Past news

ISRC’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Program is open to graduate researchers. 2021 applications now open.

ISRC Collaborator Jacynta Krakouer.

ISRC Co-Director Dr Nikki Moodie on how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples ‘have our own priorities, given to us by our ancestors and by Country, and it is progress towards those we need to measure’.

We are excited to announce that Dr Nikki Moodie will be joining Professor Sarah Maddison as co-Director of the Indigenous Settler Relations Collaboration.

Webinar series Semester 2, 2020. More information, registration and recordings.

The ISRC will be continuing our book club over the winter break and in semester 2.

Collaborator and Assistant Dean (Indigenous) at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education Dr Melitta Hogarth's take on recent events and a challenge to school systems and initial teacher education

The days when school students were taught that Captain Cook "discovered" Australia may well be over, but are we providing students and their teachers with enough cultural knowledge to understand Australia's Indigenous past and future?

Addressing systemic racism in child protection is an essential step in preventing black deaths in custody. Jacynta Krakouer for the National Indigenous Times.

On 5 June 2020, collaborator and proud queer, Gomeroi woman Dr Nikki Moodie said a few words for JOY 94.5 about the riots happening in the US and why they matter here in Australia.

As Australia publicly struggles once again with the contemporary legacy of our brutal colonial history, we need to ask ourselves, are the white men we choose to commemorate the people we truly want to celebrate? Sarah Maddison for the Sydney Morning Herald.

There are new calls for Australia to remove or amend its 'racist statues'.

Semester 1, 2020. More information and webinar recordings.

Information on how the COVID-19 outbreak will affect the ISRC's events and activities.

Co-directors Sana Nakata and Sarah Maddison in conversation for the Griffith Review.

Co-director Associate Professor Sana Nakata has taken on a new role as Associate Dean (Indigenous).

Dr Lou Bennet, Dr Melitta Hogarth, Dr Ligia (Licho) Lopez Lopez and Dr Sophie Rudolph are joining the ISRC as collaborators. Read more about 2020 staff changes at the ISRC.

Congratulations to co-directors Assoc Professor Sana Nakata and Professor Sarah Maddison, as well as collaborators Dr Nikki Moodie, Professor Zoë Laidlaw, and Professor Kirsty Gover for their recent success with ARC funding. Read more about their exciting and important projects.

The cost of late intervention for Indigenous children hurts Australian taxpayers - and ensures history keeps repeating. Jacynta Krakouer for the Guardian.

For the next nine weeks, visiting scholar Rebecca Hume will be with us here at the ISRC, all the way from Ryerson University in Toronto.

The removal of Aboriginal children from their homes – and where to place them – is complex and fraught process, and not fodder for politics or morning television. Jacynta Krakouer and Sarah Wise explain.

As part of Reconciliation Week 2019, the Indigenous Settler Relations Collaboration hosted a screening of Larissa Behrendt's film, 'After the Apology'.

In an extract from her book, Sarah Maddison argues that the Australian democratic ideal does little to improve Indigenous lives.

Junior sports clubs in Australia have policies in place for handling racial taunting and vilification, but punishments are rarely enforced. Karen Farqharson, Ramon Spaaij and Ruth Jeanes for the Conversation.

The future lies not in better policy, or even a new government, but in the exciting resurgence of Indigenous nationhood. Sarah Maddison for the Conversation.

Listen to co-directors Sana Nakata and Sarah Maddison discuss Indigenous-settler relations.

In an election that had the highest number of enrolled eligible voters in history it seems we have affirmation that we live in a country as uncertain of its future as ever. Sana Nakata for IndigenousX.

From March 11 - March 18 2019, Dr Nakata hosted the rotating IndigenousX Twitter handle.

Following the deaths of an alarming number Indigenous young people earlier this year, Australian leaders were urged to declare a ‘national crisis'. Julia Hurst for the Conversation.

Indigenous relations in Australia have come a long way, but as we celebrate NAIDOC Week, it’s clear there is still a long and uncomfortable way to go. Jacynta Krakouer explores this year's theme.

Professor Sarah Maddison offers a simple metaphor to help us understand the impact of colonialism and the potential benefits of a treaty.

Our democracy will be deficient until Indigenous children can imagine themselves in its future.

An 1839 letter is a tale of adventure packed into 4 pages using overlapping criss-cross handwriting, but it is a deeper record of Australian frontier conflict

Sexual abuse, harassment and discrimination pervade parts of Australian universities, according to survey results released by the Australian Women's History Network.

In Australia there are no legal avenues to ensure Indigenous participation in law-making, it’s a fact that sets us apart from fellow settler-state Commonwealth countries, New Zealand and Canada.

Indigenous Settler Relations Collaboration member Ash Barnwell has been awarded a National Library of Australia (NLA) Fellowship for 2019.

Official launch of the Indigenous Settler Relations Collaboration a great success

University of Melbourne sociologist Professor Karen Farquharson researches race, ethnicity and racism in media and sport - and its impact in modern Australia.

ISRC collaborator Nikki Moodie (along with her colleague Rachel Patrick) have been awarded the The Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Best Paper for 2018.

The negotiation of a treaty or treaties with the Australian state has long been an aspiration for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and for many progressive Australians as well.

A Senate inquiry has recommended that trials of the Cashless Debit Card be continued and expanded to new sites in other states.

Chair of the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council, Warren Mundine, told Q&A that $30 billion is spent every year on 500,000 Indigenous people in Australia. Is that right?

In 2008 the Council of Australian Governments agreed to a set of targets for Indigenous health, education and social participation. It was a significant moment in the history of the Federation.

Academics at the forefront of Indigenous affairs give their take on the government report that sets goals to reduce the disadvantages of Australia's first peoples.

This seminar series will interrogate questions of cultural expression, activism, relationality, sovereignty, and decolonisation within the digital world.

The evaluation of the card in the East Kimberley shows limited understanding of its negative economic and social impacts on vulnerable populations.

Australia is being held back by its unresolved relationship with its Indigenous population.

Stories push back on the narratives that seek to further isolate marginalised peoples.

Education holds the key to closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, says Dr Nikki Moodie.

Three separate projects led or supported by researchers from the ISRC have received grant funding from the Australian Research Council. The three projects are detailed below:

Monday 3 December saw the launch of the Indigenous Settler Relations Collaboration at the Atrium in Arts West (Building 148).

ISRC Co-Director Sarah Maddison and colleagues Dr Sophie Rudolph, Dr Licho Lopez Lopez and Dr Sue Mentha have been successful in obtaining funding for an upcoming project.

The tracking of lives through government documentation, in particular Aboriginal lives and the lives of other racialised people, has a long history. Jordy Silverstein and Katherine Ellinghaus investigate.