Research grants program
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.
The current funding priorities are:
- Valuing Indigenous knowledge and methods
- Cultural resurgence and resilience
- Indigenous governance and prosperity
- Rethinking engagement with governments
- Opportunities provided by technological change
All projects must:
- Demonstrate strong Indigenous leadership
- Have relevance or impact beyond the community or project
- Provide research and/or data into the Knowledge Exchange Platform
For more information about our grant program please see:
Projects
We support projects across Australia in a range of critical policy areas such as: children’s education and out of home care; women’s imprisonment; Indigenous evaluation; town planning; land management; governance; trade and diplomacy; governance and nation-building; and educative outcomes from art.
So far we have funded 13 research projects and are assessing a further round of projects.
Project Title |
Project Description |
Applicant |
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. | Victoria 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. |
The Australian National University |
The Ngarra Rom Project | Led by the Yolngu Nations Assembly, this project will document and share the vitality and true meaning of the nation’s traditional legal system. Research and resources will be created to directly influence systems, policy and practice surrounding Aboriginal customary law and its interface with the mainstream Australian legal system. | Yolngu Nations Assembly Aboriginal Corporation |
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. | Central Queensland Indigenous Development |
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. |
Charles Darwin University |
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. | Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (KALACC) |
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. |
Mogo Local Aboriginal Land Council |
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. | ABC Foundation Ltd |
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. |
Noongar Boodjar Language Cultural Aboriginal Corporation |
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. | Warmun Art Centre |
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. | Undalup Association |