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with communities, public and private sector
institutions, industry etc are critically
important to us in negotiating these
challenges. It might be possible in theory to
stand back and undertake research ‘at a
distance’ on topics like Indigenous health and
natural resource valuation (to pick just two
examples from the pages that follow). In
practice, however, the quality and impact of
that research are boosted enormously by our
partnerships with relevant communities and
agencies.
A fourth characteristic of Institute activity –
integrity – is also evident in this issue of the
newsletter. Integrity is so fundamental to what
we do that it is not always highly visible.
Research must be ethically and methodologi-
cally sound, budgets balanced, reporting
accurate, and so on. But integrity also requires
us to accept the risks involved in undertaking
research and facilitating debate about issues
marked by political conflict and controversy. I
am particularly pleased, in this context, to see
the Institute’s PNG seminar series tackling
head on some of the difficult questions raised
by Australia’s contemporary relationships with
Papua New Guinea (see p. 16). I do not expect
participants in these seminars – or in any of
our other activities – to reach agreement on
all things but I do hope they see value in using
the Institute as a forum to investigate and
discuss the big issues confronting our region.
Professor Stewart Lockie
Director
The Cairns Institute
From the Director
In the short time I’ve been at James Cook
University I have been constantly struck by
the good will and optimism stakeholders from
outside the University express towards the
Cairns Institute. In all my interactions over the
last three months with people from Cairns,
North Queensland, the Pacific, South East
Asia, and beyond, there have been obvious
points of common interest and a sense that
the Institute offers some real opportunities to
contribute to the region. Looking through this
newsletter is not hard to see why. The projects
and achievements documented here speak to
several features of the Institute’s activities –
features including relevance, engagement and
excellence – that produce these opportunities.
It’s easy enough to write words like relevance,
engagement and excellence into mission
statements and strategic plans. Delivering on
them is harder and demonstrating them
harder still. Around the world, governments
are struggling to find cost-effective ways of
measuring the real world impacts of research
while, paradoxically, key international science
organisations struggle with the question of
how to convince governments and others to
take research results more seriously. The
productive working relationships Cairns
Institute staff and researchers have developed
CONTACT US
THE CAIRNS INSTITUTE
PO Box 6811, Cairns QLD 4870, Australia
T. 07 4042 1718
F. 07 4042 1880
E. cairnsinstitute@jcu.edu.au
W. http://www.jcu.edu.au/cairnsinstitute/
In this issue
From the Director 1
International award for excellence
2
Are you tough enough to be gentle?
3
Design thinking in Malaysia
4
Talanoa Pasifika Conference 2014
5
Taking back control through empowerment
6
The economy & the environment
7
ALERT 8
Global workshops 10
Science and Innovation Advisory Council
11
Visiting scholar 11
Cannabis use in Qld 12
More Masterclasses 13
Post Doctoral profile 14
Post Doctoral profile 15
PNG seminar series 16
Art of awareness 17
The Institute &TESS 18
Difference & domination
19
Rumble in the rainforest
19
Training needs assessment
20
Linguistic workshop 21
2013 Inaugural Lecture 22
Regenerating farms 23
April 2014
Page 1
International award for excellence
The Sustainability Collection presents an
annual International Award for Excellence for
new research or thinking. The Collection
comprise four themed journals and an
annual review:
The International Journal of Environmental
Sustainability
The International Journal of Sustainability
Policy and Practice
The International Journal of Sustainability
Education
The International Journal of Sustainability
in Economic, Social and Cultural Context
The International Journal of Environmental,
Cultural, Economic, and Social Sustainability: Annual Review.
All articles submitted for publication in the
collection are entered for consideration for
this award.
The paper by James Cook University
researchers, Neus (Snowy) Evans, Michelle
Lasen and Komla Tsey, entitled “A systematic
search of trends in rural development
research: Type of research, originating
regions and engagement with sustainability”
recently published in the Sustainability Annual
Review, was selected as the 2013 award
winner from more than 250 peer-reviewed
papers.
The authors have since secured a book
contract with Springer to publish an expanded
version of the paper. Their research
investigates trends relating to quantity and
quality of research output over the last three
decades in rural development and will be of
interest to policy makers, practitioners and
funding bodies in the field.
“Their research
investigates trends
relating to quantity
and quality of
research output over
the last three decades
in rural development
and will be of interest
to policy makers,
practitioners and
funding bodies in the
field”
Page 2
L to R: Michelle Lasen, Komla Tsey, Snowy Evans
Are you tough enough to be gentle?
Everyone knows babies cry. What most people
aren’t aware of is that crying is normal and
has peaks and troughs through a baby’s first
year.
One of these peaks occurs at around six to
eight weeks and overall babies cry most
between 0 and five months.
Uncontrollable crying is an identified cause of
shaken baby syndrome which can cause
blindness, seizures, learning and physical
difficulties and even death.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies
are over represented in shaken baby statistics
and it was with this in mind that Queensland
Health’s Dr Bill Liley and the Cairns Institute’s
Dr Anne Stephens conducted a presentation
on the Period of PURPLE Crying program at
Apunipima Cape York Health Council in
February 2014.
The talk was attended by a range of maternal
and child health professionals from
Apunipima, Queensland Health and the Royal
Flying Doctor Service.
The program aims to share a range of simple
messages and strategies with parents of
young babies to prevent shaken baby
syndrome.
“The underlying message is crying is normal,
it peaks around six weeks to two months, it
doesn’t mean you’re a bad parent, it will end,
but in the meantime, walk away cool down
and never, ever shake a baby,” says Dr
Stephens.
“PURPLE is an acronym,” she says, “P is for
peak of crying; U is for unexpected crying that
can come and go and you don’t know why;
R resists soothing in other words, there’s
nothing you can do to calm your baby down;
P is pain – babies may look like they’re in pain
even when they’re not; L is for long lasting,
crying can last for up to five hours a day or
more; and E is for evening - your baby may
cry more in the late afternoon or evening. We
want parents to understand that the PURPLE
period of crying is completely normal and will
pass.
Apunipima is in ongoing discussions with Drs
Liley and Stephens to work out how best to
roll out or adapt the program for a Cape York
audience.
Apunipima Maternal and Child Health Educator
and Midwife Johanna Neville said she would
like to incorporate elements of the PURPLE
Period program into a proposed Aboriginal
Health Worker-led home visiting program.
“Our health workers are the best people to
talk to mums and families about healthy
practices. While shaken baby syndrome is
rare on the Cape, information which allows
parents to respond more calmly to a baby’s
distress is always welcome. I think the
messages contained within the PURPLE Period
package have capacity to support and
empower Cape parents and prevent harm and
as such, have definite value.”
“The underlying
message is crying
is normal, it peaks
around six weeks
to two months, it
doesn’t mean
you’re a bad
parent, it will end,
but in the
meantime, walk
away cool down
and never, ever
shake a baby”
Page 3
L to R: Anne Stephens, Rachael Wargent, Bill Liley
From http://purplecrying.info/
Design thinking in Malaysia
Professor Neil Anderson was recently funded
by the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade’s Australia-Malaysia Institute to deliver
guest lectures and workshops at the
University of Malaya (UM) and the University
of Technology Malaysia (UTM). Over 90
academics from engineering and business
attended the lecture at UTM and 80
participants from a wide range of discipline
areas attended the UM event.
In addition, an agreement was made to link
students at James Cook University with
students at the Genovasi Institute of Design
Thinking in Kuala Lumpur to share ideas on
how they use design thinking. Genovasi is the
Malaysian Government’s program to increase
innovation in industry and education in order
to ensure regional competitiveness. The vision
of Genovasi is “to inspire, create and
empower a movement of innovators for the
betterment of self, the environment and the
world.”
The Institute of Design Thinking opened in
February 2013 in partnership with the
Stanford University D-School and the Hasso
Plattner School of Design Thinking at
Potsdam University, Germany. It is the
flagship strategy of Genovasi to foster
innovation throughout Malaysia.
A successful JCU led design thinking lecture
and workshop series was also held in Australia
at events in Darwin, Brisbane, Perth and
Melbourne with partner universities
Queensland University of Technology (QUT),
Swinburne, and Edith Cowan University (ECU)
with over 350 people attending the six events.
At the Melbourne event, guest speakers
included Professor Nita Cherry from the
School of Business (Leadership) at Swinburne
and Professor Sarah Pink from visual
anthropology at Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology and Mr Tom Barrett from Notosh
(Design thinking corporate and education
international consultants).
The partnership established between James
Cook University researchers (including
Professor Ton Otto, Dr Raoul Adam, Dr
Pauline Taylor and Dr Katja Fleischmann) has
led to a successful multi-university Office for
Learning and Teaching (OLT) expression of
interest (EOI) application for further funding
for a large national design thinking project to
follow-up the pilot study conducted in 2013.
The successful EOIs were announced by the
OLT on 24 March 2014 and the partners in the
large JCU led study are QUT, Swinburne
University and ECU.
Professor Anderson has been invited to speak
about design thinking at the upcoming
Australian Deans (ICT) forum on learning and
teaching in Sydney on 9 May 2014 at the
University of Technology (UTS).
One of the main recommendations in the
recent Australian Government Creative
Australia – National Cultural Policy is to foster
“recognition of design as a ubiquitous
capability for innovation by embedding design
thinking within Australia’s innovation system.”
Page 4
“Genovasi is the
Malaysian
Government
program to increase
innovation in
industry and
education in order
to ensure regional
competitiveness.
The vision of
Genovasi is ‘to
inspire, create and
empower a
movement of
innovators for the
betterment of self,
the environment
and the world’”
Professor Neil Anderson with Genovasi CEO, Carol
Wong in Kuala Lumpur
Talanoa Pasifika Conference 2014
Talanoa Pasifika Conference is an annual
event which focuses on issues affecting Pacific
Island People in Australia.
Talanoa Pasifika builds a bridge between
Pacific communities and local government in
Australia, between academics, researchers
and industry leaders. It promotes
multicultural understanding by providing a
platform for people working at the
“grassroots” level to have a voice, and for
policy makers to gain a better understanding
of the realities of life for Pacific Island people
in Australia.
Previous Talanoa Conferences have been in
Brisbane. This year’s conference will be held
at the Cairns Institute on 16—17 July 2014.
The Conference is being organised and
supported by a collaboration between Mission
Australia, Woree State High and Primary
Schools, Anne Holden Consulting, the Cairns
Institute and James Cook University.
The focus of the Talanoa Pasifika Cairns 2014
initiative will be education and will explore the
areas of education, career, lifestyles and
ethics within the themes of Choices, Chances
and Opportunity…EDUCATION is the future.
A diverse audience of professionals, service
providers, communities and individuals are
expected to attend. The short term goals are
for Pacific families to pursue positive path-
ways that will eventually lead them towards
self-reliance and independence, both for the
individual and community. By doing this,
future generations will contribute to their local
communities in positive self-fulfilling ways.
The call for papers closes on the 30 April
2014.
For future information including a the call for
papers is available at
http://www.talanoapasifika.com/
Page 5
“It promotes
multicultural
understanding by
providing a
platform for
people working at
the ‘grassroots’
level to have a
voice, and for
policy makers to
gain a better
understanding of
the realities of life
for Pacific Island
people in
Australia”
Volume 1, Issue 1
Taking back control through empowerment
Despite efforts to close the gap, Indigenous
Australians continue to suffer more than
double the disease of the total Australian
population with most of the health gap caused
by preventable chronic diseases. A recent
roundtable meeting in Adelaide coordinated by
the Lowitja Institute aimed to shed light on the
issue and offer a way forward through
empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Australians to take control of their
own health and lives through the Family
Wellbeing Program (FWB).
The Family Wellbeing group program was
developed by Aboriginal Australians in 1993
and promotes analytical skills that help
participants confront complex problems
through spirituality, problem solving and
conflict resolution techniques.
The program has been delivered to more than
3,300 participants across Australia, 91% of
whom have been Aboriginal. The program has
enhanced people’s capacity to take control of
their lives and make healthy changes for
themselves and their families.
Present at the Roundtable were about 50
Family Wellbeing facilitators, program
managers, researchers and associated policy
makers and others. Attendees from JCU
included Janya McCalman, Cath Brown,
Yvonne Cadet-James, Roxanne Bainbridge,
and Komla Tsey. Through heartfelt sharing of
stories about the positive effects of FWB on
participants and challenges of sustaining
delivery and research, the participants
resolved to continue collaborations through a
national newsletter, grant applications and
further projects.
The Roundtable was funded by the Lowitja
Institute – The National Institute for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health.
Its Chairperson, Dr Pat Anderson says, “Our
medical professionals do a great job of
prescribing medicines and devising treatment
programs but, to fix the root causes of ill-
health, we need something more. As
Aboriginal people we need to have a sense of
agency in our lives, that we are not stray
leaves blowing about in the wind. In a word,
we need empowerment.”
Page 6
“Our medical
professionals do a
great job of
prescribing
medicines and
devising treatment
programs but, to
fix the root causes
of ill-health, we
need something
more. As Aboriginal
people we need to
have a sense of
agency in our lives,
that we are not
stray leaves
blowing about in
the wind. In a
word, we need
empowerment”
Group photo from the roundtable
meeting in Adelaide
L tp R: Mary Whiteside, Komla Tsey, Eric Cook,
Janya McCalman
The economy & the environment
Exploring interactions between the
economy and the environment: Insights
from studies in the Great Barrier Reef
and the Wet Tropics World Heritage
areas
Affluent societies are in a good financial
position to support and maintain iconic natural
systems. But having a healthy economic
system does not guarantee the existence of a
healthy natural system and the literature
abounds with examples of wealthy societies
and businesses that have been environmen-
tally destructive. Significantly, history also
shows that the collapse of parts of an environ-
mental system (e.g., desertification, or loss of
water) can lead to the collapse of
society. The complex interactions that exist
between and within natural and economic
systems means that small changes in even
one part of one system may have far reaching
and unexpected impacts elsewhere – perhaps
tomorrow, perhaps five years from now. But
we do not fully understand these complex
links and are thus ill-equipped to assess the
desirability of, or to make predictions about
the likely consequence of, different types of
‘change’ (e.g., more frequent cyclones, more
volatile commodity prices, particular types of
development).
Natalie Stoeckl, in conjunction with a large
team of researchers from the Cairns Institute,
the School of Business, the Great Barrier Reef
Marine Park Authority, and the Australian
National University is working on two projects
funded by the Tropical Ecosystems Hub of the
National Environmental Research Hub. The
projects seek to shed light on some of these
perplexing issues.
Thus far, they have found evidence to suggest
that parts of the economy which, on the
surface seem to be quite unrelated, are
connected through the environment. Beef
prices, for example, can affect water clarity (if
one controls for other influences such as
rainfall and/or extreme events), and water
clarity is important to tourists (amongst other
things). As such, changes in the world price of
beef can impact regional tourism industries.
These projects are due to finish at the end of
2014, although the team can envisage a life-
time of work ahead!
More information about the Great Barrier Reef
project (including an interim report) can be
found at: http://www.nerptropical.edu.au/
research
Theme 3: Managing for resilient tropical
ecosystems
Program 10: Socio-economic value of GBR
goods and services
Project: 10.2 Socio-economic systems and
reef resilience
More information about the Wet Tropics
project can be found at: http://
www.nerptropical.edu.au/research
Theme 3: Managing for resilient tropical
ecosystems
Program 12 : Managing for resilience in
rainforests
Project: 12.3 Relative social and economic
values of residents and tourists in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area
Page 7
Natalie Stoeckl
“… having a healthy
economic
system does not
guarantee the
existence of a
healthy natural
system and the
literature abounds
with examples of
wealthy societies
and businesses that
have been
environmentally
destructive”
ALERT: Alliance of Leading Environmental
Scientists and Thinkers
Ellen Field, a PhD student in the Cairns
Institute and the School of Education, has
been working in collaboration with
Distinguished Research Professor Bill
Laurance, from the Faculty of Science and
Engineering, to create a scientific organisation
known as ALERT, the Alliance of Leading
Environmental Scientists and Thinkers.
The organisation has been actively publishing
content through its website for the last 3
months and has garnered significant media
attention on several environmental issues.
ALERT is designed to help leading scientists
respond quickly and credibly to important
environmental issues, and to promote and
disseminate their research. ALERT has a core
group of 13 renowned scientists plus additional
media advisors, who provide input and then
leverage their research contacts when an
environmental issue arises that ALERT decides
to take action on. ALERT then publishes a fact-
based press release on the current environ-
mental issue and disseminates the press
release through a curated media contact data-
base comprised of over 600 relevant media
contacts, as well as prominent environmental
freelance writers.
The idea for ALERT stems from Bill’s extensive
experience working with leading scientific
organisations such as the Association for
Tropical Biology and Conservation, the Society
for Conservation Biology, and the American
Society of Mammalogists, to influence
environmental decisions.
On reflecting on the genesis of ALERT, Bill
notes: “While these groups play an important
role in promoting research, I have found that
they are rarely able to respond rapidly to
environmental issues—which are often urgent
and time-critical. Further, some members of
these groups are inexperienced and
uncomfortable in engaging in real-world
environmental issues. Clearly, there is a need
for an agile organisation that brings the
knowledge and credibility of leading scientists
to bear on environmental issues of real
importance.” Bill is the director and founder of
ALERT.
For Ellen, the idea of ALERT is an exciting
opportunity to test out her own tech-skills and
apply insights from her current research on
informal learning and activism within
social media sites. According to Ellen, “blogs
and social media provide important platforms
for voice, agency, and organising. We all have
experienced how an issue can go viral on the
internet. I am interested in experimenting with
how to use online media platforms to engage
with real-world environmental issues and to
influence important decisions.” Ellen is a
media advisor for ALERT and is responsible for
website and social media communications as
well as problem-solving platform-based issues.
In only three months of publishing content,
the ALERT website has had over 7,000 hits
and in the month of March built its audience to
over 1,000 different readers per month.
In this time, some press releases that have
been issued have had notable impact and
media attention.
1. The Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra,
Indonesia
For the Leuser Ecosystem, ALERT joined
efforts with a coalition of NGOs to urge the
Indonesian government to declare the
imperiled Leuser region a World Heritage site.
The Aceh government in northern Sumatra has
proposed to construct hundreds of kilometres
of new roads and clear tens of thousands of
hectares of forest in the region.
The Leuser Ecosystem, according to the ALERT
press release “is literally the last place on
Earth where elephants, tigers, rhinoceros, and
orangutans still coexist.” Several petitions
Page 8
“While these
groups play an
important role in
promoting
research, I have
found that they
are rarely able to
respond rapidly to
environmental
issues—which are
often urgent and
time-critical”
Bill Laurance
Ellen Field
ALERT cont.
circulated soon after ALERT issued its press
release, and all of the petitions cited ALERT
scientists. The most successful petition
gathered 47,155 signatures from people
around the world in support of protecting the
forest from logging. One month following
ALERT’s press release, PT Kallista Alam, an
Indonesian logging company was held
accountable for illegally burning forests within
the Tripa Peat Swamps. The court’s ruling
resulted in a fine of 114 billion rupiah,
approximately US$9 million. Additionally,
another recent court ruling found a
government official guilty of issuing illegal
logging permits and was subsequently fined
with 14 years of imprisonment.
These are strong messages of improved law
enforcement against environmental offenders
in the region and successes for all
organisations involved in advocating for the
protection of this important habitat.
2. Chitwan National Park in Nepal
Chitwan National Park in Nepal is home to
important populations of one-horned
rhinoceros, Bengal tiger, sloth bears and many
other wildlife species.
ALERT issued a press-release against plans to
push a major railroad and eight feeder roads
into the National park. ALERT representatives
were among the first to bring attention to the
issue and claimed the development “could be
environmentally devastating, given the
potential for increased fragmentation,
disturbance and poaching of the park’s
wildlife.” ALERT’s press release garnered
media attention from Radio Australia,
Mongabay, and The Ecologist, among others.
The ALERT scientists also maintain a blog,
Issues & Research Highlights, which
summarises important research as it comes
through their inboxes. Currently, Bill is the
main contributor while ALERT is setting up for
guest bloggers and helping other ALERT
scientists to hone their blogging skills. (The
blog can be subscribed to from the website:
www.alert-conservation.org)
ALERT brings the knowledge and credibility of
leading scientists to bear on environmental
issues of real importance, however, it is an
agile organisation that is more than a
communication pathway of knowledge
mobilisation.
ALERT is taking an active role in “alerting”
media on these issues through fact-based
press releases and through harnessing the
power of social media encouraging individuals
to leverage their own personal networks and
increase international focus and attention. It is
fitting that such an innovative model of
environmental advocacy be situated at James
Cook University, a world leader in environment
and ecology research.
Take a moment to check out ALERT in any of
these places:
www.alert-conservation.org
www.facebook.com/ALERTconserv
www.twitter.com/ALERTconserv
Page 9
“ALERT
representatives
were among the
first to bring
attention to the
issue and claimed
the development
‘could be
environmentally
devastating, given
the potential for
increased
fragmentation,
disturbance and
poaching of the
park’s wildlife’”
Photo: Bill Laurance
Global workshops
A major role of the Language and Culture
Research Centre (LCRC) at JCU is understand-
ing why languages are they way they are and
how languages work. We organise scholarly
forums discussing various aspects of human
language, especially those which are relevant
for interaction and communication.
Among such forums are Global Workshops on
grammatical topics which run throughout the
year. Every member of LCRC and various
outside colleagues contribute with an hour
long presentation on a language of their
expertise.
The first Global Workshop was organised by
Professor Dixon in 1991 within the Linguistics
Department at the ANU. It focused on
reflexives and reciprocals, and involved about
15 participants. When our Research Centre
was established at the ANU in 1996, Global
workshops continued to run each year,
covering topics such as relative clauses, non-
canominal marking of subjects and objects,
tense, copula clauses and verbless clauses,
imperatives and other commands,
comparative constructions, the semantics of
clause linking, speech reports and derivational
morphology.
Since our establishment at JCU in 2009,
Professors Aikhenvald and Dixon have run
Global Workshops on body parts, kinship
systems, and demonstratives and directionals.
There are approximately 20 presentations
throughout the year, culminating in a
summary session. Many presentations gave
rise to chapters in PhD theses, or books. Our
new topic for this year is Questions.
This is how it works. The major person
responsible for the Workshop prepares a
Position Paper. This states the major points to
be covered. For example, how can one tell a
question from a statement? What are question
words across languages? How are questions
used? The position paper is accompanied by a
list of points to address.
Everyone is welcome — this is a topic of global
interest, hence the name!
Page 10
“A major role of
the Language and
Culture
Research Centre
(LCRC) at JCU is
understanding
why languages are
they way they are
and how
languages work”
Bob Dixon and Okomobi (a speaker of Jarawara
language, Southern Amazonia, Brazil)
Sasha Aikhenvald, Papa Solomon and Papa Mark
(speakers of Yalaku language, East Sepik, PNG)
RMW Dixon
Sasha Aikhenvald
Appointment to Science and Innovation Advisory
Council
The specific roles of the Advisory Council will
be to:
identify and propose appropriate recommen-
dations on emerging trends and issues that
could potentially impact on Queensland’s
science and innovation system
provide advice on mechanisms for improving
research and development (R&D) coordina-
tion, planning and innovation across sectors
involving government agencies, universities
and industry including international
collaborations
provide advice to the Minister for Science,
Information Technology, Innovation and the
Arts on future science and innovation
investments
keep the government’s science and research
priorities under review and make
recommendations to the Minister for
Science, Information Technology, Innovation
and the Arts on future priorities and
progress against them.
Page 11
“The Advisory
Council will provide
independent
guidance,
investment advice
and review
progress against
Queensland
Government
priorities”
Professor Natalie Stoeckl has recently been
appointed as one of the 12 members of the
newly-formed Science and Innovation Advisory
Council. This is a key initiative from the
Government’s Science and Innovation Action
Plan that was launched towards the end of
2013.
The Advisory Council will provide independent
guidance, investment advice and review
progress against Queensland Government
priorities.
Visiting scholar: Nianxing Zhou
Associate Professor Nianxing Zhou is visiting
James Cook University from March—September
2014 from the Tourism Department, School of
Geography, Nanjing Normal University, China.
Associate Professor Zhou is a specialist in
issues related to forest landscapes and how
these impact on the tourist experience.
L: Nanjing Normal University
Photo: http://www.njnu.edu.cn/
Associate Professor
Nianxing Zhou
Whilst visiting James Cook University
Associate Professor Zhou will compare the
world heritage national management
frameworks of China and Australia. He is
interested in landscape change and visual
assessment of natural sites including our
tropical rainforests.
Cannabis use in Qld
Bernadette Rogerson, current PhD student,
has been working with Dr Susan Jacups,
Cairns Institute Post-doctoral Research Fellow,
analysing interviews collected during her
honours project (Psychology).
Bernadette’s Honours thesis defined cannabis
use in Indigenous males from regional and
remote Queensland in a cohort of Lotus Glen
inmates. Each participant consented to be
interviewed on their cannabis use (initiation
age, reasons for commencement, periods of
abstinence and reasons for cessation, amount
and frequency of use) and the presence of
withdrawal symptoms upon incarceration.
During her Honours year Bernadette piloted
visual tools to enable easy translation of
previously validated questions on cannabis
withdrawal (The Cannabis Withdrawal Scale—
below). She is in the process of improving
these tools and with support from the National
Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre,
University of New South Wales (NCPIC), a
visual scale is being formally developed which
will be available on the NCPIC website.
Examples of the illustrations used to depict
symptoms is shown in Figures 1 and 2 (below
left).
Bernadette and Susan are currently writing
papers on the findings and recently had a
paper accepted for publication titled “Lifetime
influences for cannabis cessation in remote
Indigenous males”. This paper will be freely
available via JCU’s publications portal later this
year.
Page 12
2. I have been angry/
short tempered
1. I have a headache
Part of the visual Cannabis Withdrawal Scale used in Bernadette’s Honours studies
Susan Jacups
Bernadette
Rogerson
More masterclasses for 2014
This year has started very strongly from a
Professional Development Training
perspective with a range of courses well
underway, including our first Masterclass on
managing Upstream Workplace Bullying run in
Townsville. Fully booked out within a week,
demand for this course remains strong which
indicates that the Cairns Institute is address-
ing real needs within our local community.
Over the coming months we are also
scheduled to run Masterclasses in the following
subjects:
Effective community engagement with
Michelle Wood (7 and 8 May 2014)
Women in leadership roles with Dr Elaine
Harding (30 April and 7 May 2014)
Indigenous community engagement and
cultural awareness for NGOs with Lyn Nichols
The Cairns Institute was also successful in
being awarded funding by the Australian
Government Attorney-General’s Department to
deliver our highly successful Masterclass in
Native Title for Anthropologists for a further
three years.
This 8 day Masterclass is scheduled to run in
May 2014 and has already reached over 85%
enrolments. There are some places left so if
you want to work in Native Title, or do so
already and want to turbocharge your career,
follow this link for more information
http://alumni.jcu.edu.au/NatTitleMClass2014
Page 13
Students from the 2013 Native Title Masterclass on a field trip attending the burial site of the Irukandji
Elder, Billy Jagar, the Aboriginal ‘King of Barron’ who passed away in 1930
Post Doctoral profile: Simon Overall
Dr Simon Overall is a Postdoctoral Research
Fellow in the Language and Culture Research
Centre (LCRC) of the Cairns Institute.
Simon studied linguistics at the University of
Auckland before moving to Australia to start a
PhD at La Trobe University. His thesis was a
comprehensive grammar of Aguaruna, a
Jivaroan language spoken in the Amazon basin
in north Peru. Aguaruna is spoken in the
eastern foothills of the Andes, right in the
contact zone between the distinct Andean and
Amazonian cultural regions. The history of
population movements makes this a fascinat-
ing place to study linguistic and cultural
contact.
Since being awarded his PhD in 2008, Simon
has continued to work on Aguaruna and other
languages and cultures of north Peru, and he
has taught at La Trobe and Otago universities.
He came to the Cairns Institute in July 2013 to
start a new research project on the grammar
of Candoshi, another Peruvian language
spoken in lowland Amazonia. There is a long
history of contact between Candoshi and
Aguaruna speakers, but the languages are
unrelated.
In late 2013 Simon made his first field trip to
Candoshi communities, and got a first taste of
the language and culture. The Candoshi
communities are much more remote than
most Aguaruna communities, and this is
reflected in a more introspective culture.
The project is funded by the ARC Discovery
Project “How languages differ and why”,
awarded to Distinguished Professor Sasha
Aikhenvald and Professor RMW Dixon.
When he's not busy studying languages Simon
likes taking his children to the beach and
playing music.
Page 14
“The Candoshi
communities are
much more
remote than most
Aguaruna
communities, and
this is reflected in
a more
introspective
culture.”
Painted up with achiote and
getting a dose of ayahuasca in
Rio Santiago
With school children in the Huambisa community
of Chapiza, Rio Santiago
At work in the Candoshi community of Nueva Children coming to take a look as we visit a
Candoshi community on the Rio Chapuli
Diana Forker, of the University of
Bamberg (Germany) was awarded a
Feodor Lynen Fellowship by the German
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (in
conjunction with Alexandra Aikhenvald’s
Alexander von Humboldt Research
Award).
Diana finished her dissertation, A
grammar of Hinuq, in 2011. It was
published in 2013 and awarded with the
Humboldt Prize of the German
Association of Linguistics and the Otto
Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society.
Diana started her 12 month Fellowship
at the Language and Culture Research
Centre (LCRC) in September 2013. Her
project focuses on the expression of
evidentiality in the languages of the
Caucasus. Many of the Caucasian
languages have special verb forms,
usually with past time that also indicate
that the speaker has or has not
witnessed the event about which s/he is
talking. In Europe such verb forms are
rather rare, but the Caucasus is an
exception with its richness of
evidentiality systems attested in various
language families.
The aim of this project is to provide an
overview of the evidentiality systems of
the Nakh-Daghestanian language family
and to accomplish a number of in-depth
studies of individual languages (Lak,
Avar, Dargi, Lezgian, and Hinuq). The
two key aspects of the project are: First,
evidentiality and language contact,
especially between Dargi and Kumyk, a
Turkic language widely spoken in
Daghestan, and between Hinuq and
Avar. Second, the use of evidential forms
in the media: Which verbal forms
expressing evidentiality are used in
which kind of media (newspapers,
internet, television)? Which forms are
used by speakers when they report what
they have read or seen on TV?
In addition, Diana is the project leader of
a language documentation project in
Daghestan, Russia. Together with two
linguists and an anthropologist she
documents the linguistic and cultural
heritage of the Shiri and Sanzhi Dargi
people. Within this project she focuses
on various morphosyntactic topics and
she is writing a grammar of Sanzhi
Dargwa.
She is also involved in the preparation of
a Sanzhi dictionary and a sociolinguistic
study on the use of Sanzhi and Russian
among young Sanzhi Dargi speakers.
Sanzhi Dargwa is an endangered
language spoken by about 150 people
who left their village of origin in the
Page 15
Post Doctoral profile: Diana Forker
Caucasian mountains more than 40
years ago. Most of them have moved to
the village of Druzhba (this Russian word
translates as ‘friendship’) in the
Daghestanian lowlands. In this village
speakers of more than five different
languages live together. Since the only
common language for everybody is
Russian, children growing up in Druzhba
have only a passive command of their
parents’ languages and speak mostly
Russian.
In January and February 2014 she spent
four weeks in Daghestan to work on both
research projects. She added new texts
to the Sanzhi corpus and gathered
material for the evidentiality project.
More information on the language
documentation project, pictures of the
Sanzhi people and their village, texts
with English translations and videos can
be found at http://www.kaukaz.net/cgi-
bin/blosxom.cgi/english/dargwa
In her free times Diana enjoys the
relaxed Queensland lifestyle with her
family and she participates in the aerial
silks classes at the Tanks Centre in
Cairns.
A Sanzhi woman is talking about her life The village of Druzhba The village of Sanzhi
PNG seminar series continues in 2014
The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Seminar Series
for 2014 had an excellent start with the first
seminar of the year being presented by Dame
Carol Kidu. Dame Carol spoke of the ‘people
to people relationships’ that are deeply
entrenched in the history of both PNG and
Australia. She discussed how the historical
‘people to people’ relationship was possibly at
its strongest during the darkest days of the
Second World War.
Dame Carol believes that ongoing relationships
centring on the education of thousands of
young Papua New Guineans in Australian
schools is also important. She also
acknowledged the strong links many
Australian tertiary institutions have with PNG
and highlighted how the Cairns Institute and
JCU are examples of organisations that seek
mutually beneficial partnerships with
universities and government departments in
PNG. Despite business and investment
relationships generally being in good shape,
Dame Carol considers that the issue of visas
creates obstacles that need to be addressed.
Dame Carol believes that it is essential for
PNG to move from aid to trade in PNG’s
international relationships. Dame Carol
concluded by saying: “We need the partner-
ships in development and we can certainly
learn from comparative experience but in the
end we must take ownership of social
development and define our own way. There is
concrete evidence that this is now happening
and we hope development partners will be
part of the journey with us. One thing is for
sure, that it will not happen overnight nor in a
3 or 5 year project cycle. It needs a longer
term approach.”
Dame Carol’s presentation was recorded and
we hope to have it on our website soon.
The next seminar is titled Manus Island – Hell
Hole – Hell No! Highly misrepresented -
absolutely: A case for improved cross-cultural
communication, community engagement and
education. It will be held on 17 April 2014 and
presented by Flora Pondrilei. Flora is from
Manus Island, and a member of the Manus
Professionals for Community Development, a
thinktank formed in 2010. She has completed
3 trips to Manus in the last 12 months and will
present an insight into key cross-cultural,
social and economic issues that will affect the
operation of Manus Detention Centre, now
called the Off-shore Processing Centre.
Page 16
UPCOMING SEMINARS
17 April 2014
Flora Pondrilei
Hole – Hell No! Highly
misrepresented -
absolutely: A case for improved
cross-cultural communication,
community engagement and
education
29 May 2014
Dr David MacLaren & Dr Clement
Manineng Partnerships for HIV research in
PNG: Building and sustaining a
mutual research agenda
3 July 2014
Jennifer Gabriel & Peter
Hitchcock
The Nakanai Caves of Papua New
Guinea: Community,
conservation and cultural
heritage
31 July 2014
Michelle Redman-MacLaren &
Rachael Tommbe Power of choice? Implications of
male circumcision for women in
PNG
See our website for further
information or to register
www.jcu.edu.au/cairnsinstitute/
Dame Carol Kidu seminar
attracted a large crowd
Art of awareness
The Cairns Institute building is currently being
used by emerging and established artists and
James Cook University students to exhibit
artworks created to demonstrate and raise
awareness about consumerism and different
aspects of sustainability and the environment.
This exhibition is part of the Sustainability
Symposium occurring in April 2014—see
http://alumni.jcu.edu.au/2014SusSympFair for
details of the event.
Page 17
Ruby BUSSOARD 2014 | Flocks of bikes |
Recycled cardboard
Emma WHITTAKER 2014 |
Cycle | Watercolour on
paper
Dr Robyn GLADE-WRIGHT 2013 | Ark | Palm bark, paper, string, nylon
Sandy EDGAR 2010 | Digital photography
Ruby BUSSOARD 2013 |
Oil spill | Plastic bags, dog
food packets, gold coffee
bags, box straps
Marcia BIRD 2013 | Electrici-tea |
Computer cables
Marcia BIRD 2013 | I’ve got 15
friends | USB cables
Marcia BIRD 2013 | Mellow
yellow | Packing tape
Ruby BUSSOARD 2013-2014 | Living
change | Natural fibres, copper wire
The Institute &TESS strengthening ties
The Cairns Institute’s Associate Professor Allan
Dale, sits on the Science Advisory Committee
for TESS – Centre for Tropical Environmental &
Sustainability Sciences. TESS represents a
cluster of world-class researchers and research
students with common interests in the
environment and sustainability, and an
emphasis on the tropics. TESS works
vigorously to influence the general public,
popular media and a range of environmental
decision-makers. The aim is not just to do
cutting-edge research but to effect positive
changes to advance nature conservation,
sustainable development and public
awareness.
TESS promotes innovative ecological and
environmental research in the tropics that
encompasses wise management, conservation
and sustainable use of tropical terrestrial and
coastal ecosystems, in Australia and
internationally. TESS’s mission centres on the
5 research themes of:
Theme 1 - Ecology, biodiversity &
conservation
Theme 2 - Environmental change
Theme 3 - Terrestrial biogeochemistry
Theme 4 - Sustainable landscapes and
livelihoods
Theme 5 - Education, training & capacity
building
Allan and the Director of TESS, Professor
Michael Bird, believe that there are a number
of synergies between TESS’s mission and the
Institute’s researchers and students. They
consider that strengthening and further
developing ties can be mutually beneficial to
both TESS and the Cairns Institute and will
enhance the research capacities of both
organisations.
Amongst a broad range of strategies around
encouraging links, Cairns Instiute researchers
are being encouraged attend and present
research at the annual TESS Seminar in
November and to attend the regular TESS
Seminars.
For more information on TESS please visit the
website:
http://research.jcu.edu.au/research/tess
TESS seminars occur every Wednesday during
teaching periods 1 and 2 at 4:00 pm in A3.2
Little Crowther Theatre, Cairns Campus, with a
live videolink to Audio Visual Services room
9.002 in Townsville.
Page 18
Date Speaker Provisional title
23/04/14 Steve Turton (JCU) Paradise lost? The status and future of East Rennell World Heritage Area, Solomon Islands
30/04/14 Lian Pin Koh (UA) Aerial drones in research
7/05/14 Steve Williams (JCU) Climate change research
14/05/14 Lindsay Hutley (CDU) Carbon-loss processes in tropical savannas
21/04/14 Andy Suarez (UI) Invading ants and their ecological success
28/05/14 Menna Jones (UTAS) Tasmanian devils, disease and biodiversity: can we restore keystone function within cur-rent and prehistoric range?
Difference & domination
The Difference and Domination: The Power of
Narrative in Ritual, Performance and Image
Colloquium, is a colloquium that will be
convened by Rosita Henry & Michael Wood
(JCU) to provide a forum for the presentation
and analysis of research conducted by
members and associates of the TransOceanik
Collaborative Network (The International
Associated Laboratory (LIA) for Interactive
Research, Mapping, and Creative Agency in
the Pacific, Indian Ocean and the Atlantic).
The Colloquium will explore the power of
narrative in many different guises, including
ritual, performance, storytelling, political
oratory, visual art, film, history, ethnography,
auto/biography, dream reports and other
forms of oral, written and bodily expression.
It will have an exciting program with
presenters coming from France and from the
Pacific (Papua New Guinea & French Polynesia)
as well as Australia.
For further information please contact
Professor Rosita Henry:
rosita.henry@jcu.edu.au
Page 19
Rosita henry (above)
Mike Wood (below)
Rumble in the rainforest
The UCI Mount Bike Championships—Rumble
in the Rainforest—is being held in at the
mountain bike track behind JCU Cairns
campus over the ANZAC Day long weekend
25–27 April 2014.
The Cairns Institute Building will be used as
the media centre for the event.
Poster: QLD Mountainbike http://www.qldmtb.com.au/events/uci-
world-cup-xcoxcedhi-round-2/
Training needs assessment
The Indigenous Arts Centre Alliance (IACA)
has been conducting a National Jobs Package
Scoping Study of training needs across IACA
member Indigenous Art Centres to operate as
a model across Australia.
Commissioned by the Ministry for the Arts, this
scoping study aims to ascertain the training
needs of art centre workers. IACA Manager,
Pam Bigelow, and consultant, Tim Acker, have
between them travelled to 13 remote
communities across north Queensland where
Indigenous Employment Initiative programs
operate to interview arts workers, art centre
managers and relevant others to ascertain and
document a profile of qualifications, skills, and
experience and identify skill gaps for each
individual arts worker funded under the
Indigenous Employment Initiative. This study
outcomes aim to determine:
A profile of arts workers in the regions,
funded under the Indigenous Employment
Initiative, including the number of new and
existing arts workers, their location and any
formal training undertaken to date
The best method for delivery of a Certificate
II (Indigenous Visual Arts Work), or other
relevant training for the sector, for arts
workers entering the industry in Far North
Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands,
including:
Delivery methods which will have the
most impact
Proposed locations and suitability for arts
workers in remote areas
Registered Training Offices capable of
delivering the training
Expected costs of enrolments, travel,
accommodation for any residential
training
Other learning opportunities available to
arts workers in Far North Queensland and
the Torres Strait Islands which can enhance
their skills in the industry
The opportunities to increase arts workers
enrolments in formal training in the region
To assess the challenges in delivering the
Certificate II (Indigenous Visual Arts Work)
across the region which may include:
Language
Literacy and numeracy skills
Distance from nearest Registered
Training Organisation (RTO) and time
taken to undertake block/residential
training
IT access and skills
Assess what can be done to alleviate the
challenges prior to the commencement of
training?
The study is near completion and will inform
the Ministry for the Arts on future directions
towards addressing training needs to achieve
indigenous management of Art centres into
the future.
Page 20
Flying into Mua Island
Tim Acker interviewing
Solomon Booth for the scoping
study. Solomon is the studio
manager, IACA President and IACA Chair at Ngalmun
Lagau Mineral Art Centre
Ngalmun Lagau Mineral Art Centre Mua Island in
the Torres Strait
Linguistic workshop
On 24 and 25 March 2014 Cairns Institute
PhD student, Hannah Sarvasy, taught a 12-
hour course, Introduction to Linguistic Field
Methods to a packed Cairn Institute
conference room. Sixteen JCU students and
staff participated in the course.
There are many compelling reasons to
incorporate understanding of local language
into anthropological and other fieldwork.
Every language encodes meanings differently.
A researcher’s appreciation of local linguistic
forms can promote cross-cultural understand-
ing, community cooperation, and project-
related morale.
Hannah’s course was designed to prepare
participants for situations where they were
faced with people on a field site who spoke a
different language. The course covered how
researchers might be able to incorporate
learning a strange language into
anthropological, biological, geological or other
fieldwork.
This two-day intensive course was particularly
designed for anthropologists and other
researchers who conduct fieldwork in areas
where non-written and lesser-known
languages are spoken. The course introduced
students to reasons why competency in the
local language could be important to their
research, and gave them introductory
concrete, practical methods for language
learning and linguistic documentation.
Page 21
“A researcher’s
appreciation of local
linguistic forms can
promote cross-
cultural
understanding,
community
cooperation, and
project-related
morale”
L to R: Yvonne Hardy (Anthropology), Michelle Dryer (Anthropology), Hannah Sarvasy
(Instructor), Imelda Ambelye (Anthropology), Felise Goldfinch (Archeology), Catherine Livingston
(Archeology).
Photo: Imelda Ambelye
Komla Tsey 2013 Inaugural Lecture
In 2013 Professor Komla Tsey delivered his
Inaugural Lecture at The Pacific International,
Cairns, and it was attended by over 170
people. The lecture was titled ‘Universities
engaging communities in research:
Implications for building healthy, sustainable
communities.’
In his lecture Komla drew upon his 30 years’
experience in community development and
related empowerment and wellbeing
promotion research across rural Ghana,
Indigenous Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Komla shared stories about engaging
communities in research, which he believes is
central to promoting healthy, sustainable
communities in the tropics.
To mark the anniversary of Komla’s lecture the
audio recording is available at:
https://vimeo.com/91377570
Thanks to Tai Inoue for his expert formatting
and uploading of the recording.
Page 22
“Komla shared
stories about
engaging
communities in
research, which he
believes is central
to promoting
healthy,
sustainable
communities in
the tropics”
Photos from Komla’s Inaugural lecture in
April 2013
Regenerating farms
RegenAG® is a family enterprise committed to
helping regenerate Australia's farms, soils,
communities and on-farm livelihoods.
On Friday 4 April 2014 RegenAG in
conjunction with the Cairns Institute, the
Centre for Tropical Environmental &
Sustainability Sciences (TESS) and Cairns
Regional Council held an inspiring night of
short films that documented a recent study
tour. In September 2013, RegenAG took 17
farmers from Australia on a study tour of
Latin America looking at the methods of
biological based and chemical-free MasHumus.
The farmers travelled to 12 farms across
Mexico, Costa Rica and Ecuador to learn how
Latin farmers are beating the odds against
rising input costs, water charges and declining
soil health. The films showcased the why, what
and how of their innovative methods and their
transition from bankruptcy to record financial
and environmental health on a range of
commercial scales.
The night was well attended by over 70 people
who not only enjoyed the films but the
introduction and Q&A session held by Kym
Kruse.
Page 23
For further information please visit:
http://regenag.com/web/
Recommended