LocuSAR has a strong record of developing successful long-term community relationships. For example, over our decades-long involvement with indigenous groups in north-eastern South Australia, we have participated in cultural heritage management, native title claims, made films detailing personal and community histories, and been part of an interdisciplinary climate change adaption project.

In 2020 we are researching ‘convergent crises’. This is when a number of different crises overlap and intersect. Specifically, we are seeking to understand the impacts of drought, bushfires (and choking smoke), violent storms, floods, and COVID-19 on communities in southern NSW and the ACT.

This project explores what senior anthropologists working under the Native Title Act (NTA) brought with them from their practice under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (ALRA). We ask: Did taken-for-granted assumptions and approaches cross over with these senior practitioners from the ALRA to the NTA? What were they? Did they have consequences for native title practice and for the rights of Aboriginal people in Australia?