Discussing research with colleagues in northern Norway

 A/Prof Kate Crowe and I have been discussing future research collaborations with colleagues from Nord University for some time on the topic of "Sámi Education Language Assessment Guidelines". We met again for further productive discussions.

Visiting the Seattle Children's Museum

I continue to get ideas for the Children's Voices Centre and The Treehouse as I travel to different parts of the world. This week I got a lot of ideas from the excellent Seattle Children's Museum (https://seattlechildrensmuseum.org/) as an "unaccompanied adult". I enjoyed sock skating, making a melting snowman, and learning about the Coast Salish people and nature of the Pacific North West.

Aboriginal Land Council meeting

On Friday we met with the CEO of the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) about the programs: Designing Futures and Aboriginal Parents as Teachers. Supporting children's speech, language and communication and the local need for speech pathology was high on their agenda.

Adam Gollan (OAMS), Sarah Bartlett, Annette Steele, Sharynne McLeod, Emily-Jane Woodhead

Children's books, jumping castles, and research

Research can be such fun. I have never before conducted research next to a jumping castle. Thanks to the OAMS staff, families and children who yarned about our research, looked at the children's books and participated. Lots of people were interested in reading books with their children/grandchildren - so in the future it would be great to have books for people to take home too. Here are the children's books that Ebony has selected for us to use in our research: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/first-nations-resources

Sharynne and Ebony

Sharynne and Emily-Jane by the jumping castle

Our children's books near the jumping castle

First Nations Resources on the Multilingual Children's Speech webpage

We have a new page on the Multilingual Children's Speech website - First Nations Resources.

https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/first-nations-resources

This has been created through our collaboration with Ebony Hay from the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service and our CSU team - Emily-Jane Woodhead, Carolyn Gregoric, Sarah Bartlett.

Wiradjuri children's books and Indigenous resources

Today at the Dhuluny Aboriginal Art Market I met two Wiradjuri children's book authors: Larry Brandy and Jessica Leffley. We are purchasing Indigenous resources as part of our current RHRI grant to support rural children's communication.

Jessica Leffley

Resources purchased from Reilly Callie

Taking time to understand the true history of our country

Today was the 200th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law in Bathurst. A sad day in the history of our nation. To mark this occasion, "Dhuluny: The war that never ended", a  thought-provoking exhibition, is at the Bathurst Art Gallery https://bathurstart.com.au/exhibitions-events/dhuluny-the-war-that-never-ended/

"Dhuluny means the direct or gospel truth, and the commemoration offers visitors the opportunity to share and understand the true history of our country and celebrate the resilience of the Wiradyuri Nation."

The Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation are hosting a series of events this week. I decided it was very important attend one of these events today. This afternoon I attended Dhuluny and sat with Wiradjuri woman Jessika Spencer (Ngurru: First Nationss Weaving) and learned how to weave as her grandmother had taught her.

My weaving

Wiradjuri weaving

Wiradjuri weaving

Possum skin arm bands

Ready for this afternoon's corroboree

 

 

Queensland Department of Education videos on cultural safety and maintaining home language

The Queensland Department of Education has just launched two excellent videos:

• Cultural safety with Professor Tony Dreise - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYL__hyro7A

"The first Kindy uplift priority, ‘Creating culturally safe, inclusive and responsive Kindergarten Programs’ emphasises the importance of including all First Nations children and enhancing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives within Kindergarten Programs. In this video we hear from Professor Tony Dreise about the importance of cultural safety. Explore further at https://earlychildhood.qld.gov.au/grants-and-funding/kindy-uplift-program"

• Maintaining home language - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XneIolMk42s

"Multilingualism is a strength. More than one in four Australian children speak a language other than English at the age of starting school. Being multilingual has many advantages, including improved learning at school, social skills, self-confidence, and cognitive development. The two animated videos aim to empower families to maintain home language. The Language and Literacy team provides a range of resources encompassing evidence-based research, to enable educators, families and home tutors to support children’s development of language, reading and writing. Visit https://readingwritingcentre.education.qld.gov.au/ for more information."

CSU Summer 2023 Research Retreat

Over the past two days I have attended the Summer 2023 Research Retreat hosted by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) in Orange addressing the following:

1. First Nations Research - Sue Green and Mark Evans

• First Nations Research Retreat Outcomes
• Barriers to implementing the First Nations Retreat Outcomes
• Living Yindyamarra

2. Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Awards

3. Proposal for the Establishment of ARC/NHMRC Bid Accelerators - Mark Evans

4. Research Services Retreat Outcomes - Jason White

5. Implementation of the HDR Review - Sarah O’Shea

Accepting Kate Smithers' ECR award

Some key points about First Nations Research

• "It was agreed that Yindyamarra values could be used to drive First Nations research activity on Wiradjuri, Gundungarra and Ngunnawal/ Ngambri country as the values would not require translation due to clan ties, but the values would need to be translated meaningfully for research on Biripai country."
• "Charles Sturt’s First Nations engagement framework will follow the AIATSIS National Framework with country specific protocols to be developed by Biripai, Ngunnawal/ Ngambri, and Wiradjuri Gateway Groups. The objective of this framework is to provide a comprehensive guide for research practices that respect the values and cultural beliefs of First Nations communities."
• "First Nations IP will include authorship in publications, and remuneration for research participation. These expenses will need to be included in project costings. Data Sovereignty principles will be adopted following the Lowitja model. https://www.lowitja.org.au/icms_docs/328550_data-governance-and-sovereignty.pdf"

Four Principles that will underpin the Wiradyuri Research Gateway

1. Yindyamarra – Respect & Honour - kindness, politeness, gentleness, slowness, and patience
2. Winnanga-gi-gilanna – People & Country - caring for people & Country
3. Ngungillanna – People - sharing resources & knowledge with each other
4. Muldanngilana – Working Together - equality, equity, honesty, and integrity 

Congratulations to my colleagues who won Research Excellence Awards. I was invited to collect the award for Kate Smithers who was awarded the Early Career Researcher Award for the Faculty of Arts and Education.

 

Workshop: Qualitative Data Analysis in Communication Disorders Research

Today I attended the workshop titled "Qualitative Data Analysis in Communication Disorders Research" with members of our SLM and CSU team. The workshop was organised by Rena Lyons (Ireland) and Lindy McAllister (Australia) and covered the following topics:

• Overview - Rena Lyons and Lindy McAllister 
• Thematic analysis and content analysis - Deborah Hersh, Anne Hill, Karen Wylie 
• Narrative analysis overview - Rena Lyons, Philippa Friary, Stacie Attrill and Deborah Hersh 
• First Nations research - Karen Brewer and Deborah Hersh 
• Grounded theory - Clare Carroll 
• Rigour - Lindy McAllister 

Workshop presenters

The workshop drew on the expertise of the authors of these books:

• Lyons, R., & McAllister, L. (Eds.). (2019). Qualitative research in communication disorders: An introduction for students and clinicians. J&R Press. https://www.jr-press.co.uk/diving-deep.html.
• Lyons, R., McAllister, L., Carroll, C., Hersh, D., & Skeat, J. (Eds.). (2022). Diving deep into qualitative data analysis in communication disorders research. J&R Press. https://www.jr-press.co.uk/diving-deep.html. 

Workshop attendees

 

The workshop was held on the Epsom campus of the University of Auckland that includes the Faculty of Education and Social Work.

 

Mi'kmaq First Nations Heritage Centre

Helen Blake and I were privileged to visit the Millbrook Heritage Centre of the Mi'kmaq (Micmac) people during our visit to Nova Scotia, Canada. We learned that the seven teachings of the Mi'kmaq are: courage, respect, truth, love, humility, wisdom, and honesty. We learned about the legend of Glooscap (see below) and about the traditional and modern lives of the Mi'kmaq people. We also learned about their language, including that the Mi'kmaq alphabet has 11 consonants, 6 short vowels and 5 long vowels (see below).

A statue of Glooscap (note his size - I am on the left)