Industry Expert Series
The Tropical North Queensland Drought Resilience and Innovation Hub (TNQDRIH) has engaged with two leading industry experts Professor Roger Stone and Bob Shepherd to build a series of v...
First Keynote for Day Two of the CASE HDR Conference Dr Ann Lawless presents “Bridge Building for Social Scientists… https://t.co/G82tMOfC6K
10:20 AM Nov 25thSara Mohamed, PhD Candidate in Session Three - Perspectives from across the environment, presents “Rifts & Reconnec… https://t.co/vRXATQf6EX
04:39 PM Nov 24thPhD Candidate Nita Alexander in Session Three - Perspectives from across the environment, presents “(In)Action: Har… https://t.co/ec2rBGbBT6
04:06 PM Nov 24thMPhil Candidate Ellie Bock opening Session Three - Perspectives from across the environment by presenting “Biocultu… https://t.co/ehwtclWmTm
03:49 PM Nov 24thPhD Candidate Elizabeth Smyth finalizing Session Two - Beyond Language, Identity and Narratives by presenting “Writ… https://t.co/SvTg2K4hER
02:59 PM Nov 24thPhD Candidate Dom Orih finalizing Session One ‘Navigating Wellbeing’ theme by presenting “The feasibility of the Fa… https://t.co/D3VXkvujkn
01:09 PM Nov 24thPhD Candidate Rebekah Lisciandro kicks off Session One ‘Navigating Wellbeing’ by presenting “The Unbalanced Researc… https://t.co/kGANHi7kR9
11:49 AM Nov 24thToday!!! To register for this event, please use the link https://t.co/VAQqetiVTL All welcome #coralspawning #abctv… https://t.co/iSap7R1xp3
08:55 AM Nov 17thScan the QR to reserve your seat or use the link https://t.co/fub2HCWYKX https://t.co/zvYOOOla1Y
11:01 AM Nov 11thDr Musliharti presenting today in D3.063 - 1500h AEDT https://t.co/SgsY6x6TxT
02:00 PM Nov 10thOn 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 Australia - PNG Network to discuss languages in PNG in light of the United Nations Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022 - 2031).
PNG has more languages than any other country in the world, but increasingly many children are not learning their ancestral languages and families are switching to Tok Pisin. While there are concerns, there are also surprises. In 2020, a newly recognised language in New Ireland, where Volker has his home, was added to PNG’s list.
Participants discussed the importance of local languages to identity and connections to ancestral land. University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) linguistics lecturer Sakarepe Kamene, explained how he is only accepted by his own clan when he uses their ancestral language. Volker emphasised the necessity of community consultation in the process of language documentation and showed how this has worked out in his own research into the Nalik language.
He explained how it is important that overseas researchers listen to community leaders and the goals that they themselves have for the development and documentation of their language. He also pointed out that Papua New Guineans have much to teach Australians about how to live comfortably in a multilingual and multicultural society.
You can watch this event on YouTube and at the Aus-PNG Network Facebook page.
Bringing PNG Skulls Home from Germany
During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, western academics collected human remains from the many societies they encountered, often treating them with no more respect than they would flora and fauna specimens. In recent years, there has been a growing awareness in western countries that this was unethical. At the same time, there have been increasingly louder calls from formerly colonised people to return the remains of their ancestors to their homelands.
Recently the Übersee Museum in Bremen, Germany discovered a crate with decorated skulls of two women and three men from New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, that had been “collected” in the former German colony prior WWI. Until around 1930, skulls were often exhumed from graves in central New Ireland societies and decorated with bee wax, lime, paint, and plants to be used in rain-making and other ceremonies. These skulls were often taken by European missionaries, explorers, and plantation owners as exotic souvenirs. The practice died out under the influence of missionaries and colonial administrators.
Curators contacted The Cairns Institute’s Adjunct Professor Craig Alan Volker to try to identify the New Ireland clans from which the skulls were taken. The current museum staff have a policy of working with the Bremen State Government to return all human remains in their collections to their homelands. Volker says that after so many years it will be extremely difficult to ascertain exactly where the provenance of the skulls lies, particularly since the skulls arrived at the museum with very little documentation. Nevertheless, it is important to make the effort to record any oral history related to the skulls. As a person of German descent living in New Ireland, he sees this as an important step in the reconciliation of Germans and New Irelanders with their shared colonial experience.
The Tropical North Queensland Drought Resilience and Innovation Hub (TNQDRIH) has engaged with two leading industry experts Professor Roger Stone and Bob Shepherd to build a series of v...
Young people are frequently relegated to a state of waiting; expected to passively absorb and learn an adult culture that actively damages the earth. Governments persist in relying on h...
The TNQ Drought Hub, Sustainable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Enterprise (SATSIE) program are pleased to partner with the Western Cape Chamber of Commerce, Aurukun Shire Counci...
James Cook University Associate Professor and The Cairns Institute Fellow Robyn Glade-Wright is passionate about climate change and seeks to communicate with the greater public about en...
The Oceania region has an incredible array of ecosystems and biocultural diversity along with many threats to those. Safeguarding and effectively managing such ecosystems and the liveli...
Tyá Dynevor is a proud Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander mixed-race woman; born on Dharawal Country, Campbelltown, Greater Western Sydney but had grown up between Darwin, Larrakia&nb...
Ellie Bock has been awarded a Masters degree after completing her Master of Philosophy (Society and Culture). Ellie’s primary advisor was Professor Allan Dale and her secondary advisor...
Allan Dale heads the TNQ Drought Hub team that sits within The Cairns Institute and delivers the Sustainable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Enterprise (SATSIE) program. The SATSIE&nbs...
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