Aboriginal research & researchers

Victoria University Infrastructure Grant, 2016, Aboriginal History Archive: A research archive of the Aboriginal land rights, self-determination and Black Power movement in Australia. Gary Foley, Anthony Birch, Edwina Howell and Mat Jakobi, $159,551.

Victoria University, Indigenous Central Research Grant Scheme, 2015, Aboriginal People in Melbourne’s West: Displacement, place identity and social and emotional wellbeing. Christopher Sonn and Anthony Birch, $19,589.

Victoria University, Indigenous Central Research Grant Scheme, 2015, Welfare, justice and displacement: Indigenous genealogies in Victoria. David McCallum, $23,742.

Screen Australia, 2014, Development funding – Documentary funding for ‘Shooting Blacks’ film project with Olsen Levy Productions. Gary Foley, co-producer, $15,000.

Australia National Data Service – Open Data Project, 2014, Foley Collection. Gary Foley and Edwina Howell, $35,000.

Victoria University, Indigenous Central Research Grant Scheme, 2014, The struggle to re-open Northlands High School. Gary Foley and Clare Land, $23,657.

Victoria University, Indigenous Central Research Grant Scheme, 2013, ASIO surveillance of the Black Power movement. Gary Foley and Edwina Howell, $26,780.

Australia Council, 2012, ASIO Theatre Project. Ilbijerri Theatre and Malthouse. Creative developer and co-writer, Gary Foley, $30,000.

The Discovery Indigenous Scheme provides funding to Administering Organisations. It supports research programs led by an Indigenous Australian researcher and builds research capacity of higher degree research and early career researchers.

You can read more about the objectives of the Discovery Indigenous Scheme on the ARC website or on the VU ARC funding page.

The Lisa Bellear PhD scholarship is granted to a promising Indigenous Australian researcher wishing to undertake a graduate research degree.

Lisa Bellear (1961-2006) was a Goernpil woman of the Noonuccal people of the Minjerribah, Queensland. She was a poet, photographer, activist, dramatist, comedian, broadcaster and academic. She lost her mother and connection to her family when she was only weeks old and overcame some of her personal grief and loss through her 'adoption' into the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in Victoria, particularly the Harding family. She traced her biological family and went on to be an accomplished, caring and strong woman. Lisa was passionate about social change, she was always participating and contributing to campaigns and protests and always out on the streets with her camera.

Lisa graduated from The University of Melbourne in social work and was employed as an academic at The University of Melbourne, LaTrobe University and Victoria University. She wrote a book of poetry Dreaming in Urban Areas (UQP, 1996) and was a founding member of the Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-operative, the oldest Indigenous Theatre company in Australia. n avid photographer, Lisa took thousands of photographs over many years while she engaged in Aboriginal politics. She read at literary festivals, pubs and conferences across Australia and was published in literary journals, newspapers and anthologies. She broadcast on 3CR in the Not Another Koori Show for more than 20 years.

She was a friend, colleague and staunch supporter of the Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit and her skills and expertise are carried on through the VU graduates that she taught and mentored in the Bachelor of Education/Arts (Nyerna Studies) program.

Lisa herself best summed up the demands and gift of her poetry: “You can allow your eyes and heart to see. See the injustice, cruelty; and you can also hear the laughter and the love.”

The current Lisa Bellear PhD candidate is Paola Balla.