Dr Sheelagh Daniels-Mayes, Professor Corrinne Sullivan, Ms Jacinta Walsh and Dr Bep Uink; recipients of the Academy’s 2024 Rechnitz Fund grants for early- and mid-career Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social science researchers.
The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (the Academy) has announced over $75,000 in research funding to four outstanding recipients of its 2024 Wilhelm, Martha and Otto Rechnitz Memorial Fund awards. This fund supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholars in the social sciences and supports knowledge and understanding of the society, languages and cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The grants have been presented to recipients at a breakfast function at Parliament House, hosted by the Parliamentary Friends of Social Sciences to celebrate the launch of Social Sciences Week 2024.
Documenting family genealogy in the Kimberly
Jacinta Walsh, a Jaru and Yawuru woman and Kathleen Fitzpatrick Research Fellow at the Monash University Indigenous Studies Centre will receive funding for a project titled: Ceremonies of Kinship: Celebrating Kimberley Genealogies and Family Histories.
This project will support Jacinta and her three teenage sons on a journey through their Jaru and Yawuru communities in the Kimberly and Northern Territory where they’ll meet with elders and relatives to understand, celebrate and record multi-generational life stories.
‘Jacinta’s fieldwork in the Kimberley will be a new and significant contribution to Aboriginal family genealogy practices and life story and history research and writing, not only in Western Australia but also nationwide’, commented Academy Fellow Professor Lynette Russell AM FASSA FAHA.
Combating racism in WA schools
Noongar woman Dr Bep Uink and her colleagues from Murdoch University have received funding to address the critical issue of racism literacy and anti-racism initiatives in the Western Australian school system.
Their project will undertake an audit of racial literacy among high school staff and teachers and explore teachers’ and caregivers’ perceptions of current school-based anti-racism initiatives. It will use a mix of online surveys, focus groups with school leaders and teachers from six Perth-based high schools, and yarning circles with caregivers of culturally and ethnically diverse youth.
‘Racism in schools and society generally continues to be a major issue,’ said Dr Uink. ‘We hope that this project will help to inform the development and improvement of anti-racism initiatives in Western Australian schools.’
Australia’s first Braille code for First Nations languages
Australia was once home to over 250 First Nations languages and 800 dialects, however only 40 are still spoken, and just 12 are being learnt by children from birth. While there has been a significant focus in recent years on reawakening and preserving these languages, until now none have been accessible in written form to blind and low-vision people.
A grant awarded to Gomeroi woman, researcher and experienced disability advocate Dr Sheelagh Daniels-Mays will address this issue by supporting the development of the world’s first braille code for an Australian First Nations language.
‘Creating a braille code for reading and writing First Nations languages is a complex process that requires collaboration between Indigenous communities, those fluent in the language, linguists and braille experts, including braille users and teachers,’ said Dr Daniels-Mayes. ‘The support from the Academy through the Rechnitz Fund will be instrumental in addressing the intersecting human rights of Indigenous peoples revitalising and keeping their languages strong and enabling people who are blind or have low vision to learn First Nations languages.’
Addressing gender-based violence in Western Sydney
Professor Corrinne Sullivan is an Aboriginal scholar from the Wiradjuri Nation in Central-West of New South Wales. She is the Associate Dean of Indigenous Education within the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University. She will be undertaking a vital project on culturally sensitive interventions to combat gender-based violence in her region.
The project will interview victim-survivors of gender-based violence along with service provider organisations to understand the intersections of Indigeneity, gender, technology and geography. It will use these insights to provide targeted input into the development of culturally sensitive, place-based initiatives that incorporate local community insights to empower victim-survivors.
Speaking about the project, Academy Fellow Professor Adam Possamai FASSA notes that the project ‘promises impactful outcomes that could serve as a model for similar initiatives nationwide.’
Reconciliation at the Academy
The Academy is proud to be supporting these outstanding emerging First Nations social science research leaders as part of its commitment to reconciliation, as outlined in its Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan.
About the Rechnitz Fund
The Wilhelm, Martha and Otto Rechnitz Memorial Fund was established with the support of a generous bequest from the estate of Dr Wilhelm Rechnitz, a refugee from Nazi Germany during WWII who spent many years living and working with people of the Torres Strait Islands after his wartime deportation and internment in Australia.
The Academy is grateful to Mr Ralph O’Brien, executor of Dr Rechnitz’s estate, and to former Academy President Professor Leon Mann for his support in establishing this important initiative.