In pursuit of culturally relevant indicators of Indigenous wellbeing Operationalising the ‘recognition space’ A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Australian National University Mandy Li-Ming Yap January 2017 © Copyright Mandy Li-Ming Yap 2017 Declaration I, Mandy Yap, declare that, this thesis contains only my original work except where reference is made to the work of others; acknowledgement has been made in the text. This thesis contains extracts from jointly authored papers arising from this thesis in which I made an equal contribution to and is used here with the permission of the other authors. This thesis does not exceed 100,000 words in length, exclusive of footnotes, tables, figures and appendices. Signature:……………………………… Mandy Li-Ming Yap Yap i Acknowledgements I would first and foremost like to acknowledge that the fieldwork presented in this thesis was undertaken on Yawuru country. I would like to thank all the Yawuru women and men who so generously shared their knowledge and time from inception to completion. This thesis is the product of a long journey both personally and professionally. I would like to take this opportunity to offer my deepest gratitude and acknowledgement to the many individuals and organisations that have been instrumental in getting me to this point. The first part of the PhD Program at the ANU within the field of study Economics was one of the most difficult educational experiences that I have persevered through. The coursework enriched my PhD experience. It also allowed me to develop long- lasting friendships. The days and nights spent completing the coursework was made bearable with the support of my fellow students and friends. Thank you to Beau, Raya, Manoj, Tom, Wen Jie, Jagath, Agi, Yessi and Rajan. To Associate Professor Nicholas Biddle, my primary supervisor, I would like to express my gratitude for taking the chance on me as your first PhD student. I am grateful for your continued support, guidance and patience and for allowing me to adapt and shape the research as my thinking evolved. A very special thank you goes to my panel of supervisors who have guided me through conceptualising, designing and implementing the research. I am forever indebted to Associate Professor. Janet Hunt, Professor Tahu Kukutai, Professor Anne Daly and Professor Robert Breunig for your individual and collective insights, wisdom and teachings as I navigated unchartered territories pushing disciplinary boundaries. Thank you for allowing me the space to grow and learn. I have been fortunate to undertake my PhD at CAEPR. The staff and students have contributed immensely to my professional and personal journey. To Professor John Taylor, thank you for paving the way for me to follow in your footsteps. I can only hope I did justice to your legacy. Stimulating conversations in the corridors alongside healthy and fearless debates at seminars between calibre scholars in the field opened my mind to the endless possibilities and pathways the research can and Yap iii should go. To my CAEPR friends and colleagues, current and former, my sincerest gratitude for all your sound advice and thought-provoking conversations. I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Jerry Schwab, Professor Matthew Gray, Professor John Taylor and Professor Jon Altman for their generous support and encouragement both as fellow colleagues and as CAEPR Directors. Denise, Tracy and Nadia – You are all the face, heart and soul of CAEPR. Thanks for your constant and steady care and help in and out of work. I am so very grateful for your friendship and pep talks. Denise, I always leave your office feeling comforted, fist in the air ready to take on the next challenge. Julie, you have been an amazing HDR Convenor and colleague. Thank you for always going out of your way to support us in practical, intellectual and emotional ways. To my fellow CAEPR PhD comrades, I want to thank you for always finding the time to check on how things are going at my end and offering a listening ear when things don’t go to plan. I have also benefited immensely from all the important contributions that you are all making in your respective research. Thanks also go to NCIS staff and students for valuable feedback and comments. Some of the most significant learning and challenges from the PhD was preparing and undertaking fieldwork. Thank you to Annick Thomassin, John Hughes, Helen Alexiou, Gavin Hinten, Pip Hughes, Frances Morphy, Kirrily Jordan, Inge Kral, Geoff Buchanan, Emilie Ens and Sarah Prout for your tireless encouragement and patience, insights and lessons in common sense. In particular, thanks Helen, Gavin, John, Pip and Annick for the many hours of assistance with printing and collating fieldwork materials. I would like to acknowledge the valuable financial support from the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Research Grant for Phase 2 of the Yawuru case study. The research grant support enabled the Yawuru Wellbeing Survey to come to fruition and enable the mutual capacity building to occur in the research project. I want to extend special thanks to Rebecca Cassells for her tireless support, guidance and mentoring throughout the management of this grant. I would also like to express my thanks to Heather Luckie at ANU Legal and Louise Knox from the Research Office for their patience and unwavering help through the preparation and finalisation of this grant. iv Yap Words cannot express my heartfelt gratitude to all those whom I have cross paths with in Broome both personally and professionally. Eunice Yu, my mentor and teacher. You have been a pillar of support, source of strength and my family away from home. Thank you for your wisdom, quiet strength, your big open heart and patience. The research has benefitted immensely from the support of Paul Lane at the Kimberley Institute. Your guidance, local knowledge, sense of humour and many shared ‘stories’ injected much needed reprieve when things didn’t go according to plan. There was such an outpouring of hospitality and generosity from everyone I met and befriended. I would like to especially thank Kim Isaacs and Paul Hope, Lyn Yu-Mackay, John and Stella Puertollano, Dianne Appleby, Melanie Howard, Jimmy Edgar, Vicki McKenna, Rowena Puertollano, Aunty Madge, Uncle Phil and Howard Pedersen for opening their homes to me, for all the hard work that you put in to make Yawuru, the strong community that it is, and for your beautiful friendships. Peter Yu, your vision for the Yawuru Wellbeing Index provided the opportunity for a PhD student in Canberra to work with the Yawuru. Thank you for always finding time to impart your wisdom and experience and share some good food. I would like to acknowledge the invaluable support and guidance of the Yawuru Reference and Guidance Committee. They include Kim Isaacs, Ninielia Mills, Dean Mathews, John Puertollano, Dianne Appleby, Lyn Yu-Mackay, Patrick Dodson, Melanie Howard, Vicki McKenna and Jimmy Edgar. The conduct of the Yawuru Wellbeing Survey would not have been possible without the tireless effort of the Yawuru Wellbeing Survey Team. I would personally like to extend my deepest gratitude to Lyn Yu-Mackay, Siobhan Ryan, Maria Parriman, Athenia Manolis, Kerstin Roe, Sheridan Jaffrey, Janice Dean, Talissa Kinley, Alana Slockee and Tina Shadforth. This work would not have been possible without the support of Nyamba Buru Yawuru, Nagula Jarndu and the Yawuru Prescribed Body Corporate. I would like to especially express my gratitude to Dean Mathews, Ninielia Mills, Bart Pigram, Howard Pedersen, Sarah Yu, Sandy Darrington and Suzanne Jess. Yap v I would also like to acknowledge a range of organisations that provided in –kind support for the research to be undertaken. They include Yawuru Native Title Holder Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC, Nulungu Research Institute (University of Notre Dame, Broome Campus) and Bottles of Australia. I am also grateful to Sandy, Maddie, Andrea, Kate and Donna for making my time at the Notre Dame campus enjoyable and memorable. There is much that happens behind the scenes in the production of the thesis. Annick Thomassin, your unwavering support, perseverance, passion for your research and sense of humour during the many late nights writing together made those blank pages seem less daunting. John Hughes, words are simply not enough to express my gratitude for your attention to detail, your professionalism and patience in laying out the thesis. I am eternally grateful for the many painstaking days that you expended to bring the thesis to life. Thank you to Pip Hughes for keeping us fed and hydrated while we were drowning in Microsoft Word and for sacrificing some precious weekends with John. Various friends and colleagues reviewed versions of chapters and provided excellent comments and constructive ways forward. They include Frances Morphy, Julie Lahn, Sophie Pennec, Rebecca Cassells, Annie Abello, Sean Kerins, Vicky Saunders, and Linc Thurecht. I would also like to acknowledge technical guidance from Dr. Terry Flynn and Professor Jordan Louviere. I was fortunate to be a recipient of the Australian Endeavour Fellowship in 2014. This allowed me to spend extended periods of time with Tahu Kukutai at the National Institute of Demographic Economic Analysis (NIDEA) at the University of Waikato. The fellowship enabled me to benefit from regular and mind stretching sessions with Tahu to strengthen the foundations of my research. Thank you also to the staff and students at NIDEA and at the Department of Anthropology for broadening my horizons. I am especially grateful to Desi Rodriguez-Lonebear, Moana Rarere, Alison Day and Mike Goldsmith. On a personal note, I would also like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to Tahu and her whānau for welcoming me into their home and their lives. vi Yap Krushil Watene, you are one of the most generous people I know.