a prison treatment program.

The full collection, and transcripts of the full interviews with these researchers and many others, can be accessed from Wiley’s NAIDOC 2020 website.

The ‘Always Was, Always Will Be’ Collection spans the fields of:

  • Archaeology and Anthropology
  • Geography, Ecology and Environment
  • Medicine
  • Mental Health and Addiction
  • Nursing Dentistry and Healthcare
  • Social Policy, Politics and Economics.