ANNUAL REPORT ENTER CONTENTS THE CABAH TEAM RECOGNISES THAT ALL OUR WELCOME 2 ACTIVITIES TAKE PLACE ON Director’s Report 4 INDIGENOUS LAND. AUSTRALIA Vision 6 IS AN EXCEPTIONAL COUNTRY Mission 6 WITH A UNIQUE CULTURAL Chief Investigators 8 HERITAGE AND BIODIVERSITY THAT HAS Impact Case Study: Putting Indigenous voices at the BEEN UNDER THE CARE OF INDIGENOUS heart of discussions about genomic research 12 AUSTRALIANS FOR MILLENNIA. CABAH IS THANKFUL TO THOSE COMMUNITIES WHO RESEARCH 14 PARTNER WITH US IN OUR RESEARCH. Research Highlights 16 Flagships 20 RESEARCH TRAINING AND ETHICS 26 Nurturing the Next Generation of Big Thinkers 28 2019 Research Training and Ethics Program 31 EDUCATION AND ENGAGEMENT 32 Bringing Australia’s Epic Story to Life 34 Stepping Back Into the Deep Past at Lake Mungo 38 Impact Case Study: Creating gateways between the past and the future 40 COMMUNITY AND OUTREACH 42 Conversation Starters 44 GOVERNANCE 46 Centre Advisory Committee – Chair’s Report 48 Indigenous Advisory Committee – Joint Chairs’ Report 49 KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS 50 2019 Output Summary 52 CABAH Publications 56 Statement of Operating Income and Expenditure 63 APPENDICES 64 Full Membership List 66 Presentations/Briefings to the Public, Government, End-Users and Other Stakeholders 76 Media Highlights 86 Prizes and Awards 90 Sawai, northern Seram. Image credit: Richard ’Bert’ Roberts. CABAH ANNUAL REPORT 2019 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS WELCOME WE ARE WORKING OUT WHAT IT MEANS TO DEVELOP TRULY COMMUNITY-DRIVEN PROJECTS. THAT TAKES US, AS RESEARCHERS, WAY OUT OF OUR COMFORT ZONES. BUT WE WILL GET SO MUCH MORE OUT OF THESE COLLABORATIVE APPROACHES. Professor Zenobia Jacobs, CABAH Chief Investigator WELCOME A traditional fire-stick made by Otto Campion Bulmaniya in central Arnhem Land. Image credit: Michael-Shawn Fletcher. 2 CABAH ANNUAL REPORT 2019 CABAH ANNUAL REPORT 2019 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS WELCOME WELCOME DIRECTOR’S REPORT s 2019 came to a close, and the a regular workshop on career planning and curtain came down on CABAH’s strategies for women Early Career Researchers thoroughly successful third Annual and PhD students. ASymposium, it was rewarding to reflect on the As someone who has undertaken fieldwork fantastic progress we have made throughout and research in Indonesia over many years, the year. it has also been particularly pleasing to see As a Centre, we have delivered a wide-ranging CABAH researchers deliver training for our and stimulating array of high-quality training partner and affiliate organisations in Indonesia, and professional development activities for our as well as to welcome Papua New Guinea members and affiliates. Our efforts to bring nationals to attend training events at our James CABAH’s research to the public through a Cook University node in Cairns. range of face-to-face events and via our digital But perhaps the most exciting initiative in platforms, has gone from strength-to-strength. 2019, and one that was not anticipated in Importantly, we have continued to build our our original vision for CABAH, has been the ‘CABAH born-and-bred’ Flagship projects, establishment of SING Australia. The SING forging new relationships and collaborations (Summer internship for INdigenous peoples with communities, and leading to outcomes of in Genomics) program has been underway which we are truly proud. in the USA since 2011, with chapters since Another area where we have made great established in Canada and New Zealand. strides in 2019, and will continue to in the From 10 to 16 November 2019, Chief years ahead, is in the equity and diversity Investigators, postdoctoral researchers, space. The Australian Research Council Associate Investigators and Indigenous expects, and rightly so, all of its Centres of Advisory Committee members from CABAH, Excellence to be leaders in designing and together with invited colleagues, hosted the delivering effective equity and diversity inaugural SING Australia workshop at Deakin initiatives. We benefit from the great work that University. has been done by earlier Centres, inspiring and challenging us to work harder. The workshop brought together 24 Indigenous participants from around Australia and 20 In 2019, we launched Our CABAH Commitment mentors, including nine Indigenous mentors, to clearly articulate our requirement of from a range of disciplines to learn from each appropriate behaviour in the workplace. other and to explore the impacts of genomics Our Equity and Diversity Plan promotes on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family-friendly initiatives and encourages a peoples. work-life balance. All members have had the opportunity to undertake unconscious bias CABAH is extremely proud to have provided and bystander training, and we have awarded the catalyst to kick-start this important carer grants, internships for women, and grants initiative in Australia, and I am confident that, and scholarships for Aboriginal and Torres following the success of this first event, SING Strait Islander members. Australia will grow to become a permanent feature of the research landscape in our CABAH’s women Chief Investigators, led by region. Professor Lynette Russell (now a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellow), Distinguished Professor delivered the first of what I hope will become Richard ‘Bert’ Roberts Fieldwork in Seram. Image credit: Matt Forbes. 4 CABAH ANNUAL REPORT 2019 CABAH ANNUAL REPORT 2019 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS WELCOME WELCOME VISION WHO WE ARE TO REVEAL A CULTURALLY INCLUSIVE, GLOBALLY SIGNIFICANT HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA’S PEOPLE AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT. 81 ASSOCIATE 28 INVESTIGATORS NAMED 25 INVESTIGATORS COLLABORATING PARTNERS 33SPECIALIST TECHNICAL AND 32 SUPPORT STAFF 28 PHD STUDENTS POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS MISSION TO HARNESS OUR EXPERTISE, CUTTING-EDGE TECHNIQUES AND UNIQUE KNOWLEDGE TO ESTABLISH BEST-PRACTICE APPROACHES TO RESEARCH ON COUNTRY; TO TRAIN A NEW GENERATION OF CULTURALLY AWARE, TRANSDISCIPLINARY RESEARCHERS; AND TO INSPIRE CURIOSITY AMONG AUDIENCES OF ALL AGES. Mungo Youth Project 2019. Image credit: Paul Jones. 6 CABAH ANNUAL REPORT 2019 CABAH ANNUAL REPORT 2019 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS WELCOME WELCOME CHIEF INVESTIGATORS Professor Simon Haberle a collaboration between CABAH investigators and emerging researchers, alongside students and colleagues CABAH brings together an exceptional team of researchers and educators. “We are working on long-term from ARKENAS and UGM (Universitas Gadjah Mada).” Here our Chief Investigators reflect on work made possible through CABAH and our human impact and environmental support of up-and-coming researchers. change records from the small eastern Bass Strait Islands of Distinguished Professor truwana (Cape Barren Island) and Michael Bird iungtalanana (Clark Island) under an invitation from the Tasmanian Aboriginal community (Tasmanian Aboriginal “CABAH brought together field Distinguished Professor Richard address big-picture questions in Australia’s biodiversity Centre and Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania), researchers and modellers on a ‘Bert’ Roberts and cultural heritage through developing, resourcing which would not have been possible without the number of collaborations in 2019, and delivering complex long-term collaborative “The 2019 field trip to Seram support of CABAH. with publications demonstrating that projects in partnership with Indigenous Traditional made possible through CABAH the first people to arrive in Sahul Owners and with access to some of the best “We have been supporting up-and-coming researchers was an eye-opener, highlighting the came by purposeful voyaging, and in large numbers. We researchers on the planet. through a wide range of opportunities, including lab differences between the northern are now extending this to modelling the routes people exchange, peer-to-peer workshops and fieldwork and and southern Indonesian islands. Our interdisciplinary “CABAH hosts an extraordinary range of research took as they moved throughout Sahul. on Country engagement experiences that are rarely research in this northern archipelago has the training activities through its Irinjili Research Training available to those outside the Centre.” “2019 saw the bedding down of a comprehensive potential to significantly expand our knowledge of the and Ethics (RT&E) program. Training ranges from one- series of short courses, masterclasses and researcher archaeology and palaeoenvironmental history of this day short courses to full-week immersive masterclasses exchanges designed to provide a broad range of gateway to Sahul. on Country with Traditional Owners.” Associate Professor Tim Cohen technical, communication, and life skills to our cohort of excellent up-and-coming researchers.” “One of the many ways in which we support “In the Northern Territory, climate emerging researchers is by offering them genuine Professor Lynette Russell, AM work has involved sampling key sites leadership opportunities, which are critical to their (Lake Woods and Lake Lewis) that “CABAH has made possible the Associate Professor continued professional and personal growth.” will help us to understand shifts in examination of how we might make Laura Weyrich the Indo-Australian Monsoon and better use of museum objects, highlight changing climate extremes through time. With “Through CABAH, we have been able Senior Professor and how these can be virtually CABAH we have been actively engaging and working to establish the first bioinformatic Amanda Lawson repatriated using 3D printing and augmented reality. with Traditional Owners of the region and this will