Dr Shannon Faulkhead
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Information Technology and Head, First Peoples Department, Museums Victoria

Dr Faulkhead is the first Indigenous person in Australia to achieve a PhD in archival studies and Indigenous knowledge management – and one of only a handful internationally.

Before Museums Victoria, Dr Faulkhead directed the Monash Country Lines Archive. And prior to Monash, she was CEO of the Koorie Heritage Trust Inc. Dr Faulkhead’s unique research contributions relate to the positioning of Indigenous Australian peoples and their knowledge within Australian society and collective knowledge. She’s passionate about working with communities, particularly where academia and community collaborate to produce research that meets the goals of all partners equally.

The innovative aspects of this research format lie in the creation of a shared research space by developing a relationship where differing knowledge, experiences and world views are respected, and the ability to create shared concepts and terminology. Every research project Dr Faulkhead has undertaken has been in partnership with community members and groups, and academ

Dr Narissa Timbery
Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University

A First Nations woman descended from the Yuin Nation (NSW South Coast), Narissa has been an ABI indexer at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies, and worked at the National Archives of Australia. She has a background in education, including teaching an Aboriginal and Education elective to Diploma of Education students at the University of Wollongong for five years. Narissa completed her Master of Information Management and Systems and PhD at Monash. Her doctoral studies, Beyond the animations: A sustainable living digital heritage archive, explored the creation of a sustainable living digital heritage archive. Using the Monash Country Lines Archives’ virtual 3D models as a case study, research outcomes include a deeper understanding of how to respectfully represent Aboriginal knowledge, cultural protocols and community archiving requirements when creating a sustainable living digital heritage archive. Narissa’s research provides an exemplar for the use of yarning as a method of data collection and data analysis in information systems research. Firstly, through reflexivity, journalling and mind mapping, it provides a personal reflection upon my research journey that has been informed by critical theory, exploring archival concepts through records continuum theory and the archival multiverse. Further, it presents findings in the form of a Framework, proposed Model and Principles that provide considerations for others in the field when creating sustainable Living Digital Archives that prioritises community voices and reflects a participatory approach to archiving with Aboriginal Communities and Groups.

Dr Rebecca Lyons
Research Fellow for the Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Living Archives on Country research project at the Faculty of Information Technology, Department of Human Centred Computing, Digital Equity Group and a member of the Information Empowered Communities Lab at Monash University

Dr Rebecca Lyons is a proud Wiradjuri / Ngiyampaa / Ngunnawal woman based in Narrm (Melbourne).

Rebecca works as a Research Fellow for the Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Living Archives on Country research project at the department of Human Centred Computing for the Faculty of Information Technology. She is contributing to the understanding of the importance of Indigenous Data Sovereignty as it offers an alternative and potentially transformative vision of ‘good data’ practices with benefits extending far beyond Indigenous communities. She has an unwavering commitment to addressing issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. As an Academic, she is deeply passionate about advancing Indigenous knowledge systems, decolonising research methodologies and fostering a more inclusive research environment.

In her doctoral thesis titled “Challenges to Aboriginal Identity Construction in Australia: Stolen Generations Responses to the Absence of Identity Documents”, she employed a combination of personal narratives and archival research to amplify the voices of Stolen Generations survivors and their families. Her research aimed to shed light on the challenges associated with obtaining primary identification documents, specially birth certificates, a consequence of historical structural and administrative violence in Australia.

Professor Gillian Oliver
Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University

Gillian Oliver, the current Chair of iSchools.org, is Professor of Information Management and co-Director of the Information Empowered Communities Lab at Monash University, Australia and also Adjunct Professor at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

The dominant theme running through her research and teaching relates to cultural influences and the need to represent cultural diversity in the systems and technologies that are developed to create and capture data and information. She is currently leading  research  investigating the meaning of digital citizenship for marginalised communities in Bangladesh, and exploring initiatives relating to Indigenous data sovereignty in Australia and New Zealand.

Associate Professor Tom Chandler
Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University

Tom Chandler is an Associate Professor teaching in Games & Immersive Media in the Faculty of IT at Monash University. His research explores the interdisciplinary applications of virtual world building, with project collaborations ranging from archaeology and zoology through to industrial design and landscape ecology. His primary research endeavour, the Visualising Angkor Project, examines the evidence-based virtual reconstruction of Cambodia’s medieval capital in the year 1300. Tom’s university teaching resource www.virtualangkor.com was awarded the Innovation in Digital History prize by the American Historical Association in 2018, and the Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Prize by the Medieval Academy of America in 2021.

Emeritus Professor Sue McKemmish
Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University

Emerita Professor McKemmish is Australia’s leading recordkeeping and archival educator and researcher, and an internationally-recognised expert in the field. Her initial research centred on Records Continuum theory and conceptual modelling, and recordkeeping metadata, which has continued throughout her career. More recently, she is focused on community-centred, participatory recordkeeping and archiving, and rights in record in social justice and human rights contexts.

Emerita Professor McKemmish’s is currently working with those with lived experience of Out of Home Care on Charters of Lifelong Rights in Childhood Recordkeeping in the Indigenous and non-Indigenous Child Care Sectors. It is is part of the Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Living Archives research team. Developing inclusive, reflexive research design and practice in collaboration with communities has been a critical part of her research.

Barbara Reed

Barbara is a research consultant on the Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Living Archives on Country program. As an independent archives and records consultant, she has collaborated with a range of government, non-government, private and non-profit organisations in Australia and internationally.

In her career, Barbara has worked on issues empowering access to records for the Care Leaver Community and the Stolen Generation. Much of her consulting work has been focused on developing recordkeeping practices and competencies, transforming recordkeeping into digital practice and working with a range of stakeholders to create strategic interventions through standards and best practice guidelines.

Professor Kiera L. Ladner
Canada Research Chair, Miyo we'citowin, Indigenous Governance and Digital Sovereignties

Professor Kiera L. Ladner, Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of IT at Monash University, is Canada Research Chair in Miyo we'citowin, Indigenous Governance and Digital Sovereignties, and Professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba, as well as former Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Politics and Governance. Her research focuses on Indigenous Politics and Governance; Digital Sovereignties and Archiving (MMIW, PARSD, and CLIP); gender (diversities); women and governance; and resurgence (in terms of both women and youth). Professor Ladner’s publications include This is an Honour Song: Twenty Years Since the Blockades (Arbeiter Ring Press) co-edited with Leanne Simpson, and Surviving Canada: Indigenous Peoples Celebrate 150 Years of Betrayal co-authored with Myra J. Tait, as well as numerous articles and book chapters on a wide variety of topics.

Currently, Professor Ladner is working on projects with Dr. Shawna Ferris on a community centred digital archive project which is compiling three archives (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls database, Post-Apology Indian Residential Schools Database, the Sex Work Database). She is also working on project on including the comparative constitutional law and Indigenous peoples project (CLIP project), a digital sovereignties and a comparative treaty project focussing on Anglo-settler societies.

Dr Kirsten Thorpe
Jumbunna Centre UTS

Dr Kirsten Thorpe (Worimi, Port Stephens) is a Senior Researcher at Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research, University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Kirsten leads the Indigenous Archives and Data Stewardship Hub, and has broad interests in research and engagement with Indigenous protocols and decolonising practices in the library and archive fields, and the broader GLAM sector, including the 'right of reply' to records and capacity building and support for the development of Living Indigenous Archives on Country. Kirsten has extensive experience working in major collecting institutions across public libraries and archives. She is a member of the International Council on Archives Expert Group on Indigenous Matters and a co-founder of the Indigenous Archives Collective.

Dr Lauren Booker
Researcher, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research

Dr Lauren Booker (Garigal) has worked across the museums and archives sector on language and cultural revitalisation projects supporting Aboriginal communities to access their cultural and intellectual property held in collecting institutions. This includes working in consultation with the public library network in regards to language documentation identification and use in language revitalisation.

Lauren’s works also focuses on facilitating the digitisation of recorded and documented cultural materials and the organisation of digital community archives. She is a strong supporter of post-custodial archives, repatriation, Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property rights and Indigenous Data Sovereignty. Lauren is also a member of the Indigenous Archives Collective.

Dr Monica Galassi
Researcher, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research

Dr Monica Galassi is a Researcher at Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research and PhD student at the School of International Studies and Education, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FAAS), University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in Australia. Monica’s research interest focuses on rights to access and management of cultural heritage as a key driver for social justice, and she is passionate about finding ways to foster culturally safe and community-driven initiatives across the cultural sector through research-led practice.

Over the last decade, Monica has been working on several projects and across different organisations in Australia and internationally to support Aboriginal self-determination and sovereignty in collecting institutions. In 2020, she was awarded a Research Excellence Scholarship to undertake a PhD in the field of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander archival records which are held in Italian cultural organisations.