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/