Introducing Ellie Bock
Ellie Bock is undertaking a Master of Philosophy (Society and Culture), and in April presented her pre-completion seminar: Prescient Custodians: Biocultural Ecological Economics and Res...
TCI Adjunct Professor Ernest Hunter launches Reef Madness here with a presentation at The Cairns Institute… https://t.co/iLyy4bKKUu
11:45 AM Aug 12thJust about to commence #RRAP #regionaldeepdive #cairnsaustralia #tropicalnorthqueensland… https://t.co/xtBpaSbIex
12:05 PM Jun 2ndLaunch of Sihot’e Nioge - Omie tapa artists from Papua New Guinea #tapacloth #livelihoods #cairnsaustralia… https://t.co/FNYFgjk1Lb
07:40 PM May 20thDr Vincent Backhaus presenting at TCI’s Impact and Engagement Seminar series. Sharing his research methods on Tradi… https://t.co/Lo06ahN0fj
12:23 PM May 19thRSVP here https://t.co/ORZQ7cHcfS https://t.co/vNMwd1QaQa
04:02 PM Apr 11thImpact and engagement seminar series commenced today with Dr Jennifer Gabriel #impactandengagementseries… https://t.co/9fqqssaaz6
12:46 PM Apr 7thToday is #anthro day @aus_anth
11:40 AM Feb 17thCongratulations to Dr Daniel Nour for being awarded Young Australian of the Year 2022 #jcualumni #streetsidemedics
08:33 PM Jan 25thAttending Connectivity, flow and change today! Great plenary talk by Peta Ross - GBR Traditional Owner and Assistan… https://t.co/a7uldgdvgI
10:28 AM Oct 5thCreating Futures 2021 Conference is now into Day 2! Over 300 participants from 17 countries across the AsiaPacific… https://t.co/xY07uPW1lZ
12:22 PM Jul 22ndFiona completed a doctoral thesis in 2020 looking at First Nations access to justice in the area of race discrimination - an issue with significant impacts across all First Nations communities. Recourse to domestic human rights legislation (race discrimination law) by First Nations peoples is rare, despite the high incidence of discrimination, and its outcomes quite likely to be unsatisfactory (cases are generally unwinnable). The thesis explored whether First Nations peoples want better access to race discrimination law, and in this context considered archival material revealing that Indigenous activists leading up to introduction of the Federal Racial Discrimination Act (1975) specifically called for legislative protection against racism. Other Indigenous activists in this period, however, preferred direct action to challenge both racial inequities and the denial of Indigenous-specific rights (to land, self-determination etc.). The thesis identified that improving access to race discrimination law was important to First Nations people but given the inherent limitations in the latter law (it is very unlikely to recognise Indigenous specific rights, for instance) other methods of attaining both racial and First Nations justice are also crucial. These include community-led collective protest, participation in political processes and policy reform, for instance.
Access to justice has been a focus of other work Fiona has done. Fiona coordinated, as Senior Researcher at the Cairns Institute, the Indigenous Legal Needs Project (ILNP). The ILNP was the first comprehensive exploration of the civil and family law needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people nationally. Fiona has a long-standing relationship with JCU, having commenced research work there in 2011. She has been working since 2016 on a project funded by Mission Australia and focused on improving outcomes for children and young people in Cairns South. This project takes a place-based, data driven approach to resolving complex social issues through a framework known as collective impact.
Fiona has also worked as a Senior Research Fellow at Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, UTS, since 2018. At Jumbunna Fiona is coordinating a project that is re-thinking civil law access to justice from Indigenous perspectives in the areas of tenancy, consumer/credit and debt, social security, child protection and race discrimination. Other access to justice projects Fiona has completed as an academic and consultant include evaluations of a health justice partnership at Wuchopperen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Service in Cairns and an evaluation of a social support worker initiative for NT Legal Aid. This initiative employs social workers to respond to underlying factors contributing to criminal justice and child protection related legal outcomes. Health justice partnerships respond to the links between health and justice outcomes through collaborative work by health and legal services. Fiona is currently evaluating an Indigenous focused health justice partnership in Inala, QLD, in collaboration with Indigenous researchers at QUT. In 2020 Fiona also travelled to 8 Indigenous communities in the Barkly Region, NT, for access to justice work. She was commissioned by legal services, with a colleague, by legal services to make recommendations for improvements to both criminal and non-criminal access to justice.
Justice Reinvestment (JR)
JR is a framework that uses community development approaches to reducing incarceration, with some focus in Australia on Indigenous incarceration and on recognising and strengthening Indigenous self-determination as response to the latter. Fiona was lead investigator on the NT and QLD pilots of JR and is currently working as JR data and research consultant with Just Reinvest NSW (JRNSW) in Moree and Mt Druitt, working to Indigenous data sovereignty and governance principles. JRNSW is a peak JR body, auspiced by the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT. Fiona has since 2017 convened Justice Reinvestment Network Australia, a network bringing together communities implementing JR and their supporters, as well as academic and government advocates of JR.
Prior to working at JCU, Fiona taught legal studies at Tranby Aboriginal College in Sydney and worked at the Australian Human Rights Commission as a conciliator of race and human rights complaints. She has also worked at Community Legal Centres in the NT and NSW as a generalist solicitor and a family violence and Aboriginal outreach solicitor.
Ellie Bock is undertaking a Master of Philosophy (Society and Culture), and in April presented her pre-completion seminar: Prescient Custodians: Biocultural Ecological Economics and Res...
On 8 March 2022, Teddy Winn joined a small group of distinguished women scholars in Australia and PNG via zoom to discuss issues related to political and socio-economic empowerment of w...
Ed Johnson visited The Cairns Institute in February to explore research opportunities after recently completing his PhD at the University of Sydney. The collaborative and meaningful nature&n...
On 13 April 2022, The Cairns Institute’s Research Fellow Dr Kearrin Sims and Griffiths University PhD Candidate Sovinda Po delivered a joint presentation to The Australian National Uni...
On 15 March 2022, the Cairns Institute Adjunct Professor Craig Volker joined colleagues from Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Germany in an online panel discussion at the Lowy Institute Austr...
Diana Castorina is currently completing her PhD in economics in the area of interregional migration in Australia where her overall research objective seeks to understand what makes people wa...
Professor Allan Dale will chair the Developing Northern Australia (DNA) Conference for the eighth time in 2022. The conference will be held from 6 to 8 July 2022 at the Mackay Entertainment&...
Dr Narayan Gopalkrishnan has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Queensland Social Enterprise Council (QSEC), the peak body for social enterprise in Queensland.Dr Gopalkrishnan, ...
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