NAIDOC week provides an opportunity for the Academy to reflect on its reconciliation journey so far. This follows the launch last year of the Academy’s Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan.
This year’s NAIDOC Week theme is ‘The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy’.
In celebration of this theme the Academy recently welcomed four inspiring young Indigenous researchers and community advocates for an evening of dialogue and connection – hearing their perspectives on meaningful reconciliation through research, respect and relationship.
The event featured rich and thought-provoking discussion with Dr Katrina Wruck, Associate Professor Shannon Kilmartin-Lynch and Dr Mitchell Gibbs, guided by Tiahni Adamson.
Their discussion delved into how the science system can better respect and value Traditional Knowledges – highlighting the vital role these knowledges play in shaping a stronger, more innovative, and sustainable future for our nation and world.
The talk is available to watch on the Academy’s event page.
Earlier this year Associate Professor Shannon Kilmartin-Lynch and Dr Mitchell Gibbs received the Academy’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scientist Award for their exceptional interdisciplinary and sociocultural research in the physical and biological sciences.
Their work exemplifies the powerful intersection of culture, science, and community – paving the way for a more inclusive and enriched scientific landscape.
Dr Gibbs is a geoscientist drawing on Traditional practices to restore local marine ecosystem.
He emphasises that genuine inclusion of Indigenous knowledges in research begins with working with the community that lives there.
“You need to be able to go to those communities to ask: ‘what do you know?’ and ‘how can we learn from you?’”.
Learn more about their research in the video below.
The Tri-Academy Partnership inaugural summit was held in November 2024, hosted by the Royal Society of Canada in collaboration with the Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi.
The summit brought together Indigenous scholars and academics from Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada – alongside non-Indigenous allies and stakeholders – for powerful dialogue centred on cultural heritage in an era of reconciliation.
The event provided valuable opportunities for deeper understanding, knowledge sharing and connections across the three countries.
Dr Jordan Pitt, former Chair of the Academy’s Early and Mid-career Researcher Forum, who attended the summit in Canada, reflected on the mutual benefits of collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
“For communities with genuine partnership and benefit sharing, engagement with academia and the learned academies could meaningfully uplift communities,” Dr Pitt said, in an article for the Conversation.
This was the initial gathering of Indigenous knowledge holders across the three countries, with the next meeting to be hosted later this year by the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi.
The third summit will be held in Australia in 2026 and will be hosted by the Australian Academy of Science.
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