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
2002
Conference Publication
Large-Scale Mining in Aboriginal Australia: Cultural Dispositions and Economic Aspirations in Indigenous Communities
Trigger, D. S. (2002). Large-Scale Mining in Aboriginal Australia: Cultural Dispositions and Economic Aspirations in Indigenous Communities.
2002
Conference Publication
Large-scale mining in Aboriginal Australia: cultural dispositions & economic aspirations in Indigenous communities
Trigger, D. (2002). Large-scale mining in Aboriginal Australia: cultural dispositions & economic aspirations in Indigenous communities. International codes, technology and sustainability for the minerals industry : CMMI Congress 2002, Cairns, Queensland, 27-28 May, 2002. Carlton South, VIC: The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
2002
Other Outputs
Perth, Australia
Trigger, D., Wilding, R. and Mulcock, J. (2002). Perth, Australia.
2002
Book Chapter
Perth
Trigger, D. and Wilding, R. (2002). Perth. Encyclopedia of urban cultures: cities and cultures around the world. (pp. 417-425) edited by Melvin Ember and Carol R. Ember. Danbury, CT, United States: Grolier.
2001
Book Chapter
Gendered landscapes: the politics and processes of inquiry and of negotiating interests in land
Toussaint, S., Tonkinson, M. and Trigger, D. (2001). Gendered landscapes: the politics and processes of inquiry and of negotiating interests in land. Words and silences: Aboriginal women, politics and land. (pp. 157-174) edited by Peggy Brock. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin. doi: 10.4324/9781003118435-7
2001
Journal Article
Anthropologists, lawyers and issues for expert witnesses: native title claims in Australia
Trigger, D. and R. Blowes (2001). Anthropologists, lawyers and issues for expert witnesses: native title claims in Australia. Practicing Anthropology, 23 (1), 15-20.
2001
Book Chapter
Australia
Baldassar, L. and Trigger, D. (2001). Australia. Encyclopedia of national cultures. (pp. 112-126) edited by M. Ember and C. Ember. Australia: Macmillan Publishing.
2001
Journal Article
Mining, land claims and the negotiation of Indigenous interests: research from the Queensland Gulf Country and Pilbara region of Western Australia
Trigger, David and Robinson, Michael (2001). Mining, land claims and the negotiation of Indigenous interests: research from the Queensland Gulf Country and Pilbara region of Western Australia. Senri Ethnological Studies, 59, 101-116.
2000
Book Chapter
Aboriginal responses to mining in Australia: economic aspirations, cultural revival and the politics of indigenous protest
Trigger, David S. (2000). Aboriginal responses to mining in Australia: economic aspirations, cultural revival and the politics of indigenous protest. Hunters and Gatherers in the modern world: conflict, resistance and self-determination. (pp. 192-205) edited by Peter P. Schweitzer, Megan Biesele and Robert K. Hitchcock. New York, USA: Berghahn Books.
1999
Journal Article
Nature, work and 'the Environment': contesting sentiments and identities in the southwest of Western Australia
Trigger, David (1999). Nature, work and 'the Environment': contesting sentiments and identities in the southwest of Western Australia. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 10 (2), 163-176. doi: 10.1111/j.1835-9310.1999.tb00018.x
1999
Book Chapter
Hunter-gatherer peoples and nation-states
Trigger, David S. (1999). Hunter-gatherer peoples and nation-states. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers. (pp. 473-479) edited by Richard Daly and Richard Lee. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
1999
Book Chapter
Negotiating the Century Mine Agreement: issues of law, culture and politics
Blowes, R. and Trigger, D. (1999). Negotiating the Century Mine Agreement: issues of law, culture and politics. Regional agreements : key issues in Australia. V. 2., Case studies. (pp. 85-135) edited by Mary Edmunds. Canberra, Australia: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Native Titles Research Unit.
1998
Journal Article
Saltwater people, saltwater country: geomorphological, anthropological and archaeological investigations of the coastal lands in the Gulf Country of Queensland
Robins, Richard P., Stock, Errol C. and Trigger, David S. (1998). Saltwater people, saltwater country: geomorphological, anthropological and archaeological investigations of the coastal lands in the Gulf Country of Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum: Cultural Heritage Series, 1 (1), 75-125.
1998
Book Chapter
Citizenship and indigenous responses to mining in the Gulf Country
Trigger, David (1998). Citizenship and indigenous responses to mining in the Gulf Country. Citizenship and indigenous Australians: changing conceptions and possibilities. (pp. 154-166) edited by Nicolas Peterson and Will Sanders. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
1998
Book Chapter
Marine tenure in the Wellesley Islands region, Gulf of Carpentaria
Memmott, Paul and Trigger, David S. (1998). Marine tenure in the Wellesley Islands region, Gulf of Carpentaria. Customary marine tenure in Australia. (pp. 109-124) edited by Bruce Rigsby and Nicholas Peterson. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Oceania Publications.
1997
Journal Article
Land rights and the reproduction of Aboriginal culture in Australia's Gulf Country
Trigger, David S. (1997). Land rights and the reproduction of Aboriginal culture in Australia's Gulf Country. Social Analysis, 41 (3), 84-106.
1997
Journal Article
Mining, landscape and the culture of development ideology in Australia
Trigger, David S. (1997). Mining, landscape and the culture of development ideology in Australia. Ecumene, 4 (2), 161-180. doi: 10.1177/147447409700400203
1997
Book Chapter
Reflections on Century Mine: preliminary thoughts on the politics of indigenous responses
Trigger, David (1997). Reflections on Century Mine: preliminary thoughts on the politics of indigenous responses. Fighting over country: anthropological perspectives. (pp. 110-128) edited by D. E. Smith and J. Finlayson. Canberra, Australia: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.
1996
Journal Article
Contesting ideologies of natural resource development in British Columbia, Canada
Trigger, D. (1996). Contesting ideologies of natural resource development in British Columbia, Canada. Culture, 16 (1), 55-69.
1996
Book Chapter
Kinship, land rights & Aboriginal culture in Australia
Trigger, David (1996). Kinship, land rights & Aboriginal culture in Australia. Contemporary Cultural Anthropology. (pp. 184-186) edited by Michael C. Howard. New York, United States: Haper Collins.
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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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