CAEPR’s vision is to be a national centre at the Australian National University, leading in research and teaching excellence on Indigenous economic and social development and public policy.
Welcome to CAEPR!
The
Centre
CAEPR was established in March 1990 under an agreement
between the Australian National University (ANU) and the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). In 1999, after review, CAEPR was established
as an independent Centre within the University. The Centre's research is supported by funding from the ANU, the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA), and the Australia Research Council, and from industry partners including Reconciliation Australia, Rio Tinto, Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation, and the Northern Territory and Western Australian governments.
Functions
CAEPR's rolling triennial research program is formulated through an annual planning process. Our current plan is divided into three broad research themes:
- Indigenous Economic and Social Circumstances
- Development Options for Indigenous Economic Futures
- Education, Governance and Capacity Development.
The Centre's research focuses on both Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Australians despite its name, which reflects an original
contractual requirement and is retained owing to its established
reputation.
Annual Reports
CAEPR Annual Reports are available for download in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format:
The Annual Reports of the ARC Indigenous Community Governance Project (ICGP) are available for download in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format:
Advisory Committee
CAEPR operates under a Director who is assisted by an Advisory Committee. Professor Jon Altman, Foundation Director since July 1990, is responsible to the Vice-Chancellor for the overall operation of the Centre and also reports to the Chair of the Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee comprises five senior ANU academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor, two Indigenous community representative nominated by the Advisory Committee, and a senior officer from the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA), nominated by the Secretary of that department. The Advisory Committee meets twice each calendar year.
Research Program and Strategic Vision
CAEPR develops its research program with a variety of
interest groups and its sponsors. The research program is then presented to the
Advisory Committee for endorsement. As a university-based research centre, CAEPR
does not take any official view and all CAEPR research is independent
scholarship. A substantial proportion of CAEPR's research is based on fieldwork in
Indigenous communities.
To learn of Centre's current research in more detail, see the CAEPR Strategic
Plan 2006-2008 (PDF Document) and the CAEPR Research
Plan 2008-2010 (PDF Document).
The Research
Plan 2007-2009, Research
Plan 2006-2008, Research
Plan 2005-2007 and Research
Plan 2004-2006 (PDF) are also available.
Staff
CAEPR is staffed by a multi-disciplinary social sciences
team with a very broad range of academic backgrounds and experiences.
Disciplines represented include anthropology, demography, economics, geography, education, statistics and political
science.
Academic staff are supported by an executive officer, centre coordinator, research officer/editor, three
research assistants, a publications editor/webmaster, and a part-time statistical officer. Staff
details can be found on our Staff
Profiles page.
Prospective Students
CAEPR offers the opportunity for full-time or part-time students to undertake research leading to a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) or Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in a broad range of disciplines including anthropology, demography, economics, political science, and public policy. CAEPR staff teach the elective ‘Development Dilemmas for Indigenous Australians’ in the Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development (MAAPD), and offer student internships to participants in that program.
CAEPR is a unique university-based Indigenous economic and social policy focused research centre. It has a critical mass and ever increasing intellectual capital generated by a steady and committed staff establishment; it has a proven track record and research credibility; and it offers a genuinely multi-disciplinary social sciences, strongly fieldwork-based approach that is also forging disciplinary links with ecological and biological sciences. All of these features make it an attractive location for graduate students. For more information, visit our Prospective Students page.
Visiting Indigenous Fellowship Scheme
Indigenous engagement is a high priority within CAEPR, reflecting in our ongoing commitment to such engagement across a range of areas, as outlined in the CAEPR Strategic Plan. Specific action strategies for Indigenous engagement include:
Promoting strategic alliances and collaborations with key Indigenous organisations and researchers; Actively targeting and attracting key Indigenous researchers to CAEPR; and
Providing periodic summaries of research findings to key Indigenous stakeholders.
The Visiting Indigenous Fellowships program at CAEPR aims to attract Indigenous scholars to collaborate with researchers at CAEPR, in order for them to transfer their newly acquired or further developed research skills and research outcomes back to their base community or region for practical application. Developed with significant financial contributions from the Rio Tinto Aboriginal Foundation and the Westpac Foundation in partnership with the Australian National University, the Fellowship provides opportunities for Indigenous research capacity building and enhanced engagement and collaboration between CAEPR research staff and non-CAEPR Indigenous researchers and leaders. There were four successful Visiting Indigenous Fellowships in 2005, with a similar number planned for 2006. For more information, see the Visiting Indigenous Fellow page.
Conferences, Seminars & Workshops
CAEPR holds regular public seminars given by Centre staff
and visiting academics. Our most recent seminar program can be found on the Events page. The Centre
also conducts occasional specialised in-house and public workshops. Workshop
topics have included statistical needs for effective Indigenous policy
formulation, Aboriginal employment equity, the institutional implications of
native title, and the appropriate means to assess the housing needs of
Indigenous Australians. Such workshops facilitate Indigenous Australian and peer
review of consultancy findings and discussion of crucial policy issues.
In August
2005, CAEPR held a conference on 'Indigenous Socioeconomic Outcomes: Assessing Recent Evidence'. The conference presented the latest evidence on Indigenous economic status, social status, and family and community life in Australia and discussed the implications of such data for government policy. The conference attracted over 250 delegates from around Australia,. The proceedings of this conference are
published as CAEPR Research Monograph No. 26.
Recent workshops have been held on Indigenous community organisations and miners (April 2005), Indigenous community governance and government partners (October and December 2005),and the effects of Native Title (November 2005).
Publications Update
CAEPR publishes its research findings initially in the CAEPR Discussion Paper
series (ISSN 1036-1774) in both hard copy and electronic format, and also in academic books and journals. To July
2006, some 283 Discussion Papers have been published, and many are also available for free download in PDF format.
Among the topics covered by recent Discussion Papers are:
Indigenous socioeconomic change 1971–2001
Indigenous educational participation
Torres Strait elections, 2000 and 2004 Poker machines in Aboriginal communities
Policy issues for the Community Development Employment Projects scheme The economic value of wild resources The role of community online access centres in Indigenous communities
Housing tenure and Indigenous Australians in remote and settled areas
Land rights and development reform in remote Australia
The relative economic status of Indigenous people in New South Wales
Indigenous Capacity development in the international development context
Indigenous Australian entrepreneurs Senior management in Indigenous community governance Re-engaging Indigenous Australian youth in remote areas Departmental Secretary perspectives on the new arrangements in Indigenous affairs
Policy implications of emerging Indigenous demographic trends
CAEPR also produces a Research Monograph series (ISSN
1036-6962), now published in both hard copy and electronic format by ANU E Press.
The most recent titles in this series include Making Sense of the Census: Observations of the 2001 Enumeration in Remote Aboriginal Australia (Research Monograph 22), Aboriginal Population Profiles for Development Planning in the Northern East Kimberley (Research Monograph
23), Social Indicators for Aboriginal Governance: Insights from the Thamarrurr Region, Northern Territory
(Research Monograph 24), Indigenous people and the Pilbara mining boom: A baseline for regional participation (Research Monograph
25), and Assessing the evidence on Indigenous socioeconomic outcomes: A focus on the 2002 NATSISS
(Research Monograph
26).
In 1999 the CAEPR Working Paper
Series was initiated. This series comprises papers of a more technical nature,
which are published online and are available for free download in PDF format.
Among the topics covered by recent Working Papers are:
Indigenous socioeconomic change 1971–2001
Early Indigenous engagement with mining in the Pilbara Indigenous household structures and ABS definitions of the family Opportunity costs of the status quo in the Thamarrurr Region Frameworks for Researching Australian Indigenous Governance Vehicles and decentralised mobile service-provision in remote Indigenous Australia Building Indigenous community governance in Australia Factors associated with internal migration Indigenous peoples and indicators of well-being Outstations policy for Indigenous Australians
A full publications list and order forms are available from
Publication Sales,
Centre for Aboriginal Economic
Policy Research,
Hanna Neumann Building #21,
Australian National
University,
Canberra ACT 0200
Phone (02) 6125 8211 Fax (02)
6125 9730.
CAEPR and the ANU
The Centre enjoys close working relationships with many
parts of the University.
CAEPR staff present the MAAPD course Development Dilemmas for Indigenous Australians. CAEPR staff regularly
provide other guest lectures at the ANU, supervise postgraduate students from
other departments, and assist undergraduate and postgraduate students where
appropriate.
CAEPR's External Research Links
As well as FACSIA and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, CAEPR has close research links with a number of Commonwealth and
State government departments and agencies. In Canberra, these include the
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Reconciliation Australia, the Commonwealth
Grants Commission and the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination. CAEPR also maintains close links with the Australian
Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the Australian
Anthropology Society.
CAEPR has also established academic links with a number of
interstate research centres and agencies such as the Social Policy Research
Centre at the University of NSW in Sydney, the Bureau of Immigration,
Multicultural and Population Research, the Australian Institute of Family
Studies in Melbourne, and the Vichealth Koori Health Research and Community
Development Unit at the University of Melbourne. In Darwin important research
linkages are maintained with the ARC Key Centre for Tropical Wildlife
Management, the Tropical Savannas Management CRC and the Centre for Indigenous
Natural and Cultural Resource Management, all at Charles Darwin
University.
Consultancies
CAEPR has completed commissioned consultancies for agencies
such as Land Councils and Native Title Representative Bodies, Australian
National Audit Office, ATSIC, Deparment of Employment, Education, Training and
Youth Affairs, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Department of Prime Minister and
Cabinet, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bureau of Resource
Sciences, Resource Assessment Commission, and Environment Australia.
All consultancies undertaken by CAEPR staff must be approved
by the Director and the CAEPR Advisory Committee or its Chairman. Consultancies
must be closely associated with CAEPR's overall research objectives and all
consultancy outcomes are published either by commissioning agencies or by
CAEPR.
Location
The Centre is located in the Hanna Neumann Building #21,
Australian National University Campus, Acton, ACT. Click here for a map of the
ANU.
Contact
Phone: (02) 6125 0587 (International 61-2-6125 0587)
Fax: (02) 6125 2789 (International 61-2-6125 2789)
Email to Publications Officer: publications.caepr@anu.edu.au
Written enquiries about any matters raised on this site
should be addressed to:
Professor Jon Altman
Director
Centre for Aboriginal
Economic Policy Research
Hanna Neumann Building #21
The Australian National University
CANBERRA ACT
0200
All enquiries should be addressed
to:
Ms Denise Steele
Centre
Administrator
Phone: (02) 6125 0587
Fax: (02) 6125
9730
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