Dr Nicholas Smith

Senior Lecturer

Email: nick.smith@nd.edu.au

  • Biography

    Nick was awarded a PhD from La Trobe University in 2000. From 2001-2006 he was employed as an anthropologist by Pilbara Native Title Service (now YMAC). In 2006  worked in the Centre for  Anthropological Research at University of Western Australia, then in 2008 taking up a position as lecturer/researcher at UWA before relocating to La Trobe University, Melbourne. His research examines intercultural aspects of Aboriginal lifeworlds in the western Pilbara region of Western Australia. Dr Smith is also an experienced native title anthropologist. He has authored various anthropological reports for both mediated and litigated native title applications. In addition he has undertaken consultancies in the post-determination arena particularly those related to Indigenous initiatives in conservation and land management.

  • Teaching areas

    Nick teaches subjects that explore anthropological approaches to environment issues, as well as kinship, gender and marriage.

  • Research expertise and supervision

    Nick is an anthropologist whose research expertise has grown out of long-term relationships with Indigenous people that originated in his work as a native title anthropologist.  His current research examines the historical trajectory of various social, cultural, and economic entanglements of Indigenous and Settler Australians in the western Pilbara and southwestern Kimberley regions of Western Australia. He is the Graduate Research Coordinator in the  Department of Social Inquiry, La Trobe University overseeing the progress of Research Masters and PhD candidates. Nick is currently supervising PhD, Masters and Honours students.

  • Book chapters

    • Smith, N & R Madden, 2012. 'Animals' in P. Beilharz & T. Hogan (eds.) Sociology: Antipodean Perspectives pp. 283-287. Oxford University Press: Australia.
    • Morton, J. & N. Smith. 1999. ‘Planting Indigenous Species: a Subversion of Australian Eco-nationalism.’ In Quicksands: Foundational Histories in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand pp.153-175. UNSW Press, Sydney, Australia.

  • Journal articles and proceedings

    • Smith, N. 2019.  ‘“Carried off in their hundreds’: Epidemic diseases as structural violence among Indigenous peoples in Northwestern Australia”, History and Anthropology, https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2019.1684272
    • Smith, N. 2015 'Murtuka yirraru: Automobility in Pilbara Song-Poems', Anthropological Forum. 25 (3): 221 – 242.
    • Smith, N. 2012. ‘The Return of the Living Dead: Unsettlement and the Tasmanian Tiger’ Journal of Australian Studies 36 (3): 269-289.
    • Smith, N. 2011. ‘Blood and Soil: nature, native and nation in the Australian imaginary’ Journal of Australian Studies 35 (1): 1-18.
    • Smith, N. 2006. ‘Thank your mother for the rabbits: bilbies, bunnies & redemptive ecology.’ Australian Zoologist 33 (3): 369-378
    • Smith, N. 1999. ‘The Howl and the Pussy: feral cats and wild dogs in the Australian imagination.’ The Australian Journal of Anthropology 10 (3):288-305.

  • Conference papers

    • “Gemeinschaft and gesselschaft in the Pilbara”. Invited to present at Centre for Native Title Anthropology Workshop “Around the edge: claim formation in complex and contested situations” The University Club of Western Australia, Perth, 27-28 March 2014.
    • “Singing about sharks” Paper presented to Australian Anthropology Society Annual Conference, Canberra November 2013.
    • Muurrkarra [motorcars] and yirraru [a Ngarla song form]”. Seminar presentation Melbourne University 2011
    • “Negotiating Tradition in the Pilbara’. Paper presented to Workshop - Tradition, Adaptation, the “Tide of History”: issues for anthropology in research for native title claims and their aftermath, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland June 2009.
    • ‘Some observations on the role of staff anthropologists in a Western Australian Native Title Representative Body (NTRB)’. Paper presented to Anthropological Society of Western Australian Annual Conference, Perth, Western Australia December 2008
    • ‘Proving Connection in an area where there is little ethnography and where there are discrepancies between contemporary research and ethnographic material.’ Paper presented to Office of Native Title Connection Workshop, Medina Grand, Perth Western Australia 27- 28 July 2006.
    • ‘Blood & Chocolate: Australian attitudes to the rabbit’. Paper presented to the Inaugural Conference of the Animals & Society (Australia) study group, University of Western Australia, Perth, 12-15 July 2005.
    • ‘Authoring from the Inside; or ‘How did we get from Sec 223 to the WA Guidelines’. Paper presented to the AIATSIS Native Title Conference; Coffs Harbour June 2005.
    • ‘Archive dilemmas for NTRBs’. Workshop presentation at AIATSIS Native Title Conference; Coffs Harbour June 2005.
    • ‘An Induction Manual for Staff Anthropologists’ Workshop presentation at AIATSIS Native Title Conference, Adelaide June 2004.
    • ‘Follow the Yellow Brick Road … Producing Connection Reports at an NTRB where lawyers and anthropologists like and respect each other’. Paper co-presented with David Ritter at Claims Research Management Workshop; AIATSIS, April 2004.
    • ‘The return of the living dead: the Tasmanian tiger in the Australian imaginary’. Paper presented to the Australian Anthropology Society Annual Conference, Sydney 2003.
    • ‘The return of the living dead: the Tasmanian tiger in the Australian imaginary’. Paper presented to the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, 15-19 November 2000.
    • ‘Panting Indigenous Species: the mythical grounding of Australian eco-nationalism’ Paper co-authored by John Morton presented to the Foundational Histories Seminar, Sydney, 29-31 August 1997.
    • ‘Ethnoscience and Australia’s Aborigines’. Paper co-authored by John Morton presented to the third conference of The European Society of Oceanists, Copenhagen. 13-15 December 1996.
    • ‘The Howl and the Pussycat: feral cats and wild dogs in the Australian imagination’. Paper presented to the Australian Anthropology Society Annual Conference, Albury 2-4 October 1996.

  • Professional affiliations

    • Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
    • Australian Anthropological Society

  • Community engagement

    Collaborative research is ongoing with Indigenous groups in the Pilbara and south west Kimberley. Currently working with Nyangumarta people in the Nyangumarta Warrarn Indigenous Protected Area on a project titled "Indigenous eco-cultural futures: re-implementing Nyangumarta burning in the Pilbara, Australia".