Evaluating compensation for harm to Indigenous culture in Queensland (2025-2027)

In the wake of the High Court's (HCA's) decision about compensation for 'cultural loss' in Northern Territory v Griffiths [2019] HCA 7, research is urgently needed on the different forms of harm to Indigenous culture suffered as a result of colonisation. This project aims to undertake the first ethnographic investigation of harm outside the context of litigated compensation claims. By investigating the complexities of Indigenous experiences of colonisation, including frontier violence, incarceration on missions and reserves, and contemporary experiences of heritage destruction and interrupted knowledge transmission, this project will establish the knowledge base to resolve the coming wave of compensation claims by First Nations peoples.