April 28 update:

-Conference Report submitted by Jane McLachlan-Chew

Work on editing video of conference presentations to be placed online is underway and should be available through the website by mid June. Permission from all presenters will be obtained prior to release.

Previous news updates:

-Indigneous Health Panel being organised

-Conference dates have been chosen so that approximately 135 Indigenous students from around Australia can have the opportunity to attend during the free time of their block release programs at MQU. (Diploma in Community Management and Bachelor of Education)

 -In early March, 2004, MQU Vice-Chancellor, Di Yerbury, approved a 90k development grant for a 12 month project associated with goals of this conference. This grant involves 10 university departments and extensive Indigenous participation and direction in setting a national standard of excellence in the “Development of Ethical Protocols for Cross-Cultural Biodiversity Research and Benefit-Sharing with Indigenous Peoples”. See the details of this project at:

 http://www.law.mq.edu.au/HTML/news/grant.htm

 

 -conference will be available to view “on-demand” after the conference is over.

 -Plans underway to establish an International Centre of Excellence in Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity directed by Indigenous peoples and their needs

 -A number of other Indigenous development projects growing from this conference will be displayed here shortly. Two underway are: 

“Facilitating Increased Indigenous Representation in the Sciences”

 and the other project is:

 “Acknowledging the Value of Indigenous Civilisation in Education”

 For brief descriptions of these projects see:

 http://laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au/%7Ecjone005/research_projects.htm

 

See growing list of keynotes and presenters.