Dr Siobhan McDonnell
Research interests
Siobhan scholarly interests include: Indigenous people and land; Indigenous people, gender and natural resource management; Legal and Environmental Anthropology; Political ecology; Customary law and legal pluralism; Gender and Sexuality in the Pacific; Urbanisation; Cultural heritage management; Resettlement and migration; Disaster management; Climate change; Pacific Studies, Indigenous studies and decolonisation.
Biography
I am a highly skilled engaged legal anthropologist who has over twenty years of experience working with Indigenous people in Australia and the Pacific on land, resource management, environment and development issues. My commitment to the practice of engaged anthropology means that I produce research that contributes to high-impact policy and legal outcomes. I have contributed both research and policy outcomes in the following areas: land reform, gender and natural resource management, climate change, disaster management, legal pluralism and the operation of customary institutions.
I am currently engaged in three major research projects: (1) issues related to gender and climate change in Oceania; (2) ethnographies of 'natural' disaster and particularly the concepts of 'vulnerability' and 'resilience; and, (3) how to adapt the family law system to better meet the needs of Indigenous, refugee and migrant families.
I am currently employed as a Research Fellow at the National Centre of Indigenous Studies and at the College of Asia and the Pacific. I also teach a number of courses and recently built an online website designed to help graduate students prepare for fieldwork, to 'Navigate the Field' see: https://fieldwork.weblogs.anu.edu.au/
Career Highlights:
- Chief Investigator on the evaluation of a $12 million project looking at the use of family dispute resolution in the context of family violence in Indigenous and refugee families (2017-2018);
- Researcher on an ARC Discovery Project on Climate Change and Gender in the Pacific (2018);
- Awarded the Australian Anthropology prize for the best thesis in Anthropology in Australia (2017);
- Awarded the Gender Institute prize for the thesis that most contributed to the advancement of gender studies (2017);
- Chief Investigator on a project for the Solomon Islands Government to develop a land reform pathway (2015);
- Principal drafter of a new set of land laws in Vanuatu, as well as amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Vanuatu (2013-14);
- Legal/policy advisor Central Land Council (2003-2008);
- Project Manager Reconciliation Australia (2001-2003);
- Research Officer Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (1999-2003).
Researcher's projects
Dr Siobhan McDonnell is currently working on projects in Indigenous Australia and the Pacific including:
- Climate change and gender in the Pacific (focussed on Vanuatu and Fiji);
- Land reform and indigenous land rights in the Pacific and Indigenous Australia;
- Urbanisation, displacement and resttlement in the context of climate change, disaster and eviction;
- Use of family dispute resolution processes amongst Indigenous, refugee and migrant families who have experienced violence;
- Concepts of 'resilience' and 'vulnerability' in the context of disaster management in the Pacific; and,
- The practice of activist research.
Current student projects
- Maeve Powell. Indigenous Wellbeing in Urban Spaces: expressing voice through walking and photography in Canberra (PhD Thesis, Primary Supervisor).
- Meabh Cryan. Concepts of Land and Life: Contested Land Access in Timor-Leste (PhD Thesis, Primary co-supervisor).
Past student projects
Completed students:
- Ed Wensing. Decolonising Property: How Indigenous and Settler systems of land ownerhsip, use and tenure can coexist in parity (PhD Thesis, Panel Chair).
- Evie Rose. Undervalued, Not Underwater: A Talanoa on Climate Change in Oceania (Honours Thesis, Primary supervisor).
Publications
- McDonnell, S 2018, 'Selling Sites of Desire: Paradise in Reality Television, Tourism, and Real Estate Promotion in Vanuatu', The Contemporary Pacific, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 413-436.
- McDonnell, S 2018, 'Cartographies of Power: Book review of Becoming Landowners by Victoria Stead', Postcolonial Studies, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 1-3.
- McDonnell, S & Dodson, M 2018, 'Race, citizenship and military service', in Joan Beaumont and Allison Cadzow (ed.), Serving our country: indigenous Australians, war, defence and citizenship, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, pp. 23-52.
- Fogarty, W, Bulloch, H & McDonnell, S 2018, Deficit Discourse and Indigenous Health: How narrative framings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are reproduced in policy. Lowitja Insitute: Melbourne. ISBN: 978-1-921889-54-7.
- McDonnell, S 2017, 'Urban Land Grabbing by Political Elites: Exploring the Political Economy of Land and the Challenges of Regulations', in Siobhan McDonnell, Matthew G. Allen, Colin Filer (ed.), Kastom, Property and Ideology: Land Transformations in Melanesia, ANU ePress, Canberra, pp. 283-304.
- McDonnell, S, Allen, M & Filer, C (ed.) 2017, Kastom, Property and Ideology: Land Transformations in Melanesia, ANU Press, Canberra.
- Filer, C, McDonnell, S & Allen, M 2017, 'Powers of Exclusion in Melanesia', in Siobhan McDonnell, Matthew G. Allen, Colin Filer (ed.), Kastom, Property and Ideology: Land Transformations in Melanesia, ANU Press, Canberra, pp. 1-56.
- Dodson, M & McDonnell, S 2017, 'Indigenous People as linked to Place, the Race power in the Tasmanian Dam Case', in Michael Coper; Heather Roberts; James Stellios (ed.), The Tasmanian Dam Case 30 Years On: An Enduring Legacy, The Federation Press, Australia NSW.
- Dodson, M & McDonnell, S 2016, Why did they serve? Facing entrenched discrimination in Australia, why did black diggers still enlist to serve their country?, pp. 10-16pp.
- McDonnell, S 2015, ''The Land Will Eat You': Land and Sorcery in North Efate, Vanuatu', in Miranda Forsyth and Richard Eves (ed.), Talking it Through: Responses to Sorcery and Witchcraft Beliefs and Practices in Melanesia, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 137-160.
- McDonnell, S 2015, Vanuatu embraces landmark reforms, East Asia Forum pp. 1-3.
- McDonnell, S 2015, Dirty Politics in Vanuatu, Fairfax Media 14 October 2015.
- McDonnell, S. 2015, Building a Pathway for successful land reform in the Solomon Islands. A report prepared for the Solomon Islands Government. pp. 1-82.
- McDonnell, S 2015, 100 days since Cyclone Pam, people across Vanuatu pause to reflect on loss and resilience, The Conversation. pp. 1-4.
- McDonnell, S 2014, 'Tax Havens and Sovereignty in the Pacific Islands by Anthony B Van Fossen (review)', The Contemporary Pacific, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 563-566.
- Allen, M, McDonnell, S & Filer, C 2014, 'For Sale: Analysis of exclusion of people from land in Melanesia and directions forward'. Working Paper, SSGM.
- McDonnell, S 2013, 'Exploring the Cultural Power of Land Law in Vanuatu: Law as a Performance that Creates Meaning and Identities', Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, vol. Online, no. 33, pp. 1-15.
- Altman, J, McDonnell, S & Ward, S 2002, 'A review of the literature', in Jon Altman and Sally Ward (ed.), Competition and Consumer Issues for Indigenous Australians, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Canberra, pp. 6-24.
- McDonnell, S & Martin, D 2002, 'Indigenous community stores in the frontier economy', in Jon Altman and Sally Ward (ed.), Competition and Consumer Issues for Indigenous Australians, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Canberra, pp. 25-63.
- McDonnell, S & Martin, D 2002, 'Possible breaches of the TPA', in Jon Altman and Sally Ward (ed.), Competition and Consumer Issues for Indigenous Australians, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Canberra, pp. 152-155.
- McDonnell, S 2001, 'Giving credit where its due: The operation of micro-credit models in an Indigenous Australian context', Indigenous Law Bulletin, vol. 5, no. 12, pp. 6-9.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- LACADR Evaluation (Primary Investigator)
- Land in Solomon Islands: Pathways to Reform (Primary Investigator)
