Indigenous perspectives of the urban environment : an Indigenous-led research program

All urban environment practices, research and policy occurs on, to and in Aboriginal country. No matter the focus, approach, personnel, timing or framing, all of these practices have an impact on the lives and futures of Indigenous people. Yet Indigenous communities aspirations are rarely at the centre of urban environments research and practice. In this workshop, we will discuss a project that asks what it will take to shift from mainstream 'engagement' to Indigenous-led urban environmental research.

The project is part of the Clean Air and Landscape Hub, funded by the National Environment Science Program (NESP) in partnership with RMIT's Centre for Urban Research. We propose an interactive workshop to discuss the challenges and questions we are experiencing in this project. For this is more than engaging an Indigenous perspective, important as that is, on research for sustainable urban landscapes. What will it mean to ask and answer the question: What are the research gaps in understanding future urban landscapes, from an Indigenous perspective? We will explore these questions and our approach in this workshop.