Dr Kathryn Thorburn

Kathryn has supervised a number of HDR students during her time with Nulungu. She is interested in working with HDR students in the following areas:

• regional autonomy, soveriegnty, the Australian state and Treaty
• renewable energy, native title and opportunities for partnerships and equity for T/Os in the Kimberley and beyond
• social histories of Aboriginal people in Broome and in Fitzroy Crossing
• carbon ecomonies in the Kimberley
• land tenure reform and Aboriginal land ownership
• tracking the state of remote Kimberley community infrastructure
• operationalising empowerment via Aboriginal organisations in the Kimberley

• Thorburn, K., Golson, K., Ridley, C., Angus, R., and Marshall, M, (2022) "Really proper dangerous one: Aboriginal responses to the first wave of COVID-19 in the Kimberley". Nulungu Reports. 3.
• 2011 ‘Indigenous governance’ and Aboriginal political practice: The gulf between in two organisations in the Fitzroy Valley, West Kimberley’. PhD Thesis. Canberra: Australian National University.

• Thorburn, K., Ward, J., and Kinnane, S. (In Press) 'Making the intangible count? Metrification of the value of cultural activities', in Strakosh, E,  Sullivan, P and J. Lahn (eds) Bureaucratic Occupation: Government and First Nations Peoples. ANU Epress: Australian National University, Canberra.
• 2008 ‘Mapping expectations around a ‘governance review’ exercise of a West Kimberley organisation’ in Hunt, Smith, Garling and Sanders (eds) Contested governance: Culture, power and institutions in Indigenous Australia pp 331 – 350 CAEPR Research Monograph No. 29 (Downloadable pdf at http://caepr.anu.edu.au/Publications/mono/2008RM29.php)
• 2007 ‘What sort of a town is Fitzroy Crossing? Logistical and boundary problems of the 2006 enumeration in the Southern Kimberley’ in Morphy, F. (ed) Agency, Contingency and Census Process: Observations of the 2006 Indigenous Enumeration Strategy in remote Aboriginal Australia pp87-100 CAEPR Research Monograph No. 28 (Downloadable pdf at http://caepr.anu.edu.au/Publications/mono/2007RM28.php)

• Martiniuk, A., Dossetor, P., Carter, E., Freeman, J., Thorburn, K., Oscar, J., Jeffery, H., Harley, D. & Elliot, E. (2002)  Needs and strengths: supporting child health in remote Australia. Medical Journal of Australia: Insights.
• Ward, J., Girgis, S., Thorburn, K., Oliver, S., Weijer, C., & Taljaard, M.. (2021) A Systematic Review of Self-Reported Ethical Practices in Publications of Cluster Randomised Trials Conducted in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Settings. Nulungu Research Papers, 4.
• O'Neill,L. , Thorburn, K, Riley,B., Maynard, G. Shirlow, E. and Hunt, J. (2021) Renewable energy development on the Indigenous Estate: Free, prior and informed consent and best practice in agreement-making in Australia.
  Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 81, pp 1022- 52. ISSN 2214-6296, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102252. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214629621003455
• Thorburn, K., O’Neill, L., Hunt, J. and Aisbett, E. (2019) 'Renewable energy projects on the Indigenous estate: Identifying risks and opportunities of utility-scale versus dispersed models'. Working Paper 2, Zero Carbon for the Asia Pacific Grand Challenge.
• Dossetor, P. J., Thorburn, K., Oscar, J., Carter, M., Fitzpatrick, J., Bower, C., Boulton, J., Fitzpatrick, E., Latimer, J., Elliott, E. J., & Martiniuk, A. L. (2019) Review of Aboriginal child health services in remote Western Australia identifies challenges and informs solutions. BMC Health Services Research, 19 (1).
• O’Neill, L., Thorburn, K. and Hunt, J. (2018) Ensuring Indigenous benefit from large-scale renewable energy projects: Drawing on experience from extractive industry agreement making and the importance of policy settings. Working Paper 1, Zero Carbon for the Asia Pacific Grand Challenge.
• 2017 ‘A regional governance structure for the Kimberley? Twenty-five years on from Crocodile Hole’ Australian Aboriginal Studies Journal, Issue 1: pp 86 – 98.
• 2017 'A regional governance structure for the Kimberley? 25 years on from Crocodile Hole', Australian Aboriginal Studies Journal, AIATSIS.
• Thorburn, K and M. Marshall. (2017) The Yiriman Project in the West Kimberley: An example of Justice Reinvestment? Indigenous Justice Clearinghouse Current Initiatives Paper, Australian Institute of Criminology and the Law Crime and Community Safety Council. Commissioned Paper.
• 2007 ‘Fitzroy Futures Forum: A new approach to partnerships.’ Community Governance – an occasional newsletter from the Indigenous Community Governance Project 3(2):1.
• 2007 ‘Managing dilemmas in Indigenous community-based organisations: Viewing a spectrum of ways through the prism of accountability’, Balayi: Culture, Law & Colonialism. (https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/NgiyaSynopsis2.pdf)
• 2006 ‘“Talking to the people”: Implications of the “new” model for sustainable service delivery in Indigenous settlements’, In the National Conference on Sustainability of Indigenous Communities 2006 Proceedings, Murdoch University, WA, 12–14 July.
• 2005 “Indigenous community organisations: Appropriate vehicles for appropriate development?”, Kimberley Appropriate Economies Roundtable Forum Proceedings, Fitzroy Crossing, 11 – 13 October
• 2000 Potter, L., Lee, J. and Thorburn, K. ‘Reinventing Imperata: Revaluing Alang-alang grasslands in Indonesia’, Development and Change, Vol 31, No 5, pp 1037-1053

• 2018 (co-presenting with David Wirken, Aarnja Pty Ltd) ‘Middlemen and go-betweens: The value of Indigenous organisations as orchestrators of restraint’, International Political Science Association Conference, Brisbane, July 2018.c
• 2017 “A little piece of paradise”: Living the ‘good life’ on the Anne St Reserve in Broome. From 1968 – 1982” Paper presented at the 2017 National Indigenous Research Conference , AIATSIS and the University of Canberra, ACT, 21- 23 March
• 2016 Poster presentation, with Anna Dwyer. ‘Living on the Reserve: Insights into Broome people’s health, resilience and quality of life in the 60s, 70s and 80s’. The Lowitja Institute International Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Conference, Melbourne, 8 – 10 Nov.
• 2007 Joint presenter, along with Will Sanders, John Taylor and Frances Morphy: ‘Observing the 2006 Census in remote Aboriginal Australia: Preliminary findings’, 2007 CAEPR Seminar Series I, CAEPR, ANU, Canberra, 14 March.
• 2006 “Talking to the People’: Implications of the ‘New’ Model for Sustainable Service Delivery in Indigenous Settlements. Sustainability of Indigenous Communities in Australia: Selected papers from the National Conference held at Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, 12-14 July 2006. (http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/15444/1/Indigenous-sus_2006.pdf)
• 2006 ‘Balancing accountabilities within Indigenous community-based organisations: What can it reasonably mean?’, 2006 CAEPR Seminar Series II, CAEPR, ANU, Canberra, 4 October.
• 2005 Invited paper. “Indigenous community organisations: Appropriate vehicles for appropriate development?, Kimberley Appropriate Economies Roundtable Forum , Fitzroy Crossing, 11 – 13 October
• 2005 ‘Indigenous community organisations: Appropriate vehicles for appropriate development?’ Proceedings of the Roundtable on Culturally and Environmentally Appropriate Economies, 11–13 October 2005, Kimberley Land Council, Australian Conservation Foundation and Environs Kimberley, Fitzroy Crossing.
• 2004 ‘Agency and sustaining ‘development’: Two case studies of Indigenous community governance in the Kimberley – Pre-fieldwork seminar’ 2004 CAEPR Seminar Series II, CAEPR, ANU, Canberra, 21 September. Also presented this seminar in November 2004 at the ANU’s North Australian Research Unit in Darwin.

• 2019 and 2021 Stories of Strength - Songs and Stories from Anne St. Reserve. Community Event.

• Ross, J., Thorburn, K., & Kinnane, S. (n.d.). People in the Kimberley have spent decades asking for basics like water and homes. Will the Voice make their calls more compelling? The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/people-in-the-kimberley-have-spent-decades-asking-for-basics-like-water-and-homes-will-the-voice-make-their-calls-more-compelling-202606
• 2021 ABC Kimberley Breakfast (19 October) ''What effect did pandemic policy have on Kimberley lives?" https://www.abc.net.au/radio/kimberley/programs/breakfast/pandemic-policy/13609368
• 2016 ABC Kimberley: Memories of the ‘Native Reserve’ on Anne St in Broome. Radio documentary recipient of Editor’s Choice Award, ABC Sydney. Downloadable at https://soundcloud.com/abcwa/memories-of-the-native-reserve-on-annestreet-in-broome

• 2019 - 2021 Bunuba knowledge and history repatriation project - Coordinating the process of knowledge, and document, repatriation and liaising with the major knowledge-holding institutions across Australia.
• 2018 Social Equity in Energy Supply Symposium, ANU Energy Change Institute, Invited speaker.
• 2018 Nulungu Research Institute Talking Heads Series, University of Notre Dame Broome - with Lily O’Neill. ‘How can traditional owners benefit from the transition to a green economy?’.
• 2017 Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Festival, Lombadina: Invited speaker on Gen Y Aboriginal people in the Kimberley, and impediments to cultural transmission.
• 2017 Nulungu Research Institute Talking Heads Series, with Anna Dwyer. “Living on the Anne St Reserve: Broome, 1968 – 1982”. Presentation available on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1470&v=LpjEXcGdzFo
• 2017 Marninwarntikura Fitzroy Women’s Resource Centre: Workshop: Exploring ethical health research, your experiences and expectations.
• 2016 – 17 Marninwarntikura Fitzroy Women’s Resource Centre: 4 workshops conducted with 3 groups of women – grandmothers, mothers, and two with young women’s generation.
• 2016, Kinnane, S., Buchanan, G., Thorburn, K., McGrohan, P. Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre Culture Camps Project Interim Evaluation Report. Nulungu Research Institute, The University of Notre Dame Australia.
• 2016 Guest lecturer, Indigenous Development Masters Course, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University.
• 2007 Joint presenter, along with Will Sanders, John Taylor and Frances Morphy: ‘Observing the 2006 Census in remote Aboriginal Australia: Preliminary findings’, 2007 CAEPR Seminar Series I, CAEPR, ANU, Canberra, 14 March.
• 2006 ‘Balancing accountabilities within Indigenous community-based organisations: What can it reasonably mean?’ 2006 CAEPR Seminar Series II, CAEPR, ANU, Canberra, 4 October.
• 2007 ‘Fitzroy Futures Forum: A new approach to partnerships.’ Community Governance – an occasional newsletter from the Indigenous Community Governance Project 3(2):1.