October 15, 2020
IRU celebrates new funding for research into Australian society, history and culture
IRU members are celebrating after winning $3.4 million of new funding for research into Australian and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander society, history and culture – 29% of all the money awarded through the program.
Education Minister Dan Tehan announced yesterday that 14 IRU member projects will be funded through the Government’s Special Research Initiative for Australian Society, History and Culture, an $11.8 million program managed by the Australian Research Council (ARC).
The IRU projects awarded funding include research into culture around the Murray-Darling Basin (Griffith University); the history of East Timorese migration (Charles Darwin University); cultures of drought in regional Victoria (La Trobe University); expanding Australian tourism to include more Indigenous walking trails (Flinders University); enriching Australia’s understanding of the beach as a critical zone of Indigenous identity (James Cook University); and participation of diverse groups in Australia’s digital cultural heritage (Western Sydney University).
Seven of the winning IRU member projects concern and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander society history and culture, highlighting the IRU members’ focus at these important questions.
See a full list of successful projects
Mr Tehan announced funding for a total of 49 projects across Australia, representing a total commitment of $11.8 million over three years.
IRU members’ application success rate for the projects was notably high, with 13% of IRU projects successful in their bid for funding.
Responding to the news, IRU Executive Director Conor King said:
“I congratulate all the IRU projects that successfully bid for funding through this program.
“The outcome shows that Australian Indigenous society, history and culture is a particular strength of the members. The new projects now underway through this funding will make it even more so.”
IRU member SRI Projects
CDU Remembering East Timorese migration: History, memory and identity.
Flinders A history of domestic violence in Australia, 1850-2020.
Flinders ‘Slow’ digitisation, community heritage and the objects of Martindale Hall.
Flinders A History of Community Health in Australia.
Flinders Revitalising Country: The Lurujarri and Tjilbruke Walking Trails.
Griffith Art at a crossroads: Aboriginal responses to contact in northern Australia.
Griffith Fugitive Traces: Reconstructing Yulluna experiences of the frontier.
Griffith Understanding the water cultures of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Griffith Reimagining Norfolk Island’s Kingston and Arthur’s Vale Historic Area.
JCU Rangingur: a Yolngu digital art of renewal.
La Trobe Parched: cultures of drought in regional Victoria.
La Trobe Fire, Flood and Food: People and Landscape Change in Northern Victoria.
La Trobe Indigenous Australia: A History of Documents 1770-2000.
WSU Seeing yourself in Australian digital cultural heritage.
