Dear friends and colleagues –
Research Leaders in place
I am delighted to announce the appointment of the following principal research leaders for CRC-REP. They are already hard at work, getting the heart of the Centre’s research enterprise under way.
Research Program 1 - Regional Economies: Strengthening the economy of remote regions
This research program will build robust regional economies throughout remote Australia through our partners in government, industry and communities. This will provide the sustainable employment and enterprise opportunities vital to increasing the level of economic participation for remote Australians.
- Population Mobility and Labour Markets
Manager: Murray McGregor, Research Leader: Dr Mike Dockery
- Enduring Community Value From Mining
Manager: Murray McGregor, Research Leader: Prof. Fiona McKenzie
- Energy Futures and Climate Adaptation in Remote Australia
Manager: Kevin Williams, Research Leader: Dr Ashley Sparrow
Research Program 2 - Enterprise Development: Building remote enterprises to provide jobs and livelihoods for people living in remote regions
This program will create successful models for M/SMEs that are appropriate to remote locations and inclusive of Aboriginal culture. It will facilitate their survival and growth in the long term so that they can employ more people in remote Australia, providing the ‘engine room' for jobs and livelihoods. It will address barriers to growth, such as distance from markets, fragile or faulty supply chains and the scope for efficiencies to overcome high production costs.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Economies
Manager: Kevin Williams, Research Leader: Dr Tim Acker
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tourism Product
Manager: Kevin Williams, Research Leader: To be called
- Aboriginal Cultural Enterprise
Manager: Kevin Williams, Research Leader: Dr Peter Twigg
- Carbon Economies in Remote Australia
Manager: Kevin Williams, Research Leader: Dr Ashley Sparrow
- Plant Business
Manager: Kevin Williams, Research Leader: Dr Slade Lee
- Precision Pastoral Management Tools
Manager: Kevin Williams, Research Leader: Sally Leigo
Research Program 3 – Investing in People: Improving the education and training pathways for people living in regions
There are complex challenges in improving pathways for remote Australians through education and training to employment and enterprise development. Soft-systems approaches linked with the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework will be used to interpret the complex factors leading to chronic educational and employment disadvantage.
- Interplay between Health, Wellbeing, Education and Employment
Manager: Murray McGregor, Research Leader: Dr Sheree Cairney
- Pathways to Employment
Manager: Kevin Williams, Research Leader: To be called
- Remote Education Systems
Manager: Murray McGregor, Research Leader: To be announced
More information:
Murray McGregor, General Manager Research, Innovation and Quality: murray.mcgregor@nintione.com.au
Kevin Williams, General Manager Research, Evaluation and Impact: kevin.williams@nintione.com.au
Sustainable livelihoods in action
If you want to read a case study of how to build sustainable livelihoods in remote Aboriginal communities, have a look at Dr Anne Poelina’s new report on what the people of the Fitzroy River district of WA are doing.
It documents how Nyikina Mangala Traditional Owners along the Mardoowarra-Fitzroy River in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia are seeking ways to build sustainable livelihoods and secure the socio-economic wellbeing of their people through innovative ways of living on country. Drawing on the philosophical and cultural basis of knowledge development practiced by their own people over millennia, they have tackled a deepening socio-economic crisis through innovation out of their own cultural base, addressing the need for good social relations and physical health among their people. Anne finds the Nyikina Mangala people are developing a hybrid economy, one that draws on western as well as Aboriginal means of production, based on cultural and environmental assets and that promises to be self-sustaining and of immense socio-economic benefit to the people. Nyikina Mangala Mardoowarra (Fitzroy River WA) Sustainable Livelihoods on Country Case Study is published by Charles Darwin University.
A global ambassador
Congratulations to Professor Fiona McKenzie who has been appointed to the Regional Development Australia Fund Advisory Panel. Professor McKenzie has been appointed for five years, and will join the four other members of the Panel to provide advice on the disbursement of $1 billion earmarked by the Federal Government for regional development across Australia.
Professor McKenzie, from the Graduate School of Business, has extensive experience in population and socio-economic change, regional economic development and analysis of regional and urban social indicators. Currently, she is hard at working delivering knowledge and insights from CRC-REP at influential meetings around the world. This month she speaks on Housing and mining: A social sciences agenda item or issues for hard nosed business analysts? at the International Conference for New Directions in the Humanities at Granada in Spain. Next she delivers two papers on managing land use conflicts and on Australian regions in transition to the Sustainable Development in the Minerals Industry Conference at Aachen, Germany. Next month it is another conference and field trips to Alberta and Manitoba in Canada.
I am sure you will join me in congratulating Professor McKenzie on this significant appointment.
Project development workshops
We have finalised the dates for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tourism Product Project Workshop and the workshop for the Climate Change Adaptation, Energy Futures and Carbon Economies in Remote Australia Projects. The purpose of both sessions is to develop research questions and methods leading to project contract and initiation.
I would encourage you to inform potentially interested members of your organisation to register their interest:
Climate Change Adaptation, Energy Futures and Carbon Economies
Date: 23 and 24 August 2011
Location: Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tourism Product
Date: 18 October 2011
Location: Iga Warta, South Australia
Travel and accommodation costs for Non Government Organisations will be covered by the CRC for Remote Economic Participation however Government and University Partners are asked to cover these costs and we will record them as a component of your in-kind contribution.
The time that you contribute to this workshop will also be counted as in-kind support.
For RSVP and confirmation, please contact Jane Cooper at jane.cooper@nintione.com.au or on 08 8302 1204. To discuss this further please contact me at info@nintone.com.au.
Employment & research opportunities
Healthy Arts: The Flinders University Faculty of Health Sciences, Social Health Sciences Unit in conjunction with Ananguku Arts (www.anangukuarts.com.au) and the Palya Foundation (www.palyafund.org.au) are offering a three-year PhD scholarship to investigate the health-promoting capacity of art centres in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yangkunytjatjara Lands. The research project is a mixed methods study and will require substantial field work on site and relocation to Flinders University for the three years of study. This scholarship is open to students wishing to commence a PhD in the second part of 2011, and pays $27,651 per annum. It must be taken up before October, 2011. More information:
Pathways to work: The Centre for Appropriate Technology/Ninti One are seeking a Senior Research Officer to contribute to a systemic understanding of effective pathways to work and enterprise in remote Australia. The project will identify key factors that support transitions to sustainable employment and barriers to these transitions. The research will compare the strengths and weaknesses of existing approaches in securing sustainable employment outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and document job seekers’ perspectives about the most effective supports for successful employment transition. The aim of the project is to lower existing barriers and recommend newly designed pathways to work and enterprise in remote Australia. It is intended to meet public good policy objectives in a fragile and highly variable social and natural environment. The researcher will work in diverse multi-disciplinary/multi-cultural teams and contexts. More details: http://www.icat.org.au/media/JD/job%20pack%20-%20crc%20senior%20research%20officer.pdf
Change of address
All partners, stakeholders, colleagues, staff and friends please note, CRC-REP’s managing entity, Ninti One, has switched across from the CSIRO email server to its own mail server.
This means all email addresses of Ninti One staff which were firstname.lastname@csiro.au have now changed to
firstname.lastname@nintione.com.au.
From now on please use the @nintione.com.au address for all correspondence, incoming or outgoing. Please let your contacts know.
Our people: Mike Dockery
Mike is Principal Research Leader of CRC-REP’s Population Mobility and Labour Markets project.
Born and bred in Perth, Mike has had stints in Kalgoorlie, northwest WA, Canberra and overseas. He has worked in several research institutes, mainly in the field of applied labour economics. His PhD from Curtin was on the evaluation of labour market assistance programs, while his Post-doc and subsequent research have been into the links between the labour market and wellbeing, encompassing the school-to-work transition, ‘happiness’, and outcomes for a range of disadvantaged groups such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, the unemployed, people with a disability and public housing tenants.
Of his work with CRC-REP, Mike says “It’s a great privilege to get to research, think and write for a living – that’s the best thing about my job. On the odd occasion I manage it after dealing with all the admin (the worst thing!).”
His favourite movie varies according to his mood, between The Terminator, Pulp Fiction and Life of Brian. His current read is Benang – From the Heart by Aboriginal writer Kim Scott, (a fellow Curtin academic), a winner of the Miles Franklin Award.
Mike’s pet hate is cooking shows. (With you there, Mike.) His idea of a great weekend is camping with the kids, somewhere away from TV and emails. Any weekend in Broome! He says his worst habit is procrastinating (“Yes, it took me 15 minutes to decide on this answer!”).
Mike’s main goals are to be “the best father I can be, and to make a difference to social policy in Australia”. (He admits to a sneaking ambition to win an Ig Noble Award...). His hero “would have to be Albert Einstein. I find it astounding how he managed to see the universe so completely differently to everyone else”.
With best wishes,
Jan Ferguson
Managing Director,
CRC for Remote Economic Participation
Want to know more about Cooperative Research Centres in general? News from the CRC Association is an e-newsletter that gives regular uptakes on the issues and people affecting the CRC Program; best practices and links to items of interest to anyone concerned with collaborative research. You can subscribe at http://www.crca.asn.au/news-media/newsletter.
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Remote diary
Sustainable Development in the Minerals Industry Conference
13-17 June 2011, Aachen, Germany
2nd Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Housing and Community-centred Planning
Closing the Gap by building stronger communities
21-22 June 2011, Mecure Hotel, Brisbane
2nd Indigenous Education, Transitions and Employment Conference
19-20 July 2011, Citigate Central, Sydney
Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Conference
20 September 2011, Perth
2011 Spatially Enabled Livestock Management Symposium
29 September 2011, Surfers Paradise, Queensland
Desert Knowledge Symposium
7-10 November 2011, Alice Springs Convention Centre
2nd International Future Mining Conference
21-23 November 2011, University of New South Wales, Sydney
5th State of Australian Cities (SOAC) Conference
29 November - 2 December 2011, University of Melbourne, Melbourne
International Rural Network World Forum
24–28 September, 2012, Whyalla, South Australia
