Recap of the 2025 HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Summer School

Serendipitous connections. Lots of learnings. Well-planned. A rare combination of the thought-provoking and the practical.

These are some reflections of participants at the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Summer School and Indigenous Data Masterclass, held in Meanjin/Brisbane on Yagera and Turrbal Country from 3 to 6 February 2025.

The Summer School brought together researchers in the humanities, arts, social science and Indigenous research areas and data custodians working with Indigenous data from across Australia to gain hands-on experience, learn digital skills, network, and inspire new research outcomes.

The Indigenous Data Governance Masterclass

Over 160 participants joined the Indigenous Data Governance Masterclass, which was held on Monday 3 February at the State Library of Queensland. Presented by Robert McLellan (Gooreng Gooreng), University of Queensland and Levi Murray (Wakka Wakka, Kubi Kubi), Indigenous Data Network, University of Melbourne, the Masterclass introduced the principles of Indigenous Data Governance, discussed caring and curating for community collections, and shared how to apply the soon-to-be-released Indigenous Data Governance matrix. 

AIATSIS generously brought photobooks from its collection, and some participants were able to add valuable metadata to those collections, enhancing the cultural collection. 

Some participants joined a tour of the Indigenous materials in the Queensland Memory Collection of the State Library of Queensland. Specialist library staff shared their challenges and expertise in caring for the collection.

Watch the recording of the afternoon session of the Masterclass, which includes definitions of Indigenous data and a panel discussion with Michael Aird (Director of the Anthropology Museum at UQ), Alana Harris (AIATSIS), Jenny Fewster (ARDC), Levi Murray (IDN/University of Melbourne) and Robert McLellan (LDaCA/UQ).

The Summer School

Over 3 days of interactive workshops, 100 researchers and Indigenous data custodians participated in the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Summer School, which aimed to foster a deeper understanding of research data management within the context of HASS disciplines. 

The Summer School focused on:

• Capacity building: equipping researchers with the necessary skills to manage data effectively and utilise digital tools to enhance their research.
• Indigenous data governance: promoting the co-design of research methodologies that respect and incorporate Indigenous knowledge systems and cultural heritage.
• Networking opportunities: providing a platform for participants to connect with peers, experts, and Indigenous data custodians working in research.

The Summer School featured a series of workshops, lectures, and hands-on sessions led by researchers and data management experts. The 4 streams were:

STREAM A: Indigenous Data Governance

Led by the Improving Indigenous Research Capabilities (IIRC) team: Levi Murray, Indigenous Data Network, University of Melbourne and Dr Nick Car, KurrawongAI.

A practical introduction to the key tools, frameworks, and principles essential for mobilising Indigenous data governance in research and beyond. Topics included Indigenous data, the FAIR and CARE principles, metadata, and contributing to the Indigenous Data Network catalogue.

STREAM B: Organising HASS and Indigenous data

Led by the Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA) team at the University of Queensland – Dr Simon Musgrave, Dr Ben Foley, Moises Sacal Bonequi and Mark Raadgever.

A practical introduction to managing HASS data based on principles which respect the cultural heritage value of the material. Topics included: data management for sustainability, metadata, the importance of licences, and using Crate-O to describe data and build a crate.

View the slides presented during this stream:

• sustainable data
• an introduction to metadata
• data licencing

STREAM C: Computational techniques for obtaining and analysing

Led by Dr Sam Hames from LDaCA at the University of Queensland, and Dr Dan Angus and Robert Fleet from the Australian Internet Observatory team at QUT.

A demonstration of computational methods and tools to obtain and analyse data using Jupyter notebooks. Topics included: using Jupyter notebooks to interact with a web API, data donation methods and tools for social data, computational methods with textual data, and network visualisation of social media data.

STREAM D: Answering social science questions using administrative data with R

Led by Dr Matthew Curry, Dr Tomasz Zajac from the Institute of Social Science Research at the University of Queensland (part of the Social Science Research Infrastructure Network, a HASS and Indigenous RDC focus area)

A hands-on introduction to working with and analysing government administrative data using R, with a focus on answering social science research questions. Topics included: an introduction to R, RStudio, and government administrative data; the basics of data manipulation in R; manipulating data and data sets in R; and regression analysis and interpreting results in R.

View the introductory slides presented in this stream about administrative data analysis in R.

101 Foundational Sessions were also held on the following topics:

• Indigenous data governance 
• Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) 
• FAIR and CARE principles – watch the recording and view the slides
• Using full-population administrative data for research
• HASS and Indigenous RDC tools and data lighting tour – watch the recording and view the slides.

Research Data Commons Case Studies

Researchers shared 2 case studies to demonstrate how research infrastructure tools and approaches are being applied by researchers. 

The first case study was an overview of the Yirrkala Digitisation Project, part of the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons’ project Improving Indigenous Research Capabilities. It was presented by Associate Professor Kristen Smith of the Indigenous Data Network at The University of Melbourne. The project is supporting the digitisation and cataloguing of the Literature Production Centre Archive at Yirrkala in Northeast Arnhem Land following Indigenous Data Governance and Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles. The project is a partnership with the Yirrkala School, Djalkirri Foundation and Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation and will support the development and enhancement of IIRC capability building tools and resources.

Watch the case study on the Yirrkala School literature production centre digitisation project.

The second case study discussed using the research infrastructure tool Time Layered Cultural Maps (TLCMap) for HASS research. Dr Ana Stevenson (Anglicare Southern Queensland and University of Southern Queensland) and Dr Claire Brennan (James Cook University) presented the case study and shared how using the TLCmap has helped visualise rich data over geographical location and time.

TLCMap is a tool to create digital maps for researchers in humanities and social sciences. 

Claire and Ana shared examples of using TLCMap for projects:

• Coral Discovery Project: uses TLCMap to digitally map all European scientific voyages that entered the Pacific between 1768 and 1834. Based on the diaries and maps of explorers and seafarers, the historical data is exclusively European in provenance. Learn more at the website Expeditions to the Pacific
• Colonial Commemorative Landscapes in Australia project, Mapping Monuments: uses data from Monument Australia and other sources to map all figurative monuments (including Big Things) across Australia. Learn more about Mapping Monuments.

Watch the recording of the TLCMaps case study.

Participant-Led Sessions

At the start and end of most days, an hour was set aside for participants to run sessions on topics of their choice. A highlight for many participants was the 2 afternoon yarning circles led by MC Grant Sarra and Uncle Michael Williams.

Other participant-led sessions that unfolded included:

• PhD students gave lightning talks about their research projects 
• a large group discussed how they balance privacy with returning data to Indigenous communities.
• across other sessions, participants discussed using AI tools in their daily work, how they are implementing FAIR and CARE principles, representations of Indigenous people in the media and Open Science training. 

Summer School Participant Experiences

The ARDC sponsored 10 travel bursaries to support participants’ attendance at the Summer School, allowing them to attend from South Australia, Melbourne, Darwin, Sydney and Perth. Travel bursary recipients share what they found most valuable at the Summer School below.

Alex Hohoi is a Senior Data Policy Advisor with First Languages Australia

“The most valuable thing was of course hearing from Indigenous professionals, like Levi and Robert, about their experiences working in the space. They bring a richness to the conversation that is really important.”

“Meta-data enrichment with Ben Foley was fantastic and I learned a skill that I will take away and use.”

Stephanie Lee, PhD candidate at Charles Darwin University is providing support to (and at the request of) four First Nations communities in the Great Sandy Desert (Kimberley) on their fire planning.

“The training stream on R studio was the most valuable part for me, as I have a specific need to use this for the fire scar analyses. I was offered a one-on-one session during this to introduce me to the platform and explain its logic and functions.”

Maria Paula Hernandez Ruiz is a PhD candidate at La Trobe University conducting research in feminist anthropology of science and technology. She is studying the social life of global development data through a measure of multidimensional poverty that has been produced in Australia for the last 16 years.

“All sessions were incredibly valuable for me, but I would say that there were two key moments in the school for me.” 

“The first moment, which happened across two of the three days, was the yarning circle organised by Grant Sarra and Uncle Michael Williams. This circle was designed to communicate and share ways of engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities. Learning these ways of engagement was done in a very pragmatic manner and it led us all in the yarning circle to share a little about ourselves and listen humbly at what others were sharing. This was a great moment to know our fellow attendees in a deeper way than we would have otherwise.” 

“The second moment was a workshop on network visualisation that was held under the stream of computational methods for HASS. In a very practical way, this workshop allowed me to resolve one data visualisation question that I have had for the first half of my candidature, and which I couldn’t have resolved without the expertise that was gathered at the Summer School.”

Yanyan Hong is a PhD candidate in the HASS field at the University of Adelaide exploring how cinema can bridge cultural and socio-political divides.

“As a PhD researcher in communication and media studies, always looking for new tools to analyse cross-cultural and digital interactions, I found the workshops (e.g., deal with textual data or social media metadata) in Stream C valuable [Computational techniques for obtaining and analysing HASS data], as they introduced me to tools, platforms or resources that can support my research. Even though computational tools like Jupyter Notebooks were completely new to me, I walked away feeling inspired, and I am now spending time to self-study the basics of Python to integrate these skills into my research.”

Lucia Fraiese is a PhD candidate in Linguistics at The University of Western Australia carrying out an ethnographic sociolinguistic study of First Nations girls at a boarding school.

“All sessions were valuable in one way or other, as there were also very thought-provoking discussions that allowed me to consider and re-consider my practices and aspirations in terms of data governance and sovereignty.”

“The atmosphere at the Summer School was lovely, and it allowed for important, honest and humble conversations. As a PhD student it is very easy to feel isolated, and frankly quite lost, when it comes to data ethics. I found the Summer School the perfect place to open up about my data problems and learn that there are many of us on the same boat, looking to improve our practices and knowledge. It was really refreshing and reassuring.”

James Pilbrow is a human geographer working with Indigenous knowledge custodians for his PhD at the University of Melbourne. 

“The most valuable sessions for my own research where the parts where we delved into the FAIR and CARE principles. I’ve realised I should be directly employing these in my project.”

“I appreciated the opportunity to network with others working with Indigenous data.”

Steven Gagau, PARADISEC, conducts research archival records about music and language of the Pacific/Oceania region which are central to the identity and heritage of Indigenous communities and cultures.

“The most valuable session for me was the selected stream workshops where I gained an improved knowledge and understanding of data-enriched research, the FAIR and CARE principles in Indigenous data governance, managing metadata and cataloguing that were supported by tools and systems within ARDC resources.”

“I also made many connections with other researchers and practitioners who are now part of my professional network and will help me work collaboratively into the future in the HASS and Indigenous research community.”

Steven co-produces PARADISEC’s podcast, Toksave Culture Talks alongside Jodie Kell, who received a travel bursary to participate in the Summer School in 2024. In Toksave, Steven and Jodie interview people who have found personal and cultural connections with collections in the PARADISEC archive. Listen to Toksave.

Dr Emmanuel Bunei, Flinders University, is a research and evaluation fellow for the Katherine Justice Reinvestment Project in the Northern Territory.

“The most valuable lessons for me revolve around Indigenous Data Governance and organising Indigenous data. This session highlighted the need for researchers to engage with Indigenous communities in a respectful and collaborative manner, ensuring that data collection, storage, and sharing align with Indigenous values and priorities. By centring Indigenous perspectives in data management practices, researchers can work towards decolonising research processes and promoting self-determination among Indigenous communities. This session also emphasised the significance of building relationships based on trust and reciprocity, acknowledging the historical and ongoing impacts of colonisation on Indigenous data governance.”

Kirstin Clements is a researcher/evaluator working for a large performing arts organisation, Arts Centre Melbourne.

“Robert McLellan and Levi Murray’s framing of the topics, their depth of insight and generosity in sharing was exceptional. They covered both conceptual foundations and practical approaches. It was validating to hear them speak about the way that ‘data’ are understood in Indigenous contexts, as this aligns closely with the way I think about data in an arts and creative sector context.”

Robyn Newitt is conducting transdisciplinary research across criminology, Indigenous studies and historiography at Monash University. 

Robyn said the most valuable session was “learning about the Yirrkala Digitisation Project. Learning from the experience of others by unpacking a project that aligns with the direction I want to take my research was something I enjoyed engaging with.”

What happened at Summer School?

On 25 March 2025, participants, presenters and all those interested joined an online webinar to discuss learnings and experiences. Watch the recording.

What’s next for Summer School?

The Summer School will be held again in early 2026. To stay up to date with the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons, please register your interest. 

The HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Summer School 2025 served as an important gathering for fostering innovative research practices that respect and integrate Indigenous data governance. As participants take these insights back to their institutions, we hope that the ripple effects of this event contribute to a more inclusive and ethically sound research data landscape in Australia.

Discover digital tools and resources for HASS and Indigenous research.

Photos from the Masterclass and Summer School

The ARDC is enabled by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) to support national digital research infrastructure for Australian researchers.