Chief investigators

The LAMP project is directed by a cross-disciplinary team of four chief investigators from the University of Melbourne (Gillian Wigglesworth, Rachel Nordlinger, Barbara Kelly and Joe Blythe). To assist in data collection and analysis, several indigenous researchers resident in the Wadeye community will also contribute to the project. Finally, two graduate researchers are employed to run longitudinal studies as well as collecting data for their own PhD projects.

Professor Rachel Nordlinger

Nordlinger has worked extensively in the Wadeye community and is familiar with Murrinhpatha. She is an expert in the grammatical description of Australian indigenous languages (Bilinarra, Wambaya and Murrinhpatha).

Profile and research

Professor Gillian Wigglesworth

Wigglesworth has worked with indigenous children acquiring both Kriol (Tennant Creek and Yakanarra) and Gurindji Kriol (Kalkaringi) and also has expertise in bilingualism as well as English as a second language.

Profile and research

Dr Barbara Kelly

Kelly is an expert in the acquisition of socio-pragmatics and socialisation as well as argument structure. Kelly has investigated children’s early language development and their use of gesture as a means of acquiring argument structure. She has expertise in Tibeto-Burman studies (Sherpa) and in socio-pragmatics.

Profile and research