jessica weir
I have always been interested
in the place where social justice and ecological justice debates meet
and where they do not. I have come to realise that we have
to resituate our human selves within the ecologies that support
us. By doing so, we can acknowledge the embeddedness of social
and ecological issues, and be better able to make decisions that
sustain life. I find the philosophy of country, as articulated by
many Indigenous people in Australia, a particularly usefully analytical
framework to work with.
Currently I am a Research Fellow in the Indigenous Country and Governance Research Program at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, where I have founded the AIATSIS Centre for Land and Water Research. I have a research agreement with native title holders in the West Kimberley to document their experiences with holding and managing native title. I am also working to extend our understandings of native title within the context of ecological relationships. In 2009 I published a book arising out of my research with traditional owners from along Australia’s devastated Murray River. They taught me connectivity thinking. This work is detailed on my Ecological Dialogue project page.
A short online article of mine "How to keep the river flowing" (see below) was recently included in the inaugural volume "The Best Australian Science Writing 2011", edited by Stephen Pincock.
Recent Selected Publications
Currently I am a Research Fellow in the Indigenous Country and Governance Research Program at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, where I have founded the AIATSIS Centre for Land and Water Research. I have a research agreement with native title holders in the West Kimberley to document their experiences with holding and managing native title. I am also working to extend our understandings of native title within the context of ecological relationships. In 2009 I published a book arising out of my research with traditional owners from along Australia’s devastated Murray River. They taught me connectivity thinking. This work is detailed on my Ecological Dialogue project page.
A short online article of mine "How to keep the river flowing" (see below) was recently included in the inaugural volume "The Best Australian Science Writing 2011", edited by Stephen Pincock.
Recent Selected Publications
- Weir, J. (ed) in press. Country, Native Title and Ecology, ANU Epress.
- Weir, J. 2011. Karajarri: A West Kimberley Experience in Managing Native Title, AIATSIS Research Discussion Paper, No 30.
- Weir, J. 2011. 'Water planning and Dispossession', in Connell D and R. Q Grafton, Basin Futures: Water Reform in the Murray-Darling Basin, ANU Epress.
- Weir, J. 2010. ‘How to keep the river flowing’, New Matilda, 23 March, newmatilda.com
- Weir J. 2010 'Cultural Flows in Murray River Country', Australian Humanities Review, 48, pp. 131-142.
- Weir, J. 2009. Murray River Country: An Ecological Dialogue with Traditional Owners, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, pp.i-xvi, 1-175
- Weir, J. 2009. 'The Gunditjmara Land Justice Story', Research Monograph 1/2009, Native Title Research Unit, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, pp.1-40, with DVD-Rom by Amy Williams.
- Strelein, L. and J. Weir. 2009 ‘Conservation and Human Rights in the Context of Native Title in Australia’, book chapter in Campese, J, Sunderland, TCH, Greiber, T, and G Oviedo, (eds). Exploring Issues and Opportunities in Rights Based Approaches to Conservation, CIFOR, IUCN and CEESP, Bogor, Indonesia, pp.123-140.
- Weir, J. 2008 'Connectivity', Australian Humanities Review, 45, pp.153-164
- Weir J and S Ross 2007 “Beyond Native Title: Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations”, in F Morphy and B R Smith (eds), The Social Effects of Native Title: Recognition, Translation, Coexistence, CAEPR Research Monograph No. 27, ANU E-Press.
- Weir J. 2007 ‘Native title and Governance: the emerging corporate sector prescribed for native title holders’, Land, Rights, Laws: Issues of Native Title, 3(9):1-16. Native Title Research Unit, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
- Weir J. 2007 “The traditional owner experience along the Murray River”, in E Potter, S Mackenzie, A Mackinnon, and J Mackay (eds), Fresh Water: New Perspectives on Water in Australia, Melbourne University Press.
- Morgan M, Strelein L and J Weir. 2006 "Authority, knowledge and values: Indigenous Nations engagement in the management of natural resources in the Murray-Darling Basin", in M Langton, O Mazel, L Palmer, K Shain and M Tehan (eds) Settling with Indigenous peoples, The Federation Press, Sydney.
- Morgan M, Strelein L and J Weir. 2004. Indigenous Rights to Water in the Murray Darling Basin, In support of the Indigenous final report to the Living Murray Initiative, Research Discussion Paper # 14, Native Title Research Unit, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra.
- Strelein L, Dodson M and J Weir. 2001. Understanding Non-discrimination: Native Title Law and Policy in a Human Rights Context, Balayi: Culture, Law and Colonialism, Vol 3, pp 113-48.
