Overview
Background
David Trigger works on the different meanings attributed to land and nature across diverse sectors of society and in different countries. His research encompasses academic studies of how land and sense of place inform the cultural identities of citizens with diverse ancestries. His research is mostly focused on Australian society. In Australian Aboriginal Studies, Professor Trigger has carried out more than 35 years of anthropological study on Indigenous systems of land tenure, including applied research on resource development negotiations and native title claims. In collaboration with colleagues he has in recent years sought understanding of the overlaps and divergences of senses of place among those with Euro-Australian, Asian and Aboriginal ancestries. This work includes projects focused on a comparison of pro-development, environmentalist and Aboriginal perspectives on land and nature. Of particular interest are the issues of ‘nativeness’ and ‘invasiveness’ as understood in both nature and society, with implications for issues of land, cultural identity and environmental management.
Availability
- Emeritus Professor David Trigger is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor (Honours) of Arts, The University of Queensland
- Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
Research interests
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Land, identity, indigeneity and cultural change
Professor Trigger's interests encompass the relationship between land and cultural identity. His applied research focuses on negotiations over the legacy of colonialism in Australian society.
Research impacts
Professor Trigger is a leading scholar in applied anthropological research on Indigenous land negotiations in Australian society. His impact is made directly through participation as an expert witness and researcher in native title claims, heritage matters and agreement making between Aboriginal groups and other land users. This work involves collaborations with legal practitioners and other professionals in the area of economic development and environmental management. Indirectly the impact of his work is through publishing the results of research and teaching students. He has a large number of research higher degree scholars for whom he provides supervision.
Works
Search Professor David Trigger’s works on UQ eSpace
2016
Book Chapter
Cultural domains and the theory of customary environmentalism in Indigenous Australia
de Rijke, Kim, Martin, Richard and Trigger, David (2016). Cultural domains and the theory of customary environmentalism in Indigenous Australia. Engaging Indigenous Economy: Debating Diverse Approaches. (pp. 43-53) edited by Will Sanders. Canberra, ACT, Australia: ANU Press. doi: 10.22459/caepr35.04.2016.04
2016
Book Chapter
Conservation, commodification and Indigenous heritage in Queensland
Martin, Richard J., Sneddon, Andrew and Trigger, David (2016). Conservation, commodification and Indigenous heritage in Queensland. The right to protect sites: Indigenous heritage management in the era of native title. (pp. 137-158) edited by Pamela Faye McGrath. Canberra, ACT, Australia: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
2016
Book Chapter
Shared country, different stories: a post-settler vignette
Trigger, David (2016). Shared country, different stories: a post-settler vignette. Land and language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country. (pp. 285-302) edited by Jean-Christophe Verstraete and Diane Hafner. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/clu.18.14tri
2016
Book Chapter
Intimacies with country, environmentalism and intercultural relations in Northern Australia's Gulf Country
Martin, Richard J. and Trigger, David (2016). Intimacies with country, environmentalism and intercultural relations in Northern Australia's Gulf Country. Unstable relations: indigenous people and environmentalism in contemporary Australia. (pp. 92-121) edited by Eve Vincent and Timothy Neale. Perth, WA, Australia: University of Western Australia Press.
2016
Book Chapter
‘Nothing never change’: mapping land, water and Aboriginal identity in the changing environments of northern Australia’s Gulf Country
Martin, Richard J. and Trigger, David (2016). ‘Nothing never change’: mapping land, water and Aboriginal identity in the changing environments of northern Australia’s Gulf Country. Other people's country: law, water and entitlement in settler colonial sites. (pp. 1-18) edited by Timothy Neale and Stephen Turner. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.
2015
Other Outputs
Eastern Guruma native title claim group: territorial boundary and shared customary interests
Gorring, Dee and Trigger, David (2015). Eastern Guruma native title claim group: territorial boundary and shared customary interests. Brisbane, Australia:
2015
Journal Article
Negotiating belonging: plants, people and indigeneity in northern Australia
Martin, Richard J. and Trigger, David S. (2015). Negotiating belonging: plants, people and indigeneity in northern Australia. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 21 (2), 276-295. doi: 10.1111/1467-9655.12206
2015
Journal Article
'Nothing never change': mapping land, water and Aboriginal identity in the changing environments of northern Australia's Gulf Country
Martin, Richard J. and Trigger, David (2015). 'Nothing never change': mapping land, water and Aboriginal identity in the changing environments of northern Australia's Gulf Country. Settler Colonial Studies, 5 (3), 317-333. doi: 10.1080/2201473X.2014.1000906
2015
Book Chapter
Change and Succession in Australian Aboriginal Claims to Land
Trigger, David (2015). Change and Succession in Australian Aboriginal Claims to Land. Strings of Connectedness. (pp. 53-73) edited by Peter Toner. Canberra, ACT Australia: ANU Press.
2015
Book Chapter
Ancestry and the politics of social inclusion in native title negotiations
Trigger, David (2015). Ancestry and the politics of social inclusion in native title negotiations. Native title from Mabo to Akiba: a vehicle for change and empowerment?. (pp. 199-212) edited by Sean Brennan, Megan Davis, Brendan Edgeworth and Leon Terrill. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Federation Press.
2014
Other Outputs
Thomas Jacob v State of Western Australia and Others (Yindjibarndi #1) WAD 6005 of 2003
Trigger, David (2014). Thomas Jacob v State of Western Australia and Others (Yindjibarndi #1) WAD 6005 of 2003. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: UQ Culture and Heritage Unit.
2014
Journal Article
Ethics and politics
Trigger, David (2014). Ethics and politics. Australian Journal of Anthropology, 25 (3), 386-388. doi: 10.1111/taja.12109_7
2014
Journal Article
Aboriginal engagement and agreement-making with a rapidly developing resource industry: coal seam gas development in Australia
Trigger, David, Keenan, Julia, de Rijke, Kim and Rifkin, Will (2014). Aboriginal engagement and agreement-making with a rapidly developing resource industry: coal seam gas development in Australia. The Extractive Industries and Society, 1 (2), 176-188. doi: 10.1016/j.exis.2014.08.001
2014
Journal Article
Tourism as theatre: performing and consuming indigeneity in an Australian wildlife sanctuary
Picard, David, Pocock, Celmara and Trigger, David (2014). Tourism as theatre: performing and consuming indigeneity in an Australian wildlife sanctuary. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 12 (3), 206-223. doi: 10.1080/14766825.2014.933967
2014
Other Outputs
Mithaka Native Title Claim (Q6033/02): report of the Court Expert
Trigger, David and Sneddon, Andrew (2014). Mithaka Native Title Claim (Q6033/02): report of the Court Expert. UniQuest Project No: 16945 St Lucia, QLD, Australia: UQ Culture & Heritage Unit, UniQuest.
2014
Book Chapter
Mining in Aboriginal Australia: Economic impacts, sustainable livelihoods and cultural difference at Century Mine, northwest Queensland
Martin, David, Trigger, David and Parmenter, Joni (2014). Mining in Aboriginal Australia: Economic impacts, sustainable livelihoods and cultural difference at Century Mine, northwest Queensland. Natural resource extraction and indigenous livelihoods: development challenges in an era of globalisation. (pp. 37-56) edited by Emma Gilberthorpe and Gavin Hilson. Surrey, United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing. doi: 10.4324/9781315597546-6
2014
Journal Article
The politics of indigeneity, identity and representation in literature from north Australia's Gulf Country
Martin, Richard J., Mead, Philip and Trigger, David (2014). The politics of indigeneity, identity and representation in literature from north Australia's Gulf Country. Social Identities, 20 (4-5), 330-345. doi: 10.1080/13504630.2014.997201
2013
Other Outputs
Ganggalida eastern area report
Martin, Richard, Trigger, David and Maclean, Hilda (2013). Ganggalida eastern area report. UniQuest Project No: C00871 St Lucia, QLD, Australia: UQ Culture & Heritage Unit, UniQuest.
2013
Book Chapter
Rethinking nature and nativeness
Trigger, David (2013). Rethinking nature and nativeness. Up close and personal : on peripheral perspectives and the production of anthropological knowledge. (pp. 140-157) edited by Cris Shore and Susanna Trnka. New York, United States: Berghahn Books.
2013
Book Chapter
Forensic social anthropology
Trigger, David, Martin, David, Memmott, Paul, Winn, Phllip, Burke, Paul, Peterson, Nicolas, Veth, Peter, Holcombe, Sarah and Palmer, Kingsley (2013). Forensic social anthropology. Expert Evidence: Law, Practice, Procedure and Advocacy. (pp. 36.51-36.9058) edited by Ian R. Freckelton and Hugh Selby. Pyrmont, NSW, Australia: Thomson Reuters.
Funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Emeritus Professor David Trigger is:
- Available for supervision
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Supervision history
Completed supervision
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Identity in an Australian Jewish community: an ethnography of public and private Jewish life in South-East Queensland
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Gerhard Hoffstaedter
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2019
Master Philosophy
Culture as a commodity? The cultural dynamics of Indigenous tourism in the Far North East of Queensland, Australia
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Richard Martin
-
2018
Doctor Philosophy
Digital Romance in Precarious Times: Online Dating Cultures of Chinese Rural Migrant Labourers
Principal Advisor
-
2018
Doctor Philosophy
Getting the Science Right: Queensland's Coal Seam Gas Development and the Engagement with Knowledge, Uncertainty and Environmental Risks
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Kim de Rijke
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2016
Doctor Philosophy
What's in a label: Social factors and health issues for a small group of Aboriginal people born in Brisbane, Australia
Principal Advisor
-
2015
Master Philosophy
Negotiating Aboriginal Culture in the Australian Mining Industry: A Case Study of Cultural Awareness Training.
Principal Advisor
-
2014
Doctor Philosophy
Mi Llajta (My Place): Identity, Belonging and Contested Space in Cochabamba, Bolivia
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Sally Babidge
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2014
Doctor Philosophy
Freedom to choose: responding to change in a mobile environment among Aboriginal People of Lockhart River, Cape York Peninsula, Australia
Principal Advisor
-
2013
Doctor Philosophy
Nature, Environmental Contests and the Politics of Indigeneity in Chile's Northern Patagonia
Principal Advisor
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2012
Doctor Philosophy
Water, Place and Community: An Ethnography of Environmental Engagement, Emplaced Identity and the Traveston Crossing Dam Dispute in Queensland, Australia
Principal Advisor
-
2012
Master Philosophy
Guwar, the language of Moreton Island, and its relationship to the Bandjalang and Yagara subgroups: a case for phylogenetic migratory expansion?
Principal Advisor
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2011
Doctor Philosophy
Loving Nature, Killing Nature, and the Crises of Caring: An anthropological investigation of conflicts affecting feral pig management in Queensland, Australia
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Sally Babidge
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2010
Master Philosophy
Niue inside out: The cultural effects of migration in Polynesia
Principal Advisor
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2008
Doctor Philosophy
Losing Hegemony: The English in Australia, a people in transition
Principal Advisor
-
2019
Doctor Philosophy
A political ecology study of forest wilderness in the Olympic Peninsula (USA) and Tasmania (Australia).
Joint Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Richard Martin, Emeritus Professor Ian Lilley
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2024
Doctor Philosophy
"Lamalama way": The Corporatisation of Indigenous Landholders in Cape York Peninsula, Australia.
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Kim de Rijke
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Interconnected practices and household improvisation: a multi-sited ethnography of meat consumption routines in urban Australia and Indonesia
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Jenny Munro
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2012
Doctor Philosophy
Social relations and layered identities in a remote Aboriginal town, Mornington Island, southern Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Paul Memmott, Emeritus Professor Ian Lilley
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2011
Doctor Philosophy
Risk and Power: Dengue and Its Prevention and Control in Urban Cambodia
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Patricia Short
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2009
Doctor Philosophy
Making a Mark: negotiations in the commoditisation of authenticity and value at an Aboriginal art dealership
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Sally Babidge
Media
Enquiries
Contact Emeritus Professor David Trigger directly for media enquiries about:
- Anthropology
- Australian Indigenous Studies
- Environmental anthropology
- Land use negotiations
- Native Title
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