The IRX Content Archive is home to any non-operational information that relates to the IRX program since its commencement in 2019. This archive holds information on:
| Historic grant rounds | Between 2020 and 2025, the Indigenous Research Exchange (IRX) funded a diverse catalogue of projects through a series of grant rounds. These grants were designed to strengthen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research leadership and support the continuation and revitalisation of Indigenous knowledge systems. |
| Completed grant Projects | Through the grant rounds 30 Projects were completed. Encompassing more than 60 Language groups and involved 17 Indigenous organisations. |
| Indigenous Research Exchange Newsletter | The newsletter highlights Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research and its impact. It also shared information about the Indigenous Research Exchange and the grants program. |
Historic Grant Rounds
Between 2020 and 2025, the Indigenous Research Exchange (IRX) funded a diverse catalogue of projects through a series of grant rounds. These grants were designed to strengthen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research leadership and support the continuation and revitalisation of Indigenous knowledge systems.
The content below was previously featured on the Research grants and projects webpage.
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Our grants program supports research in priority themes.
Our grants program supports research in priority themes.
Projects must address the following funding priorities that align with the priorities in the 2020 Closing the Gap Report and National Agreement on Closing the Gap, and the priorities determined by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
All projects must:
- Demonstrate strong Indigenous leadership
- Have relevance or impact beyond the community or project
- Provide research and/or data into Yumi Sabe
We support projects across Australia in a range of critical policy areas such as:
- children’s education and out of home care
- Indigenous evaluation
- planning and caring for Country
- trade and diplomacy
- governance and nation-building
Please note, the grants program is fully expended.
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Commissioned grants
Truth, Justice and Healing Project
Ebony Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Institute Ltd
The Project aims to generate an evidence base to help inform more ethically and culturally safe ways of talking about the truth, and provide a strong and sustainable foundation for meaningful engagement with traumatised communities.
Mt Keira Aboriginal Cultural Tourism and Cultural Connection Project
Illawarra Local Aboriginal Land Council
This project will investigate actual case use scenarios that incorporates the linking of data sets, strengthening Aboriginal cultural identity, improving economic development opportunities for cultural tourism and asserting connection to Country.
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Targeted grant round
Applicant Project Location of project Wabubadda Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC Reinstating Jirrbal cultural landscapes within Queensland's Wet Tropics World Heritage Area
Jirrbal Aboriginal People will coordinate a multidisciplinary research project for the long-term management of a unique cultural landscape within Queensland's Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, contributing to our understanding of past and present tropical environments.
QLD University of Melbourne (on behalf of Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation) Murnong on Maar Country
Australian agriculture relies on crops imported from Europe, ignoring the productive plant foods farmed before colonisation. Here, we will study the historical distribution & cultivation systems of murnong (yam daisy) on Eastern Maar lands.
VIC
Children's Ground Limited By us, for us - Understanding & measuring First Nations cultural learning & wellbeing
First Nations people in the Northern Territory designing, undertaking & analysing data collection to understand cultural learning & wellbeing for children & young people – for intergenerational cultural transmission & program evaluation.
NT
The University of Queensland Binung Ma Na Du: Cultural stories and living histories on Wakka Wakka Country
To effectively teach language in schools, local curriculum resources are vital. This project investigates how Wakka Wakka traditional owners, community and schools can effectively co-design local curriculum materials in developing local language and cultural curriculum.
QLD
Australian National University (partnering with the Mayi Kuwayu Study) Yarrabah Counts – Policy, planning, population, measures & monitoring
The project aims to design & implement a community development data toolbox consisting of a monitoring & reporting system in Yarrabah that can also assist other Aboriginal communities to design & implement their development agenda.
QLD
Swinburne University of Technology 'Reset the Relationship': modelling a Voice to Parliament in Tasmania
Increasing Aboriginal self-determination principles by modelling a Voice to Parliament in Tasmania, as cornerstone of the Uluru Statement, through a social impact framework to build reconciliation into public policy and democratic participation for Aboriginal benefit.
TAS -
Round 2 grant recipients
Applicant Project Location of project The South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute
Insights into supporting the wellbeing of older Aboriginal people
What constitutes wellbeing changes over time but remains intrinsic to quality of life. We will explore what sustains the wellbeing of older Aboriginal people experiencing grief, loss and the staff who care for them.
SA
University of Canberra
"Waka Ngurrkanhayngu: Regenerating the existence of life": Reducing the risk of natural and social disasters reviving and strengthening
Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples working together two-way to facilitate the remote community Galiwin’ku reviving and strengthening their Yolŋu law, knowledge, culture and governance to heal from and reduce the risk of natural and social disasters.
ACT/NT
University of Melbourne
The Score
Working with ILBIJERRI Theatre Company to co-design and evaluate a theatre-based model for sexual health education in Victoria. The project will generate knowledge around community-engaged, participatory approaches to sexual health education for First Nations communities.
VIC
Centre for Inclusive Design
Breaking the silence
Research into a culturally appropriate, co-designed Artificial Intelligence translation tool for Aboriginal visual (sign) language to English. This will support first contact and communication between mainstream justice/health systems and community.
NSW
Taragara Aboriginal Corporation
Mura Maarni: Chasing Mob through the Archives
Mura Maarni is an oral history and interdisciplinary multimedia research project that focuses on the Mura of the Corner Country now held in collecting institutions such as archives, galleries and museums.
NSW
Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia Ltd
Taking the next steps: Informing the transformation of the research sector to respond to Aboriginal research priorities and ways of conducting research
Health research contributes to improved quality of life and longevity. We aim to inform sector development to achieve equitable outcomes through Aboriginal- identified research priorities and principles that inform the conduct of research.
SA
University of New South Wales
Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience voices in mental health and suicide prevention
This project will evaluate the experience of the first cohort of individuals recruited to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience Centre as they are provide input into mental health and suicide prevention initiatives
NSW
UTS Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research
Setting the foundation for Aboriginal community-led child protection research
This project will establish Aboriginal community-based frameworks, mechanisms and capabilities to drive child welfare policy reforms that align to Aboriginal values and aspirations, and build the localised evidence-base for Aboriginal child welfare systems and practice.
NSW
Institute for Collaborative Race Research
Still Here: Sovereignty and the Queensland Aboriginal Community Controlled Sector
This project explores how the Queensland Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations support communities, exercise sovereignty, and negotiate with state agencies. ACCO partners will reflect on their struggles and achievements, and identify pathways to policy transformation.
QLD
Tangentyere Council Aboriginal Corporation
Local Decision-Making: Priority Setting in the Alice Springs Town Camps
Utilising our unique Wellness Framework we review surveys and place-based data from Alice Springs Town Camps, identifying priorities, community-controlled approaches to complex issues, and strategy with the NT Government, improving decision-making resulting in social transformation.
NT
Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Coporation
Gulumarri Ngaja: All come together
The Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation seeks to capture, evaluate and report on 20 years of continuing innovative generative practices that have sustained Yindjibarndi Law, Knowledge, and Language and Cultural Resilience through contemporary expressions of Yindjibarndi identity.
WA
Karungkarni Art and Culture Aboriginal Corporation
Gurindji Heritage Project/Keeping Place
The Gurindji inspired 'Wave Hill Walk-off' was a defining moment for Indigenous recognition in Australia. This project celebrates this by framing a physical and digital heritage project/keeping place meeting traditional owners' aspirations.
NT
University of Technology Sydney
Indigenous Governing Authorities — Creating Jurisdictional Space for the Implementation of Indigenous Law
This project explores ‘statutory authorities’ as a possible response to First Nations’ need for pluralist governing structures through which they can exercise land jurisdiction, fulfil responsibilities to Country & manage relationships with settler-colonial governments.
NSW
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Round 1 grant recipients
Applicant Project Location of project Victoria University Blak Women’s Healing
Through storytelling modelling and community arts practice, this project will collect stories from Aboriginal women who are incarcerated or at risk of intervention by the justice system, through the use of cultural practices that enable resilience, connection and identity building.
VIC
The Australian National University Repatriation, healing and wellbeing: understanding success for repatriation policy and practice
Co-designing and trialling a protocol with the National Museum of Australia to translate findings into repatriation engagement. This will inform the development of key principles in a model for local adaption by other museums and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations, and recommendations for policy and practice nationally and internationally.
ACT Yolngu Nations Assembly Aboriginal Corporation The Yolŋu Rom Djagamirr Mala Project
The Yolŋu Rom Djagamirr Mala Project is a vitally important initiative that will help to record, document and share knowledge about the ancient and continuing customary law system of the Yolŋu Nations of Northeast Arnhem Land.
NT Central Queensland Indigenous Development Cultural Resilience for Children in Out of Home Care
A community consultation project which Identifies standards and methodology for a best practice cultural strengthening program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in out of home care.
QLD Charles Darwin University Understanding pathways to support Yolngu children and families to achieve string learning in two systems
Building on extensive research, consultations and current work in this community, this project will facilitate effective engagement between Yolngu and Balanda (non-Indigenous), identifying sustainable systems and processes for knowledge exchange.
NT Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (KALACC) Following the Trade Routes
This project will bring together Elders from WA, NT and SA with knowledge of the trade routes. Audio and visual documentation will record song, story and cultural maintenance to document this long term cultural practice that will benefit emerging Elders and anthropologists into the future.
WA/NT/SA Mogo Local Aboriginal Land Council Environmental Stewardship Resurgence in Walbanga (Yuin Nation) Land and Sea Country
Evidence based research that aims to inform hazard mitigation and disaster management strategies. Mogo and Batemans Bay Local Aboriginal Land Councils will develop a toolkit for Rangers to strengthen their capacity to influence environmental management decisions across Country. This project will provide opportunities for Rangers to restore, reclaim and enact their stewardship practices.
NSW ABC Foundation Ltd AWRAE: Aboriginal Women’s Research Assistant & Evaluation Training Project
This project will enable Aboriginal women to access adequate mentoring and support to learn evaluation skills that will lead to effective appropriate and coordinated community responses with the ambition to grow Indigenous led and owned training courses.
WA Noongar Boodjar Language Cultural Aboriginal Corporation Mapping Boodjar: Walyalup Fremantle Cross-Cultural Mapping
Mapping Boodjar documents and visualises Whadjuk Noongar and non-Aboriginal knowledge and language within an urban landscape to promote culture, embed Whadjuk knowledge into built environment practices, and generate opportunities for community development and transformational learning.
WA
Warmun Art Centre Resilience through art as education
Researching how art was a source of knowledge and focus on health and wellbeing will contribute to create a collections policy, document oral histories and work with youth to create new content for use in research and education.
WA Undalup Association A Model for Integrating Cultural Knowledge Systems and Western Science in the management of Wadandi Boodja (Margaret River), Western Australia
This project will develop an interactive cultural map and database which can be utilised as a strategic planning tool that leads to land management plans.
WA
Completed grant projects
Through the grant rounds 30 Projects were completed. Encompassing more than 60 Language groups and involved 17 Indigenous organisations.
The content below was previously featured on the Completed grant projects webpage.
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Aboriginal Women’s Research and Evaluation Training Project
Project lead: Aboriginal Biodiversity Conservation Foundation
Project location: WACurrently, young women in remote Australia face limited on-country employment opportunities. In tandem, non-profits and government organisations face difficulty in assessing the value of their remote programs. Indeed, in the report Mapping the Indigenous Program and Funding Maze, the Centre for Independent Studies examined over 1000 Indigenous programs and found that “less than 10% of these...had been evaluated...few used methods that actually provided evidence of the program’s effectiveness.”
To address these issues, the Aboriginal Biodiversity Conservation Foundation implemented the “Aboriginal Women’s Research and Evaluation Training Project” in Karratha, Western Australia.
The pilot project aimed to:
- Increase availability of meaningful on-country employment opportunities in remote and regional Australia for Indigenous women
- Improve the ability for both government and non-government organisations to recruit skilled remote evaluators to gather accurate data and assess the value of their remote programs
- Maximise community empowerment and agency in assessment of the value of projects being delivered on country, according to the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty
- Address the current shortfall of Indigenous evaluators available for conducting culturally appropriate evaluations
- Reduce the occurrence of duplicative and/or poor programs being continued in remote and regional locations
Karratha was chosen by these organisations as a remote area with high needs, enough service provision that evaluation was necessary (e.g., there would be client NGOs) and women wishing to remain on country.
Initial community consultations resulted in the following guidelines for AWRAE:
- Open to all Aboriginal women 18yrs and over
- Mix of jobseekers and other women (who are working or studying)
- Embedded mentoring and support
- Culturally secure
- Practical hands-on learning and alternative assessment methods
- Cater to individual learning needs including low literacy and numeracy skills
- Block training during school hours
The support model to be used with the AWRAE Training Project will consist of a three-fold wraparound structure that provides participants with access to adequate mentoring and support for the duration of the program.
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Cultural Resilience for Children in Out of Home Care
Project lead: Central Queensland Indigenous Development
Project location: QLDAn increasing body of Australian child protection principle, policy and law is mandating that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in out-of-home care (OOHC) receive Indigenous-led service provision. However, as the limited scientific evidence shows, the growing mandate for Indigenous leadership, self-determination, and cultural connectedness in OOHC is not comprehensively, consistently or transparently occurring in practice. It remains important to underscore to non-Indigenous OOHC decision-makers and actors – who continue to dominate the OOHC landscape in Australia – of the intergenerational benefits of mob-led service provision for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
This need for this project was identified, and the study led and co-designed, by Central Queensland Indigenous Development (CQID). CQID is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisation with over 10 years’ experience providing comprehensive support to families who interface with the Queensland Government run child safety system on Darumbal lands and the lands of the Wadja Wadja/Yungulu, Gooreng Gooreng, Byellee, Gurang, Taribeland Bunda, Gayiri (Kairi, Khararya), Iningai, Malintji, Kuunkari, Butchulla/Batjala peoples and nations in Central Queensland.
This project provided vital evidence and direction to leaders and policymakers, educators, social work practitioners and students as to why and how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-controlled organizations are best placed to lead OOHC service delivery for Australian Indigenous children and their families. The wisdom, voices and experience of Elders, Indigenous OOHC social work professionals, and young adults who have recently transitioned out of OOHC in Central Queensland are qualitatively explored. Ten thematic findings – or directives – emerged that are relevant not only to explain the importance of Indigenous-led OOHC in Central Queensland, but for Indigenous-led OOHC across Australia.
The CQID-led research was conducted with a multidisciplinary team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers from The University of Queensland (Adjunct Professor Sandra Creamer, Professor Maree Toombs, and Dr Claire Brolan).This project was completed in November 2021.
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Mapping Boodjar: Walyalup Fremantle Cross-Cultural Mapping
Project Lead: Noongar Boodjar Language Cultural Aboriginal Corporation
Project location: WACartographic representations of the Western Australian landscape are a powerful visual manifestation of the author’s perspective and spatial understanding of place. Settler mapping has historically disregarded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge when representing land and urban landscapes. Mapping of Walyalup Fremantle has omitted or siloed Aboriginal knowledge systems, as a consequence limiting understanding of the complexities and interconnectedness of physical elements, social structures, memories, and the deep histories of place.
Within the contemporary urban landscape, settler ignorance of Aboriginal knowledge of place is evident in the inability of planning protocols and built environment professionals to engage with and effectively embed Aboriginal culture and language within contemporary urban environments. This applied research makes a timely contribution to the Whadjuk Noongar and non-Whadjuk Aboriginal communities, local government and built environment industries through applying and documenting Whadjuk Noongar led cultural mapping, using these maps to communicate and influence Whadjuk landscapes in the planning system, and educating future leaders about the respect and use of Aboriginal knowledge.
Mapping Boodjar continues the cultural mapping method undertaken with remote and regional Aboriginal communities as part of the Ngurrara Canvas, The Yiwarra Kuju (The Canning Stock Route Project), the Yawuru and Murujuga cultural management plans, and the cultural mapping recently undertaken within the urban landscape of The University of Western Australia. The project draws on this knowledge to further shed light on the contemporary issue of truth telling and decolonising within the built environment. The most important research output, a map, will be a visual expression of Whadjuk Noongar culture within the urban landscape of Walyalup Fremantle.
The methods for this project supports the aims and ensure Aboriginal leadership, governance and ownership. Mapping Boodjar is an Aboriginal-Led co-research, co-designed project framed through the Whadjuk Noongar specific Kaart Koort Waarnginy (KKW) framework developed by Dr Richard Walley and Whadjuk Noongar Elders. The method is embedded in the Noongar six seasons and grounded in a philosophy of collaboration and conversation between all parties. The combination of the co-research where participants are co-researchers and KKW, facilitates respectful relationships, shared understandings, and two-way learning.
Indigenous Research Exchange Newsletter
The newsletter highlights Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research and its impact. It also shared information about the Indigenous Research Exchange and the grants program.
The content below was previously featured on the Indigenous Research Exchange webpage.