Overview
Background
Dominique Chen is a proud Gamilaraay woman and interdisciplinary practice-led researcher. She is a Senior Lecturer in Art History at The University of Queensland’s School of Communication and Arts, where her work explores relational, Country-centred creative and ethical practices as sites of knowing and learning. Her research spans Indigenous art, critical Indigenous studies, urban and place-based knowledges and Indigenous food sovereignty, in dialogue with the ecological humanities.
Her doctoral research (UTS) examined urban Aboriginal food growing, exploring how culturally centred, relational creative practices can revitalise cultural food knowledges, systems and relationships. Related work appears in her book chapter “Relational Growing: Reimagining Contemporary Aboriginal Agriculture in Colonialized Cityscapes” in Urban Natures: Living the More-than-Human City (Berghahn Books, 2023). In 2025, she and Ngugi Quandamooka artist Libby Harward presented their relational artwork The Blak Laundry, a working laundromat, installation and community gathering space, at the Art Gallery of South Australia as part of Tarnanthi.
Dominique is a Chief Investigator on the ARC Training Centre for Advancing Capability in Biopesticides for Crops (Adv-BioCrop), where she leads Indigenous engagement, and coordinates BlackWords, AustLit’s dedicated research resource for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and storytellers. She is passionate about people and Country care, and is committed to supporting self-determined, community-engaged and culturally grounded research within the academy.
She welcomes enquiries from prospective research students interested in practice-led, relational and socially engaged research, Indigenous art and curatorial practice, decolonial and anti-colonial praxis, place-based knowledges, Indigenous research methodologies, and Indigenous food sovereignty.
Availability
- Ms Dominique Chen is:
- Available for supervision
Fields of research
Research interests
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Expanded Indigenous-led critique of Indigenous Art
Critique of Indigenous art is largely shaped by Western art historical conventions and curatorial language, often limiting meaningful engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artistic practice on its own terms. Expanded critical approaches grounded in cultural and community terms of reference, Indigenous ethics, and relational values are at the centre of this interest.
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Indigenous food sovereignty in an Australian context
Discourse around Indigenous food in Australia has largely centred food security, food relief, and nutrition education, with limited articulation of Indigenous food sovereignty as a framework for self-determination and cultural continuity. Exploring what Indigenous food sovereignty means and looks like in an Australian context, centring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, perspectives, and agency, is a growing focus of my work.
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Definitions of urban Aboriginal agriculture and cultural food growing
Urban Aboriginal agriculture and cultural food growing are dynamic areas of practice with deep connections to cultural identity, community wellbeing, and Country. Often misunderstood, misrepresented, or absented from mainstream discourse, my research interest in this space works toward more expansive and culturally relevant definitions that centre Aboriginal perspectives.
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Culturially-informed, relational creative practice research methodologies
Culturally-informed, relational creative practices hold significant potential as rigorous research methodologies, expanding the modes of knowing, being, and doing available across research disciplines. Grounded in Country-centred and community ethics, practice-led and relational approaches broaden knowledge acquisition and offer generative frameworks for researchers working within and beyond Indigenous contexts.
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Relational and participatory creative practices in knowledge revitalisation
Relational and participatory creative practices hold invaluable potential in sustaining cultural knowledges, supporting knowledge revitalisation and reinvigoration, and contributing to cultural continuum. Often underrepresented or misunderstood within mainstream methodological and epistemological frameworks, there is significant scope for better understanding and application of these practices within academic, research and other applied contexts.
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Indigenous contributions to socially engaged and relational art
Socially engaged and relational art practice remains an underdeveloped area of scholarship in Australian Indigenous contexts — one with significant scope for the distinctive contributions Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives bring to how relational practice is understood, theorised, and applied.
Works
Search Professor Dominique Chen’s works on UQ eSpace
Featured
2025
Journal Article
Comparative dietary safety assessment of a traditionally used australian native grain
Williams, Luke B., Zakaria, Rosita, Birch, Jacob, Chen, Dominique, Reid, Geoff, Nguyen, Hao, Hepburn, Caryn, Itsiopoulos, Catherine and Wright, Paul F. A. (2025). Comparative dietary safety assessment of a traditionally used australian native grain. International Journal of Food Science and Technology, 60 (2) vvaf235, 1-10. doi: 10.1093/ijfood/vvaf235
Featured
2025
Other Outputs
The Blak Laundry
Chen, Dominique and Harward, Libby (2025). The Blak Laundry. Adelaide, SA Australia: Art Gallery of South Australia.
Featured
2024
Other Outputs
Continuity and change
Chen, Dominique (2024). Continuity and change. Art Monthly Australasia (340 Spring 2024), 88-90.
Featured
2024
Other Outputs
Commissioned by Country
Chen, Dominique (2024). Commissioned by Country. Art Monthly Australasia, 337 Summer 2023/24, 58-65.
Featured
2023
Book Chapter
Relational growing: reimagining contemporary Aboriginal agriculture in colonialized cityscapes
Chen, Dominique (2023). Relational growing: reimagining contemporary Aboriginal agriculture in colonialized cityscapes. Urban natures: living the more-than-human city. (pp. 164-178) edited by Ferne Edwards, Lucia Alexandra Popartan and Ida Nilstad Pettersen. New York, NY United States: Berghahn Books.
Featured
2022
Other Outputs
Damper is a language word for art
Chen, Dominique (2022). Damper is a language word for art. Artlink Magazine (42:1), 68-73.
Featured
2021
Other Outputs
Bauxide
Blake, Tom and Chen, Dominique (2021). Bauxide. Hobart, TAS Australia: A Published Event.
2024
Other Outputs
The Blak Laundry
Chen, Dominique and Harward, Libby (2024). The Blak Laundry. Sunshine Coast, QLD Australia: University of the Sunshine Coast Art Gallery.
Supervision
Availability
- Ms Dominique Chen is:
- Available for supervision
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Media
Enquiries
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