Awards and highlights

A bewildered moment precedes a spontaneous short film with Dave Wells and Martu women. Then hilarity prevailed.

Screen shot from ‘The Wamurla Thief’. KJ noted it had 6,000 views in 3 months on Facebook in 2015. We appended it to the doco ‘Walk to Gather’.

Awards and funding

2018 Australian Entomology Society Photographic Award
2012 Northern Territory Research and Innovation Award for Desert Knowledge Research to Fiona Walsh, Josie Douglas and Merne Altyerr-ipenhe Reference Group
2010 Catherine H. Berndt Prize for PhD thesis that makes the most outstanding contribution to social anthropological knowledge of Aboriginal Australia
2005 National Award for Planning Excellence in scholarship, research and teaching, Planning Institute of Australia to Fiona Walsh, Paul Mitchell and IAD Press for the book ‘Planning for country: cross-cultural approaches to decision-making on Aboriginal lands’
2000 Highly commended in Prime Minister Environment Award Rural Leadership for Central Land Council Land Assessment and Planning Unit

In academic profiles, grants would also be listed. Post-CSIRO since 2016, Fiona has worked on contract to clients listed. At CSIRO, external grants were secured from RIRDC, Atlas of Living Australia, Desert Knowledge CRC and Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa. Fiona has previously secured and managed grants from Land and Water Australia, Indigenous Land Corporation, ATSIC and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

Career highlights - Impact and effectiveness

Projects that contributed to deep community engagement, improved learning and practice, reached a broad audience, or, added to better opportunities for Aboriginal people include:

Co-facilitator of Martu – Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa Seed camp which helped Martu generations connect to learn and share ancient skills from each other
Facilitator of National Ninu [Bilby] Festival, Kiwirrkura which linked 150 Indigenous Rangers and scientists across four states
Co-director and narrator of the documentary ‘Waru! Burning, Bushfires and Bush tucker’ which screened at SBS on demand for 12 months
Lead editor and contributor to the book ‘Planning for Country ….’ which remains recommended reading at ANU 17 years after publication
Seeing local people step forward into facilitation roles whereby Fiona could ‘step back’
Independent nomination and AEC election to AIATSIS Research Advisory Committee
Coordinator to establish and lead a Central Land Council Land Management Unit which contributed to the development of Indigenous Ranger programs and Indigenous Protected Areas in Central Australia and nationally
Contributor of ethnobiological evidence critical to success of Martu Native Title Claim
Ngunyar man, Ken Colbung AM MBE and Fiona initiated the University of Western Australia Summer School course ‘Aboriginal people and their plants’; said to be the first cross-cultural course designed at UWA