NESP MaC Project 3.2 - Developing a National Indigenous Environmental Research Network – Marine and Coastal research case studies (NAILSMA, 2023-2025)
- Between 01/02/2023 - 00:00 and 10/01/2025 - 00:00
This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub small-scale study - Project 3.2 - Developing a National Indigenous Environmental Research Network – Marine and Coastal research case studies. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata.
The proposed National Indigenous Environmental Research Network (NIERN) is an Indigenous-led strategic initiative to establish a community of practice that supports current environmental research needs and priorities, enhance future research agendas, mobilise investment opportunities, bolster the impact and durability of research outcomes and empower Indigenous Australians to participate in the national environmental scientific research agenda. This project will experiment with conceptual models for establishing a working NIERN to provide evidence that will guide Indigenous organisations, policy makers and researchers that aim to support Indigenous leadership and participation in environmental research.
The NESP 2020 review reported that “Indigenous peoples seek earlier involvement in land and sea country research. This means being formally included in the project design, development and delivery.”
The project team will work with Indigenous organisations, government agencies and researchers across Australia to provide a national perspective of current processes used to establish new research priorities and projects and use case studies to explore how Indigenous led approaches could augment these projects through Indigenous participation at all project stages.
Planned Outputs
• Title of dataset [spatial dataset]
• Final technical report with analysed data and a short summary of recommendations for policy makers of key findings [written]
Project of Aims and Objectives:
• The establishment and adoption of best practice principles (UNDRIP/FPIC) to ensure research is user focused, relevant, innovative, measurable and delivers outcomes that have enduring economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits.
• Provide tangible approaches to ensure research investment and projects are compatible with and do not undermine customary decision-making systems, supports collective consensus decision making processes, enhances ethical research approaches and recognizes the ownership of natural resources, including land, water, biota, knowledge and Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property.
• Create efficient governance reflecting local and regional input into research needs, program design, research approaches and implementation, while supporting the subsequent evaluation of outcomes including knowledge transfer and brokering.
• Establish mechanisms for developing Indigenous led research priorities, approaches and partnerships that build resilience and prosperity in the Indigenous and broader community which will promote equitable benefit sharing and generate transformational opportunities that are currently being overlooked.
• Amplify the recognition, use and value of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, traditions, customs and practice while increasing the prospects for intergeneration knowledge transfer within the Indigenous community.
• Create pathways for succession and leadership opportunities for the Indigenous research sector that generate enduring employment, economic, social and cultural outcomes at a national level
- Ricky Archer
Project Leader
North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance Ltd (NAILSMA)
ricky.archer@nailsma.org.au
- Stephen Van Leeuwen
Project Leader
Curtin University
Stephen.Vanleeuwen@curtin.edu.au
- National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine and Coastal Hub
- marine
- MARINE
- Coastal Waters (Australia)