Aboriginal Australians – News, Research and Analysis – The Conversation

February 12, 2024

First Peoples’ land overlaps with 130 imperilled bird species – and their knowledge may be vital to saving them

Amanda Lilleyman, Charles Darwin University; Jack Pascoe, The University of Melbourne, and Stephen Garnett, Charles Darwin University

Australia’s First Peoples have a strong and continuing connection to the land. Their determination to maintain this connection provides important opportunities for conservation. Our new research explored…

October 20, 2023

Did Australia’s First Peoples domesticate dingoes? They certainly buried them with great care

Loukas Koungoulos, Australian National University; Jane Balme, The University of Western Australia; Shane Ingrey, UNSW Sydney, and Sue O'Connor, Australian National University

There’s been a long-standing debate over whether dingoes started out wild or domesticated. One thing is clear – they had a close relationship with First Peoples.

June 21, 2023

Before the colonists came, we burned small and burned often to avoid big fires. It’s time to relearn cultural burning

Robbie Williams, Indigenous Knowledge

Before the colonists came, we managed the land with careful use of cool burns. To stop giant bushfires, we have to learn again how to care for country.

The Black Duck Songline is named for the Pacific Black Duck. Shutterstock

October 5, 2021

‘Singing up Country’: reawakening the Black Duck Songline, across 300km in Australia’s southeast

Robert S. Fuller, Western Sydney University; Graham Moore, Indigenous Knowledge, and Jodi Edwards, University of Sydney

Most of our knowledge on songlines comes from central and northern Australia. Now, a songline from north Victoria, reaching up the NSW coast is being reawakened.

Paintings from the artists of Balgo in the south-east Kimberley are among the expansive collection at the Berndt Museum. AP Photo/Jens Meyer

September 1, 2020

Perth already has a museum of Indigenous art and culture. With proper funding, it could be our national centre

Vanessa Russ, The University of Western Australia and Jason M. Gibson, Deakin University

Too often in conversations about cultural centres, the incredible resources already available are neglected.The Berndt Museum, in Perth, is a collection of national and international significance.

July 1, 2020

In My Blood It Runs challenges the ‘inevitability’ of Indigenous youth incarceration

Lilly Brown, The University of Melbourne

This new Australian documentary follows 12-year-old Dujuan Hoosan from Garrwa country to Geneva.

Life and death in tropical Australia, 40,000 years ago. Giant reptiles ruled northern Australia during the Pleistocene with mega-marsupials as their prey. Image Credit: R. Bargiel, V. Konstantinov, A. Atuchin & S. Hocknull (2020). Queensland Museum.

May 18, 2020

Humans coexisted with three-tonne marsupials and lizards as long as cars in ancient Australia

Scott Hocknull, The University of Melbourne; Anthony Dosseto, University of Wollongong; Gilbert Price, The University of Queensland; Lee Arnold, University of Adelaide; Patrick Moss, The University of Queensland, and Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Southern Cross University

These megafauna were the largest land animals to live in Australia since the time of the dinosaurs.

April 19, 2020

The coronavirus supplement is the biggest boost to Indigenous incomes since Whitlam. It should be made permanent

Francis Markham, Australian National University

The Coronavirus Supplement will boost the total income of very remote Indigenous Australai by one quarter.

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