Klocker, Natascha

Research Areas

1604 - HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Research Overview

- Regional settlement of migrants and refugees
- Ethnic diversity and environmental sustainability, particularly in agriculture
- Immigration, inter-ethnic intimacy and racism
- Geographies of children and young people
- Alternative research methodologies, including participatory action research
My long-term research interest is immigration and cultural diversity. I am motivated by a desire to understand how Australians from migrant backgrounds encounter diverse spaces and their experiences of racism. I started my research career with a focus on media representations of asylum seekers, but have over the last five years turned my attention to the experiences of migrants and former refugees in rural and regional Australia.

In recent years, my research has also extended to consider the ways in which Australians from migrant backgrounds feature, and participate in, national debates on population, environmental sustainability and climate change. This has included a strong focus on migrants and former refugees’ involvement in agriculture. I was a CI on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project that investigated the environmental knowledges and skills of migrants and refugees in Australia.

My PhD research (UNSW, 2008) was focused on a quite different topic: child domestic work in Tanzania. While I am no longer explicitly engaged in research projects pertaining to children’s employment/labour, I have an enduring research interest in children’s and young people’s geographies. This is evident in a recent project exploring young Tanzanians’ use of plastic bag footballs, and in my supervision of student research projects on: families with children living in apartments; ethnic diversity in children’s picture books; Generation Y and environmental sustainability; and children’s engagements with ‘nature’.

Available as Research Supervisor

Member Of

Selected Publications

Journal Article

Year	Title
2022	Exploring accountability of Australia and New Zealand's temporary labour mobility programmes in Samoa using a talanoa approach Published In Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal
2021	Barriers to and enablers of sustainable practices: insights from ethnic minority migrants Published In Local Environment
2021	From backyards to balconies: cultural norms and parents’ experiences of home in higher-density housing Published In Housing Studies
2021	Hope and grief in the human geography classroom Published In Journal of Geography in Higher Education
2021	Neighborhood ethnic diversity and residential choice: how do mixed-ethnicity couples decide where to live? Published In Urban Geography
2021	Spaces of well-being and regional settlement: International migrants and the rural idyll Published In Population, Space and Place
2021	Together and apart: relational experiences of place, identity and belonging in the lives of mixed-ethnicity families Published In Social and Cultural Geography
2020	Exploring migrants’ knowledge and skill in seasonal farm work: more than labouring bodies Published In Agriculture and Human Values
2019	Cultivating Engagements: Ethnic Minority Migrants, Agriculture, and Environment in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia Published In Annals of the American Association of Geographers
2019	Environmental values, knowledge and behaviour: Contributions of an emergent literature on the role of ethnicity and migration Published In Progress in Human Geography: an international review of geographical work in the social sciences and humanities
2018	Diverse Driving Emotions Exploring Chinese Migrants' Mobilities in a Car-Dependent City Published In Transfers: interdisciplinary journal of mobility studies
2018	Experimenting with agricultural diversity: Migrant knowledge as a resource for climate change adaptation Published In Journal of Rural Studies
2018	From troublesome materials to fluid technologies: Making and playing with plastic-bag footballs Published In Cultural Geographies
2018	Irrigator relations with water in the Sunraysia region, northwestern Victoria Published In Geographical Research
2018	Parenting and neighbouring in the consolidating city: The emotional geographies of sound in apartments Published In Emotion, Space and Society
2018	Recognising knowledge transfers in ‘unskilled’ and ‘low-skilled’ international migration: Insights from Pacific Island seasonal workers in rural Australia Published In Asia Pacific Viewpoint
2018	The diverse geographies of mixed-ethnicity couples Published In Environment and Planning A
2017	Labour and Environmental Migration in the Asia-Pacific: in memory of Graeme Hugo Published In Australian Geographer
2017	Mapping the multiple geographies of mixed-ethnicity couples in Australia Published In Australian Geographer
2017	The Migration of Horticultural Knowledge: Pacific Island seasonal workers in rural Australia-a missed opportunity? Published In Australian Geographer
2016	Editorial Published In Australian Geographer
2016	Gender, ethnicity and sustainable mobility: a governmentality analysis of migrant Chinese women’s daily trips in Sydney Published In Applied Mobilities
2016	Re-thinking climate change adaptation and capacities at the household scale Published In Climatic Change: an interdisciplinary, international journal devoted to the description, causes and implications of climatic change
2015	Ethnically diverse transport behaviours: an Australian perspective Published In Geographical Research
2015	Participatory action research: The distress of (not) making a difference Published In Emotion, Space and Society
2015	Place stigma as boundary-making from the outside in: the case of Cronulla Published In Australian Geographer
2015	Young adult households and domestic sustainabilities Published In Geoforum
2014	Ethnic diversity within Australian homes: Has television caught up to social reality? Published In Journal of Intercultural Studies
2014	Inter-ethnic partnerships: remaking urban ethnic diversity Published In Urban Policy and Research
2014	Struggling with child domestic work: what can a postcolonial perspective offer? Published In Children's Geographies
2013	'Reel love' across ethnic boundaries? The extent and significance of inter-ethnic intimacy in Australian cinema Published In Ethnic and Racial Studies
2013	Diversifying ethnicity in Australia's population and environment debates Published In Australian Geographer
2013	Finding hope in unpromising times: Stories of progressive planning alternatives for a world in crisis Published In PLANNING THEORY & PRACTICE
2013	Looking inwards: Extended family living as an urban consolidation alternative Published In Planning Theory and Practice
2012	Commentary: Career progress relative to opportunity: how many papers is a baby 'worth'? Published In Environment and Planning A
2012	Conducting sensitive research in the present and past tense: recounting the stories of current and former child domestic workers Published In Geoforum
2012	Does the shape of countries shape their destiny? Published In The Conversation
2012	Doing participatory action research and doing a PhD: words of encouragement for prospective students Published In Journal of Geography in Higher Education
2012	Living together but apart: material geographies of everyday sustainability in extended family households Published In Environment and Planning A
2011	Does religious faith make people healthier and happier? Published In The Conversation
2011	Negotiating change: working with children and their employers to transform child domestic work in Iringa, Tanzania Published In Children's Geographies
2007	Contemporary racism and Islamaphobia in Australia: racialising religion Published In Ethnicities

Chapter

Year	Title
2018	Bringing together landless farmers and unused farmland: the Sunraysia Burundian Garden and Food Next Door initiative. Published In Reclaiming the Urban Commons The Past, Present and Future of Food Growing in Australian Towns and Cities Publisher Crawley: University of Western Australia Press
2018	Malleable homes and mutual possessions: caring and sharing in extended family households as a resource for survival Published In Sharing Economies in Times of Crisis: Practices, politics and possibilities Publisher Abingdon, United Kingdom
2017	The environmental implications of multigenerational living: Are larger households also greener households? Published In Multigenerational Family Living: Evidence and Policy Implications from Australia Publisher Abingdon, United Kingdom
2016	Case Study 1: The low carbon mobilities of Chinese migrant communities in Sydney, Australia Published In Low Carbon Mobility Transitions Publisher Oxford
2016	Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat in Young People’s Lives Published In Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat Publisher Springer Nature
2016	Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat in Young People’s Lives Published In Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat Publisher Springer Singapore
2016	Geographies of global issues: Change and threat in young people’s lives Published In Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat Publisher Singapore
2016	The low carbon mobilities of Chinese migrant communities in Sydney, Australia Published In Low Carbon Mobility Transitions Publisher Goodfellow Publishers
2016	Young people in the global north: Environmental heroes or pleasure-seeking consumers Published In Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat Publisher Singapore
2015	Young People in the Global North: Environmental Heroes or Pleasure-Seeking Consumers Published In Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat Publisher Springer Nature
2015	Young People in the Global North: Environmental Heroes or Pleasure-Seeking Consumers Published In Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat Publisher Springer Singapore
2007	An example of 'thin' agency: child domestic workers in Tanzania Published In Global perspectives on rural childhood and youth: young rural lives Publisher New York
2007	Conceptualising agency in the lives and actions of rural young people Published In Global perspectives on rural childhood and youth: young rural lives Publisher Conceptualising agency in the lives and actions of rural young people

Other Publications

Year	Title
2020	Great South Coast Economic Migration Project (GSCEMP) Evaluation: Community Report
2013	The Connected Household: understanding Australian households in sustainability and climate change
2011	How does freedom of religion and belief affect health and wellbeing?
2018	On 90 years of Australian Geographer, and beyond
2017	Editorial

Editor Of

Book
- Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat. Singapore. 2016

Investigator On

Year	Title
2020	Settling well: a longitudinal study of refugees in regional Australia Awarded by: Australian Research Council (ARC) Funding Scheme: Linkage Projects
2014	Sustainability and climate change adaption: unlocking the potential of ethnic diversity Awarded by: Australian Research Council (ARC) Funding Scheme: Discovery Projects
2011 - 2012	Understanding and addressing racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians through the LEAD program Awarded by: CRC for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Funding Scheme: Healthy Communities & Settings Research Program

Other Research Activities

Impact Story

Diverse people, diverse crops: bringing together landless refugee farmers and unused farmland
Summary
The Sunraysia Burundian Garden arose via a collaboration between researchers from UOW (Natascha Klocker) and the University of Melbourne (Lesley Head, Olivia Dun), former refugees from Burundi (living in Mildura) and Sunraysia Local Food Future. Many refugees come from agricultural backgrounds, but face obstacles to farming once in Australia. Our research in Mildura (funded via an ARC Discovery Project, 2014-2017) showed that many former refugees living in Australia have a desire to access land on which to grow culturally important crops, but can't afford to do so due to the cost of farmland. Some former refugees also struggle to access employment (due to low English fluency), and thus experience protracted unemployment. To date, the Federal Government has not put strategies in place that make the most of refugees’ existing skills as farmers, despite implementing a rural and regional refugee resettlement programme. Following interviews with Mildura's Burundian community, we organised a stakeholder workshop in Mildura in May 2016. The goal: how could we come together to match ‘landless’ refugee farmers with unused farmland? The workshop (hosted by Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities Council and Mildura Development Council) kick-started the Food Next Door (FND) project and the Sunraysia Burundian Garden. Following the workshop, volunteers from Sunraysia Local Food Future arranged access to one-acre of farmland; use of which was generously donated by a local business, Sunraysia Produce. The Burundian community planted their first crop of maize in September 2016, and this was successfully harvested in January 2017. The community will plant an additional crop in September/October 2017, and we are currently supporting them to apply for funding to purchase a maize milling machine to produce traditional maize flour: a staple part of the Burundian diet. In addition to a successful maize harvest, evaluation interviews have revealed multiple impacts. This project has contributed to the Burundian community's sense of belonging in Mildura, and also to their physical and mental wellbeing. It has enabled them to demonstrate their farming skills and knowledge to the broader Mildura community, through growing a culturally important food crop. The project has also reduced isolation, particularly for women, by providing a productive activity that they can work towards as a group. Equally, it has strengthened connections between the Burundian community and the broader Mildura community, and has supported inter-generational transfer of traditional farming practices between adult members of the Burundian community and their children. The project has generated positive spin-offs. The Burundian community has been offered an additional two acres of farmland, enabling their farming project to grow. Further, the success of our work in Mildura attracted publicity, leading farmers in Meroo Meadow (near Nowra) to approach us with a desire to do something similar. We were successful in attracting funding through a UOW Community Engagement Grant to make that happen. Finally, Food Next Door is seeking funding to create a community farm that extends the benefits of the Sunraysia Burundian Garden to a broader range of marginalised groups.

Detail View

Detail View Summary View
Detail of Impact
The remit of our broader research project (funded as an ARC Discovery Project, 2014-2017) was to develop insights into the environmental and agricultural knowledge and skills of migrants and refugees. In our research interviews with Mildura's Burundian community, their farming experience and expertise came to the fore. They also communicated a strong need and desire to farm in Australia with overwhelming clarity and purpose. Our job, as researchers (with an action research bent!), was to find a way to communicate that need to stakeholders in the region who could help us to make something happen on the ground. Knowledge translation activities: based on our research findings, we prepared a briefing document and presentation, and organised a workshop bringing together key organisations in the Sunraysia Region. We were assisted in this by Mildura Development Council and the Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities Council. We approached that workshop, and the briefing document, from a strength-based perspective. Having empirical data to bring to the table was crucial - especially because our research showed that the Burundian community came to Australia with strong farming skills, and that these skills were going to waste despite the fact that they were living in an agricultural region with tracts of vacant farmland. Through the workshop, we were able to establish a relationship with a local NGO - Sunraysia Local Food Future. It was through that relationship that the Sunraysia Burundian Garden (and a successful maize crop) came about. We (the researchers) had identified a group of people (the Burundian community) who desperately wanted to farm, but did not have access to farmland. They (Sunraysia Local Food Future) had access to farmland and wanted to support local residents to grow food for local consumption. Essentially, we had found people who needed land, and they had found land that needed people! The pathway to impact was to build a trusting, respectful and ongoing relationship with Mildura's Burundian community, and also with key local organisations. We did not want the Burundian community to feel that we were 'mining' them for data about their experiences, without providing any support in return. As a research team, we have visited Mildura 15 times between 2014 and 2017. Our repeated presence shows a commitment to the region, and to the organisations and community groups with whom we have conducted our research. To that end, our relationship is ongoing and will continue after the formal funding period is complete.
Field of Research
Countries / Regions
Beneficiaries

Beneficiary Quantification Description
External Partners
Evidence of Impact

Evidence Description
UOW Centres / Programs
UOW Researchers / Collaborators

Available as Research Supervisor

Potential Supervision Topics

I am interested in supervising research students working on the following topics:
- Rural/regional refugee resettlement
- Ethnic diversity, environmental sustainability and/or climate change adaptation
- Migration and environmental knowledge (including agricultural knowledge)
- Knowledge-transfers between Majority World (developing) and Minority World (developed) countries

Advisees

Graduate Advising Relationship

Degree	Research Title	Advisee
Doctor of Philosophy	Imagined Futures and Intergenerational Change; The Future Of Work For Young People In Coal-Mining Families In The Illawarra
Doctor of Philosophy	Children's Play Experiences at Playgrounds and Rock Pools in Wollongong, Australia: Adopting a Relational Approach to Play	Kent, Kiera
Doctor of Philosophy	Exploring the climatic and anthropogenic challenges to build livelihood vulnerability and resilience of Tanguar Haor in Bangladesh	Malak, Md Abdul

Awards And Honors

University of Wollongong Women of Impact, 2016

Teaching Overview

GEOG121, Human Geography: life in a globalising world
GEOG221, Population Geography: people, place, inequality

Keywords

Migration and ethnic diversity
Participatory Action Research
Children's Geographies
Environmental knowledge
Climate change adaptation

Orcid Id

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7526-3292 (confirmed)

Research Areas

1604 - HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Research Overview

- Regional settlement of migrants and refugees
- Ethnic diversity and environmental sustainability, particularly in agriculture
- Immigration, inter-ethnic intimacy and racism
- Geographies of children and young people
- Alternative research methodologies, including participatory action research
My long-term research interest is immigration and cultural diversity. I am motivated by a desire to understand how Australians from migrant backgrounds encounter diverse spaces and their experiences of racism. I started my research career with a focus on media representations of asylum seekers, but have over the last five years turned my attention to the experiences of migrants and former refugees in rural and regional Australia.

In recent years, my research has also extended to consider the ways in which Australians from migrant backgrounds feature, and participate in, national debates on population, environmental sustainability and climate change. This has included a strong focus on migrants and former refugees’ involvement in agriculture. I was a CI on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project that investigated the environmental knowledges and skills of migrants and refugees in Australia.

My PhD research (UNSW, 2008) was focused on a quite different topic: child domestic work in Tanzania. While I am no longer explicitly engaged in research projects pertaining to children’s employment/labour, I have an enduring research interest in children’s and young people’s geographies. This is evident in a recent project exploring young Tanzanians’ use of plastic bag footballs, and in my supervision of student research projects on: families with children living in apartments; ethnic diversity in children’s picture books; Generation Y and environmental sustainability; and children’s engagements with ‘nature’.

Member Of

Selected Publications

Journal Article

Year	Title
2022	Exploring accountability of Australia and New Zealand's temporary labour mobility programmes in Samoa using a talanoa approach Published In Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal
2021	Barriers to and enablers of sustainable practices: insights from ethnic minority migrants Published In Local Environment
2021	From backyards to balconies: cultural norms and parents’ experiences of home in higher-density housing Published In Housing Studies
2021	Hope and grief in the human geography classroom Published In Journal of Geography in Higher Education
2021	Neighborhood ethnic diversity and residential choice: how do mixed-ethnicity couples decide where to live? Published In Urban Geography
2021	Spaces of well-being and regional settlement: International migrants and the rural idyll Published In Population, Space and Place
2021	Together and apart: relational experiences of place, identity and belonging in the lives of mixed-ethnicity families Published In Social and Cultural Geography
2020	Exploring migrants’ knowledge and skill in seasonal farm work: more than labouring bodies Published In Agriculture and Human Values
2019	Cultivating Engagements: Ethnic Minority Migrants, Agriculture, and Environment in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia Published In Annals of the American Association of Geographers
2019	Environmental values, knowledge and behaviour: Contributions of an emergent literature on the role of ethnicity and migration Published In Progress in Human Geography: an international review of geographical work in the social sciences and humanities
2018	Diverse Driving Emotions Exploring Chinese Migrants' Mobilities in a Car-Dependent City Published In Transfers: interdisciplinary journal of mobility studies
2018	Experimenting with agricultural diversity: Migrant knowledge as a resource for climate change adaptation Published In Journal of Rural Studies
2018	From troublesome materials to fluid technologies: Making and playing with plastic-bag footballs Published In Cultural Geographies
2018	Irrigator relations with water in the Sunraysia region, northwestern Victoria Published In Geographical Research
2018	Parenting and neighbouring in the consolidating city: The emotional geographies of sound in apartments Published In Emotion, Space and Society
2018	Recognising knowledge transfers in ‘unskilled’ and ‘low-skilled’ international migration: Insights from Pacific Island seasonal workers in rural Australia Published In Asia Pacific Viewpoint
2018	The diverse geographies of mixed-ethnicity couples Published In Environment and Planning A
2017	Labour and Environmental Migration in the Asia-Pacific: in memory of Graeme Hugo Published In Australian Geographer
2017	Mapping the multiple geographies of mixed-ethnicity couples in Australia Published In Australian Geographer
2017	The Migration of Horticultural Knowledge: Pacific Island seasonal workers in rural Australia-a missed opportunity? Published In Australian Geographer
2016	Editorial Published In Australian Geographer
2016	Gender, ethnicity and sustainable mobility: a governmentality analysis of migrant Chinese women’s daily trips in Sydney Published In Applied Mobilities
2016	Re-thinking climate change adaptation and capacities at the household scale Published In Climatic Change: an interdisciplinary, international journal devoted to the description, causes and implications of climatic change
2015	Ethnically diverse transport behaviours: an Australian perspective Published In Geographical Research
2015	Participatory action research: The distress of (not) making a difference Published In Emotion, Space and Society
2015	Place stigma as boundary-making from the outside in: the case of Cronulla Published In Australian Geographer
2015	Young adult households and domestic sustainabilities Published In Geoforum
2014	Ethnic diversity within Australian homes: Has television caught up to social reality? Published In Journal of Intercultural Studies
2014	Inter-ethnic partnerships: remaking urban ethnic diversity Published In Urban Policy and Research
2014	Struggling with child domestic work: what can a postcolonial perspective offer? Published In Children's Geographies
2013	'Reel love' across ethnic boundaries? The extent and significance of inter-ethnic intimacy in Australian cinema Published In Ethnic and Racial Studies
2013	Diversifying ethnicity in Australia's population and environment debates Published In Australian Geographer
2013	Finding hope in unpromising times: Stories of progressive planning alternatives for a world in crisis Published In PLANNING THEORY & PRACTICE
2013	Looking inwards: Extended family living as an urban consolidation alternative Published In Planning Theory and Practice
2012	Commentary: Career progress relative to opportunity: how many papers is a baby 'worth'? Published In Environment and Planning A
2012	Conducting sensitive research in the present and past tense: recounting the stories of current and former child domestic workers Published In Geoforum
2012	Does the shape of countries shape their destiny? Published In The Conversation
2012	Doing participatory action research and doing a PhD: words of encouragement for prospective students Published In Journal of Geography in Higher Education
2012	Living together but apart: material geographies of everyday sustainability in extended family households Published In Environment and Planning A
2011	Does religious faith make people healthier and happier? Published In The Conversation
2011	Negotiating change: working with children and their employers to transform child domestic work in Iringa, Tanzania Published In Children's Geographies
2007	Contemporary racism and Islamaphobia in Australia: racialising religion Published In Ethnicities

Chapter

Year	Title
2018	Bringing together landless farmers and unused farmland: the Sunraysia Burundian Garden and Food Next Door initiative. Published In Reclaiming the Urban Commons The Past, Present and Future of Food Growing in Australian Towns and Cities Publisher Crawley: University of Western Australia Press
2018	Malleable homes and mutual possessions: caring and sharing in extended family households as a resource for survival Published In Sharing Economies in Times of Crisis: Practices, politics and possibilities Publisher Abingdon, United Kingdom
2017	The environmental implications of multigenerational living: Are larger households also greener households? Published In Multigenerational Family Living: Evidence and Policy Implications from Australia Publisher Abingdon, United Kingdom
2016	Case Study 1: The low carbon mobilities of Chinese migrant communities in Sydney, Australia Published In Low Carbon Mobility Transitions Publisher Oxford
2016	Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat in Young People’s Lives Published In Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat Publisher Springer Nature
2016	Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat in Young People’s Lives Published In Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat Publisher Springer Singapore
2016	Geographies of global issues: Change and threat in young people’s lives Published In Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat Publisher Singapore
2016	The low carbon mobilities of Chinese migrant communities in Sydney, Australia Published In Low Carbon Mobility Transitions Publisher Goodfellow Publishers
2016	Young people in the global north: Environmental heroes or pleasure-seeking consumers Published In Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat Publisher Singapore
2015	Young People in the Global North: Environmental Heroes or Pleasure-Seeking Consumers Published In Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat Publisher Springer Nature
2015	Young People in the Global North: Environmental Heroes or Pleasure-Seeking Consumers Published In Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat Publisher Springer Singapore
2007	An example of 'thin' agency: child domestic workers in Tanzania Published In Global perspectives on rural childhood and youth: young rural lives Publisher New York
2007	Conceptualising agency in the lives and actions of rural young people Published In Global perspectives on rural childhood and youth: young rural lives Publisher Conceptualising agency in the lives and actions of rural young people

Other Publications

Year	Title
2020	Great South Coast Economic Migration Project (GSCEMP) Evaluation: Community Report
2013	The Connected Household: understanding Australian households in sustainability and climate change
2011	How does freedom of religion and belief affect health and wellbeing?
2018	On 90 years of Australian Geographer, and beyond
2017	Editorial

Editor Of

Book
- Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat. Singapore. 2016

Investigator On

Year	Title
2020	Settling well: a longitudinal study of refugees in regional Australia Awarded by: Australian Research Council (ARC) Funding Scheme: Linkage Projects
2014	Sustainability and climate change adaption: unlocking the potential of ethnic diversity Awarded by: Australian Research Council (ARC) Funding Scheme: Discovery Projects
2011 - 2012	Understanding and addressing racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians through the LEAD program Awarded by: CRC for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Funding Scheme: Healthy Communities & Settings Research Program

Other Research Activities

Impact Story

Diverse people, diverse crops: bringing together landless refugee farmers and unused farmland
Summary
The Sunraysia Burundian Garden arose via a collaboration between researchers from UOW (Natascha Klocker) and the University of Melbourne (Lesley Head, Olivia Dun), former refugees from Burundi (living in Mildura) and Sunraysia Local Food Future. Many refugees come from agricultural backgrounds, but face obstacles to farming once in Australia. Our research in Mildura (funded via an ARC Discovery Project, 2014-2017) showed that many former refugees living in Australia have a desire to access land on which to grow culturally important crops, but can't afford to do so due to the cost of farmland. Some former refugees also struggle to access employment (due to low English fluency), and thus experience protracted unemployment. To date, the Federal Government has not put strategies in place that make the most of refugees’ existing skills as farmers, despite implementing a rural and regional refugee resettlement programme. Following interviews with Mildura's Burundian community, we organised a stakeholder workshop in Mildura in May 2016. The goal: how could we come together to match ‘landless’ refugee farmers with unused farmland? The workshop (hosted by Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities Council and Mildura Development Council) kick-started the Food Next Door (FND) project and the Sunraysia Burundian Garden. Following the workshop, volunteers from Sunraysia Local Food Future arranged access to one-acre of farmland; use of which was generously donated by a local business, Sunraysia Produce. The Burundian community planted their first crop of maize in September 2016, and this was successfully harvested in January 2017. The community will plant an additional crop in September/October 2017, and we are currently supporting them to apply for funding to purchase a maize milling machine to produce traditional maize flour: a staple part of the Burundian diet. In addition to a successful maize harvest, evaluation interviews have revealed multiple impacts. This project has contributed to the Burundian community's sense of belonging in Mildura, and also to their physical and mental wellbeing. It has enabled them to demonstrate their farming skills and knowledge to the broader Mildura community, through growing a culturally important food crop. The project has also reduced isolation, particularly for women, by providing a productive activity that they can work towards as a group. Equally, it has strengthened connections between the Burundian community and the broader Mildura community, and has supported inter-generational transfer of traditional farming practices between adult members of the Burundian community and their children. The project has generated positive spin-offs. The Burundian community has been offered an additional two acres of farmland, enabling their farming project to grow. Further, the success of our work in Mildura attracted publicity, leading farmers in Meroo Meadow (near Nowra) to approach us with a desire to do something similar. We were successful in attracting funding through a UOW Community Engagement Grant to make that happen. Finally, Food Next Door is seeking funding to create a community farm that extends the benefits of the Sunraysia Burundian Garden to a broader range of marginalised groups.

Detail View

Detail View Summary View
Detail of Impact
The remit of our broader research project (funded as an ARC Discovery Project, 2014-2017) was to develop insights into the environmental and agricultural knowledge and skills of migrants and refugees. In our research interviews with Mildura's Burundian community, their farming experience and expertise came to the fore. They also communicated a strong need and desire to farm in Australia with overwhelming clarity and purpose. Our job, as researchers (with an action research bent!), was to find a way to communicate that need to stakeholders in the region who could help us to make something happen on the ground. Knowledge translation activities: based on our research findings, we prepared a briefing document and presentation, and organised a workshop bringing together key organisations in the Sunraysia Region. We were assisted in this by Mildura Development Council and the Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities Council. We approached that workshop, and the briefing document, from a strength-based perspective. Having empirical data to bring to the table was crucial - especially because our research showed that the Burundian community came to Australia with strong farming skills, and that these skills were going to waste despite the fact that they were living in an agricultural region with tracts of vacant farmland. Through the workshop, we were able to establish a relationship with a local NGO - Sunraysia Local Food Future. It was through that relationship that the Sunraysia Burundian Garden (and a successful maize crop) came about. We (the researchers) had identified a group of people (the Burundian community) who desperately wanted to farm, but did not have access to farmland. They (Sunraysia Local Food Future) had access to farmland and wanted to support local residents to grow food for local consumption. Essentially, we had found people who needed land, and they had found land that needed people! The pathway to impact was to build a trusting, respectful and ongoing relationship with Mildura's Burundian community, and also with key local organisations. We did not want the Burundian community to feel that we were 'mining' them for data about their experiences, without providing any support in return. As a research team, we have visited Mildura 15 times between 2014 and 2017. Our repeated presence shows a commitment to the region, and to the organisations and community groups with whom we have conducted our research. To that end, our relationship is ongoing and will continue after the formal funding period is complete.
Field of Research
Countries / Regions
Beneficiaries

Beneficiary Quantification Description
External Partners
Evidence of Impact

Evidence Description
UOW Centres / Programs
UOW Researchers / Collaborators

Potential Supervision Topics

I am interested in supervising research students working on the following topics:
- Rural/regional refugee resettlement
- Ethnic diversity, environmental sustainability and/or climate change adaptation
- Migration and environmental knowledge (including agricultural knowledge)
- Knowledge-transfers between Majority World (developing) and Minority World (developed) countries

Advisees

Graduate Advising Relationship

Degree	Research Title	Advisee
Doctor of Philosophy	Imagined Futures and Intergenerational Change; The Future Of Work For Young People In Coal-Mining Families In The Illawarra
Doctor of Philosophy	Children's Play Experiences at Playgrounds and Rock Pools in Wollongong, Australia: Adopting a Relational Approach to Play	Kent, Kiera
Doctor of Philosophy	Exploring the climatic and anthropogenic challenges to build livelihood vulnerability and resilience of Tanguar Haor in Bangladesh	Malak, Md Abdul

Awards And Honors

University of Wollongong Women of Impact, 2016

Teaching Overview

GEOG121, Human Geography: life in a globalising world
GEOG221, Population Geography: people, place, inequality

Keywords

Migration and ethnic diversity
Participatory Action Research
Children's Geographies
Environmental knowledge
Climate change adaptation

Orcid Id

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7526-3292 (confirmed)

Overview

Research Areas

Research Overview

Available as Research Supervisor

Affiliation

Member Of

Publications

Selected Publications

Journal Article

Chapter

Other Publications

Editor Of

Book

Funding

Investigator On

Other Research Activities

Impact

Impact Story

Diverse people, diverse crops: bringing together landless refugee farmers and unused farmland

Supervision

Available as Research Supervisor

Potential Supervision Topics

Advisees

Graduate Advising Relationship

Background

Awards And Honors

Teaching Overview

Keywords

Identity

Orcid Id

Overview

Research Areas

Research Overview

Affiliation

Member Of

Publications

Selected Publications

Journal Article

Chapter

Other Publications

Editor Of

Book

Funding

Investigator On

Other Research Activities

Impact

Impact Story

Diverse people, diverse crops: bringing together landless refugee farmers and unused farmland

Supervision

Potential Supervision Topics

Advisees

Graduate Advising Relationship

Background

Awards And Honors

Teaching Overview

Keywords

Identity

Orcid Id

Visualisations

Research Areas