Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
I am an associate professor in Geography and Planning at Macquarie University. My research and teaching experiences over the last 25 years have been in the area of Indigenous rights and environmental management. I worked on Cape York Peninsula on community development in the context of a major mining operation, examined the strategies used by Indigenous peoples and local communities to assert their rights in wildlife management in Canada and southern Africa, and my current work focuses on Indigenous self-determination in the context of cultural tourism in North East Arnhem Land, northern Australia and caring-as-Country in western Sydney.
Since 2006 I have been part of the Bawaka Collective which is an Indigenous and non-Indigenous, more-than-human research collective. It includes Bawaka Country, Laklak Burarrwanga, Ritjilili Ganambarr, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Banbapuy Ganambarr, Djawundil Maymuru, Kate Lloyd and Sarah Wright and myself. Bawaka Country is the diverse land, water, human, and nonhuman animals, plants, rocks, thoughts, and songs that make up the Yolŋu homeland of Bawaka in North East Arnhem Land, Australia. Laklak, Ritjilili, Merrkiyawuy, and Banbapuy are four Indigenous sisters, elders, and caretakers for Bawaka Country together with their daughter, Djawundil. Sarah, Sandie and Kate are three non-Indigenous human geographers from the University of Newcastle and Macquarie University who have been adopted into the family as granddaughter, sister, and daughter.
I am also currently working on a collaborative project in Western Sydney. Led by Darug custodian Uncle Lexodious Dadd, together with the NSW NPWS and researchers from Macquarie and Newcastle universities the project has three aims:
1) To work with environmental experts to enhance, implement and document Caring-as-Country mechanisms at Yellomundee Reginal Park in western Sydney.
2) To inspire local users to Care-as-Country through building awareness of the area’s cultural, environmental and historical significance, and
3) To develop an adaptive model of cross-cultural environmental stewardship for use by NPWS, community groups and Aboriginal custodians of other sites in NSW.
I welcome opportunities to supervise postgraduate students, especially students working in the areas of Indigenous rights, knowledges and methodologies; more-than-human geographies; cross-cultural environmental management and human-nature relations.
Teaching
I teach in the areas of environmental management and applied human geography and am currently convening:
ENV118: Environmental Management for a Changing World
GEOP380: Human Geography in Action.
Research student supervision
I am currently taking on new PhD and Masters of Research students in the following research areas:
- Indigenous rights and knowledges;
- human-nature relationships;
- social justice, self-determination, reconciliation and ecological sustainability;
- cross-cultural environmental management.
Current students:
Corrinne Sullivan: An investigation of Aboriginal sex workers - PhD, principle supervisor.
Ropafadzo Moyo: Bringing People and Nature Together: A study of TFCAs in Southern Africa - PhD, principle supervisor
Sara Judge: Belonging in place in western Sydney - PhD, principle supervisor
Yayut Chen: Indigenous Property Rights in Taiwan - PhD, associate supervisor
John Heydinger: Conservation in the Kunene: Rural Livelihoods Community-Based Natural Resource Management - PhD, associate supervisor
Sabiha Rosy: Development, Culture and Geographies of Tourism in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh: Exploring Indigenous and Gender Concerns - PhD, associate supervisor
Sufia Khanom: Exploring the Gendered (In)security of Environmentally Induced Migrants: A Case Study from Bhola Slum, Dhaka, Bangladesh - PhD, associate supervisor
Ena Chang: Indigenous cultural sovereignty and biomedical hegemony: Rethinking pathways to health promotion in Eastern Taiwan - PhD, associate supervisor
Past students:
Jo Rey: Country Tracking Voices: Dharug women’s perspectives on presences, places and practices - PhD, 2018, associate supervisor
Sara Judge: Tupo pamoja, we are together: A collaborative case study of decolonising approaches to research and conservation with Mkuyu Guiding School, Tanzania - Masters of Research, 2018, principle supervisor
Sarah Prebble: - Ecological Footprinting as a tool for engaging sustainability in the workplace: transforming adult resource-use perspectives in a neoliberal university - Masters of Research, 2016, principle supervisor
Minna Hsu: Expert-centred discourses and Indigenous autonomy in post-disaster settings: insights from Wutai Rukai experiences in Taiwan - PhD, 2016, associate supervisor
Marnie Graham: Post-colonial Nature Conservation and Collaboration in Urban Protected Areas - PhD, 2015, principle supervisor
Rebecca Bilous: Telling and hearing: Learning from Macassan-Yolngu stories of connecting - PhD, 2014, principle supervisor
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- 1 Similar Profiles
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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FT210100320: Nurturing regenerative sovereignties through Indigenous and Country-led collaborations
1/01/22 → 1/07/25
Project: Research
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MQRIS: Virtual Reality (VR) fieldwork research system
Murray, T., Pearlman, K., Barkat, I., Lloyd, K., Suchet-Pearson, S., Evans, T., Power, R., Sone, Y. & Knowles, J.
11/04/21 → …
Project: Other
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Closing other gaps: Yolngu perspectives on and proposals for two-ways learning to improve intercultural communication and policy
Suchet-Pearson, S., Lloyd, K., Wright, S. & MQRES, M.
17/03/14 → …
Project: Research
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UC Led: Winanga-li Gunimaa Gali: Incorporating Cultural Values into Environmental Flows
Duncan, P., Moggridge, B., Wilson, J., Thompson, R., Lloyd, K., O'Gorman, E. & Suchet-Pearson, S.
1/01/24 → 30/07/24
Project: Research
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We sing the land: researching for, with and as Country in North East Arnhem Land, Australia
Bawaka Country, Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr-Stubbs, M., Ganambarr, B., Maymuru, D., Wright, S., Lloyd, K. & Suchet-Pearson, S., 2025, Critically engaging participatory action research. Kindon, S., Pain, R. & Kesby, M. (eds.). London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, p. 50-62 13 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Gurung Dharug Ngurrawa (kids on Dharug Country) – centring children's experiences of Indigenous-led tourism
Dharug Ngurra, Dadd, L., Norman, C., Possum, V., Graham, M., Suchet-Pearson, S., Narwal, H., Scott, R., Lemire, J. & Suchet-Pearson, R., 2024, In: Tourism Geographies. 26, 6, p. 970-992 23 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile4 Citations (Scopus)1 Downloads (Pure) -
Listening to place, practising relationality: embodying six emergent protocols for collaborative relational geographies
Kanngieser, A. M., Soares, F., Rubis, J., Sullivan, C. T., Graham, M., Williams, M., Palis, J., Tynan, L., Daley, L., Blacklock, F., Greenhough, B., Suchet-Pearson, S., Wright, S., Lloyd, K. & Marshall, B., Feb 2024, In: Emotion, Space and Society. 50, p. 1-10 10 p., 101000.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access2 Citations (Scopus) -
Nature as a sentient being: can rivers be legal persons?
Edirisinghe, A. & Suchet-Pearson, S., Jul 2024, In: Review of European, Comparative and International Environmental Law. 33, 2, p. 224-235 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Citations (Scopus)30 Downloads (Pure) -
Offsetting
Govind, P., Houston, D., Lim, M., McGregor, A., O'Gorman, E., Suchet-Pearson, S. & Symons, J., Jul 2024, In: Environmental Humanities. 16, 2, p. 426-432 7 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile10 Downloads (Pure)
Prizes
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Green Gown Award Australasia 'Benefitting Society' Award
Graham, Marnie (Recipient), Suchet-Pearson, Sandie (Recipient), Narwal, Harriet (Recipient) & Dadd, Lexodious (Recipient), 2019
Prize
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National Trust (NSW) Award for Aboriginal Heritage Project
Graham, Marnie (Recipient), Suchet-Pearson, Sandie (Recipient), Dadd, Lexodious (Recipient) & Narwal, Harriet (Recipient), 2020
Prize
Activities
- 2 Presentation
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Caring as Country in/as the Built Environment Bawaka Collective presentation for Parlour Lab, University of Queensland
Kate Lloyd (Speaker), Sandie Suchet-Pearson (Speaker), Sarah Wright (Speaker) & Lara Daley (Speaker)
Sept 2021 → …Activity: Talk or presentation › Presentation
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Songspirals presentation to Earthkin group
Kate Lloyd (Speaker), Sandie Suchet-Pearson (Speaker), Sarah Wright (Speaker), Lara Daley (Speaker), Laklak Burarrwanga (Speaker), Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs (Speaker), Djawundil Maymuru (Speaker), Ritjilili Ganambarr (Speaker) & Banbapuy Ganambarr (Speaker)
May 2021Activity: Talk or presentation › Presentation
Press/Media
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Reimagining NSW: going beyond ‘wilderness’ and finding fresh ways to relate to our environment
Emily O'Gorman, Matthew Kearnes, Sandra Suchet-Pearson, Tanya Latty, Pascal Scherrer & Hannah E. Power
3/08/16
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities