Consistent with the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, the Jawun Research Centre research projects and research capacity development are conducted in ways that:

  • Recognise, value and respect the diversity, heritage, knowledge, cultural property and connection to land of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
  • Engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples prior to research being undertaken, so that they freely make decisions about their involvement.
  • Report to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples the outcomes of research in which they have engaged.

The Jawun Research Centre’s current projects are clustered into the below areas:

The integration of language and society

Project Overview: Each language bears an imprint of the society that speaks it — speakers' relationships to each other, their beliefs and ways of viewing the world, and other facets of their social environment, alongside speakers' habitat, subsistence, and physical environment. The way society is integrated with the language spoken by the community is reflected in many linguistic features, also summed up under the notion of language ecology. These include gender and classifiers, information source, speech styles, and ways of telling stories. We focus on the ways in which highly complex minority languages of Amazonia, New Guinea, and Northern Australia reflect their traditional societies and how they change with the encroaching modernity, in collaboration with communities in Brazil, PNG, and North Queensland.. 

Project Lead: Professor Alexandra Y Aikhenvald

Project Team: Professor R. M. W. Dixon (Jawun Research Centre); Assoc.Prof Nerida Jarkey (University of Sydney); Prof Dr Anne Storch (University of Cologne); Prof Maarten Mous (Leiden University)

The Dyirbal language of North Queensland: documentation and maintenance

Project Overview: The Dyirbal language with its many varieties (including Jirrbal, Girramay, Ngajan, and Mamu) is spoken across ten First Nations in an area from Tully to Atherton. This language and the traditional speakers it represents are remarkable in its many aspects – including the elaborate classificatory kinship system and many grammatical features documented by the lead investigator since 1963. Among them is a special gender for edible plants which reflects their importance in the traditional subsistence. A fascinating feature of Dyirbal is a special speech style which must be used in the presence of any kin who are an ‘avoidance’ relationship, that is, in-laws. This has the same grammar and phonetics as the everyday style of speech, but an entirely different vocabulary, the topic of Bob Dixon’s new book, titled The anatomy of avoidance: A full study of Jalnguy, the Dyirbal 'mother-in-law language. We are working towards language maintenance of Dyirbal (focus on Jirrbal), in collaboration the Jirrbal Aboriginal corporation and the Ravenshoe State School, with support from FirstLanguages Australia.

Project Lead: Professor R. M. W. Dixon

Project Team: Professor Adrian MillerProfessor Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, Ruth Miller

Language and well-being a study across tropical societies

Project overview. Each language has its own way of talking about health and about the disturbances caused by sickness. In some languages, an illness is said to 'come upon' or 'jump to' the sick person. In others, the sufferer becomes a 'container' for an ailment. Saying ‘malaria caught me’ may correlate with the hidden agency of a sorcerer behind the disease. In the European medical discourse, 'body' is often presented as a battleground: one fights a disease, and either succumbs to it, or wins a resounding victory —metaphors which may either strengthen a person’s resilience, or have the opposite, debilitating, effect. In fact, the way a given community talks about health is not arbitrary, but will relate in various ways to the people's life-style, beliefs, and attitudes, and undergo change under the impact of social upheavals and new challenges, especially with regard to First Nations in Australia, Amazonia (special focus on Tariana), and New Guinea (especially the Sepik Region), involving community participants within the Association of the Tariana, Avatip Primary School, and Yalaku Elementary School.

Project lead: Prof Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald

Project team: Professor R M W Dixon, Professor Adrian Miller, Associate Professor Michael Walsh

Documentation and maintenance of the languages of the Sepik Province of PNG

Project overview. The Sepik region of Papua New Guinea is the locus of unprecedented linguistic diversity within the New Guinea context. Documenting and creating theoretically informed grammars and comparative studies for the languages of the Sepik is instrumental for enhancing the knowledge base of linguistics, understanding of people’s cultures, beliefs, and behaviours, and ensuring brighter future for the speakers, including work and education opportunities. The project is being undertaken jointly with the Manambu Association (Based on Port Moresby, under the guidance of James Sesu Laki) and the Avatip Primary School, and the Waskuk and Bangus Wards in Ambunti region of East Sepik Province and the Yalaku Elementary School (under the guidance of Joel Ukaia, Counsillor).

Project Lead: Prof Alexandra Aikhenvald

Project Team: Mr James Laki, Mr Joel Ukaia

Project updates coming soon.

Project updates coming soon.

Leading the way – Understanding and Modeling First Nations Leadership in Community with the Yarrabah Leaders Forum

Project Overview: Theories of leadership have largely been formulated within Western concepts and perspectives. First Nations peoples in Australia, New Zealand, and North America, have started the conversation for reframing and redefining conceptions of “leadership” to better reflect Indigenous identities, values, behaviours, knowledges, and cultural perspectives. 

This project aims to investigate and understand Indigenous community leadership practices and processes relevant to culture, Country and community based on the Yarrabah Leaders Forum (YLF) experience. In collaboration with the Yarrabah community, we aim to develop a model of the YLF through documenting its foundations, processes, principles, and future objectives with a view to providing First Nations communities with a framework of Indigenous leadership that can be adaptable and transferable for their own contexts.

Project Leads: Ms Ruth Fagan and Dr Kylie Radel
Project teamProfessor Janya McCalman

Incorporating Culture, Country, and Context – Developing First Nations’ Community-led Education and Research Hubs 

Project Overview: The Australian National Agreement on Closing the Gap outlines 19 national targets across social and economic areas that have significant impacts on life outcomes for Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Five of those targets speak directly to the value of culturally appropriate education, embedded across the life-course, as being fundamental to improving health and wellbeing, economic, employment, and social outcomes for First Nations communities. 

Using a multi-site, collaborative approach, this project will investigate and understand Indigenous community education needs and priorities relevant to Culture, Country and Contexts within regional and remote First Nations communities. We aim to develop an educational hub framework, grounded in the values of Indigenous self-determination, that incorporates research, training, and education pathways that are culturally centred, sustainable and adaptable for First Nations communities and contexts.

Project Lead: Dr Kylie Radel 
Project team: Dr Katrina Rutherford; Dr Wendy Hillman
Project Funding Support: BHP’s Community Development Project

Fostering the future of education equality – Understanding the social, cultural, and economic impacts of higher education scholarships for regional and remote Australian communities

Project Overview: Higher education scholarships programs have been a key component of social investment strategies for industries and businesses, philanthropic organisations, governments and universities. Along with similar investment and philanthropic donation strategies of many other small and large organisations, it is evident that this economic backing supports a wide variety of students to graduate from higher education courses who may not otherwise have had such opportunities. What is not well understood however, are the direct and indirect impacts and outcomes of scholarship investments on regional and remote recipients, their families, communities and the wider social, cultural and economic impacts that may ripple out from these financial and other interventions. Further, there is limited research into the ongoing impacts that occur for individuals and families as a direct result of these initiatives.

This research aims to understand the changes and impacts that occur both directly and indirectly across regional and remote community footprints for higher education scholarship recipients over short and long time frames. We are engaged in a longitudinal study to evaluate and understand the impacts of higher education scholarships for individuals, their families, and their communities through investigating the social, economic and cultural impacts of scholarship investment. We seek to measure what changes occur over a longer timeframe to discover what are the ongoing impacts from scholarship provision.

Project Lead: Dr Kylie Radel
Project Team: Ms Madeline Stewart
Project Funding Support: BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA)

Evaluating the effectiveness and impact of First Nations' Community Engagement micro credential course

Project Overview: The primary aim of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of a First Nations' community engagement micro credential course (PDC 115414). Participants in the course will be drawn from a variety of CQUniversity stakeholders including: industry partners (eg BHP/BMA), staff and students, and other external organisations who are seeking to better understand and engage with First Nations communities in their programs/practices. 

The research seeks to understand participant needs and expectations, address any resistance and feedback, and foster longer-term participant commitment to and support for embedding better First Nations engagement practices within their personal and professional lives. 

The evaluation of measurable impacts from the course through both quantitative (anonymous online surveys) and qualitative (interviews) focuses on: 

  1. the foundations for such a course being implemented and why it exists; 
  2. how it benefits/impacts industry through engaged partnerships with First Nations' Peoples; 
  3. how the credentials extend and enhance knowledge transfer through potential increases in productivity from the empowerment of participants to consider and shape their working environments with First Nations Peoples for inclusion and wellbeing; and 
  4. the impacts from attainment of a professional development micro credential focused on First Nations' Community Engagement.

Project Lead: Dr Kylie Radel
Project Team: Dr Wendy Hillman, Ms Madeline Stewart, Ms Deb Friel
Project Funding Support: BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA)