Aboriginal communities will help shape a national research project examining how regional Australia welcomes migrants and supports them to stay, with an Indigenous reciprocity framework guiding how researchers build relationships, work with communities and approach the knowledge shared with them.
The four-year ARC Linkage project, Whole-of-Community approaches to regional migration, settlement and retention, places Aboriginal authority and respectful relationships at the centre of research across the Northern Territory, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria.
Recently launched at Adelaide University, the project brings together researchers, community organisations and government partners to examine how people make a home in regional Australia, and how relationships within those places influence their decision to remain.
For Dr John Binda Reid, a Kokatha/Wirangu man, Elder of the Gawler Ranges Aboriginal Corporation and Chief Investigator on the project, understanding regional settlement requires recognising Aboriginal people's enduring place in the communities receiving new arrivals.
"Whole-of-community only works if it includes the people who have always been the community," Dr Reid said.
Dr Reid acknowledged the launch gathering met in Kaurna Yerta (land) and will guide collaboration with Aboriginal communities throughout the project, ensuring their involvement helps shape how the research is undertaken.
Ngapartji-ngapartji is more than 'a welcome line at the start of a report'
Both the research with Aboriginal communities and the broader research framework will follow an ethic Dr Reid describes as ngapartji-ngapartji, involving respectful, two-way relationship-building between Aboriginal communities, longer-term residents and new arrivals.
Explaining how that responsibility will guide the project, Dr Reid said: "Ngapartji-ngapartji is not a welcome line at the start of a report. It is how we design the work: who has authority, how knowledge is held, and what respect looks like when new people arrive in regional towns."
His explanation places Aboriginal authority within the decisions governing the research, including how relationships are established and how community knowledge is understood and held. It also connects the researchers' responsibilities to the relationships they are seeking to understand within regional towns.
Partner universities are Adelaide University, Charles Darwin University, La Trobe University and Charles Sturt University, bringing together a team working across four jurisdictions with community and government partners.
Aboriginal communities must be 'partners in the research, not a backdrop'
Lead Chief Investigator and Adelaide University Associate Professor David Radford said the launch marked the beginning of comparative and collaborative partnership work across the participating regions.
"This is the first time the full team has been in the room together with linkage advisors and community and government partners, including Indigenous community partners," Associate Professor Radford said.
Emphasising the role Aboriginal communities must have in shaping that work, Associate Professor Radford said: "The Whole-of-Community approach only works if Aboriginal communities are partners in the research, not a backdrop to regional settlement. That work now begins in earnest across four jurisdictions."
Alongside examining how people are welcomed, the study will investigate what enables them to remain, considering how family life, belonging and infrastructure influence whether a regional community becomes a lasting home.
CDU Northern Institute demographer Professor Andrew Taylor said regional policy continued to place too much emphasis on attracting people, with insufficient attention given to the circumstances that encourage them to stay.
"Regional towns and communities cannot plan for their population and economic futures on attracting people through jobs alone," Professor Taylor said.
Describing the project's focus on the relationships between those factors, Professor Taylor added: "This project reflects these dynamics and dives deep into how they interact across regional Australian communities, including Aboriginal communities."
Population data will be considered alongside the experiences of people living in those communities, allowing the research to explore the reasons behind patterns of arrival, departure and long-term settlement.
Aboriginal authority embedded from the beginning and helping guide how the work develops
CDU Senior Lecturer in Social Science and Chief Investigator Dr Daile Rung said that while "the numbers show movement", understanding people's decisions also required listening to their experiences, with community agreements and ethics established before their stories were collected.
"Interviews show why a town feels possible or impossible to stay in. Community agreements and ethics come before we collect people's stories: what makes a place feel like home, how new arrivals are received, and how First Nations communities experience and shape that," Dr Rung said.
Her comments underline the responsibility involved in asking people to share their lives, including ensuring First Nations communities have a voice in how settlement is understood on their Country.
Indigenous community partners, local government and migrant resource organisations participated in the Adelaide launch. Over the next four years, the team will continue building those relationships ngapartji-ngapartji way, with Aboriginal authority embedded from the beginning and helping guide how the work develops.
