Professor Emma Lee

Emma

Position: Professorial Research Fellow

Area: National Centre for Reconciliation, Truth, and Justice

Email   e.lee@federation.edu.au

ORCID   https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5823-2547

Strategic Basic Research, according to Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification, for:

  • Fields of Research Codes - 450304; 450505; 450521
  • Socio-economic Objectives Codes - 210402; 210404; 210102

Qualifications

  • PhD, University of Tasmania
  • BA (Hons) of Biological Anthropology and Prehistory, Australian National University
  • Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Research and Leadership, University of Melbourne

Biography

Professor Emma Lee is a trawlwulwuy woman from tebrakunna country, north-east Tasmania, and resides in north-west Tasmania.  She holds a Doctorate in Regional Development from the University of Tasmania. She joined Federation University in March 2023 to further the research and social impacts of the National Centre for Reconciliation, Truth, and Justice.

Emma is an internationally recognised expert on Indigenous methodologies, especially as applied to land and sea management.  She has written books, papers and reports on Indigenous rights, democracy, government policy and regional development.  Her favourite research areas are democracy, tourism, fisheries and the Blue Economy.

In transforming research into rights and regional development opportunities through her domestic and international collaborations, Emma is a sought-after advisor to provide expert advice to state and federal governments, ocean industries, Aboriginal communities, businesses and organisations, and UN Bodies.  She sits on numerous Federal Government councils, committees and advisory groups and has had several roles in Tasmanian Aboriginal organisations.  Emma often provides expert media commentary for print, radio and tv.

Areas of expertise

  • Indigenous methodologies
  • Democratic participation, policy governance and management
  • Tourism
  • Fisheries and oceans
  • Regional development
  • Reconciliation

Social impacts

Emma is an inaugural Director of the Land and Sea Aboriginal Corporation Tasmania, of which Tasmanian Aboriginal Seafoods is the world’s first not-for-profit and registered charity to hold commercial abalone fishery quota. In establishing a commercial market for cultural fisheries, Tasmanian Aboriginal communities are developing partnerships with high-end hospitality sectors to broaden new forms of collaborative engagement with ocean sustainability. Healing relationships through having a feed together.

In 2023 she became the first Indigenous woman to be a global recipient of a Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation. In 2021, she was the first Indigenous Australian editor of a Best Practice Guideline for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for conserved and protected areas. In 2019, she accepted a Federal Government role on the National Co-Design Group, Indigenous Voice, for developing models and processes for Indigenous advice to parliament and government.

Awards

In 2018 she became the first Aboriginal Tasmanian recipient of the University of Tasmania’s Foundation Graduate Award and the 2020 inaugural recipient of the William Jonas Award, Institute of Australian Geographers. She was a recipient of The Australian Sociological Association’s Best Paper Award in 2019. Emma was also a finalist for 2022 Australian of the Year (Tasmania) for her body of work in Indigenous rights.

Publications and outputs 2024

Chapter – tebrakunna country and Lee, E 2024, ‘Bawaka Country’ in Gilmartin, M, Hubbard, P, Kitchin, R & Roberts, SM (eds), Key thinkers on space and place, 3rd edition, Sage, London, pp. 44-51.

Report - Hunter, C, Lee, E, Wood, W, Marsh, A, & Fischer, M 2024, Cultural licence to operate in the Blue Economy, Final Project Report. Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre.

Paper – Grimwood, B, tebrakunna country and Lee, E & Higgins-Desboilles, F (eds) 2024, ‘Unsettling Geographies of Tourism’, Special Issue, Tourism Geographies, Vol. 26, No. 6 https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2402997

Paper – tebrakunna country and Lee, E 2024, ‘Indigenous Peoples’ rights and tourism: thinking about colonisation’, Tourism Geographies,  https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2395469

Commentary – Reid, B, Miles, J (Chief), White, P (Chief) & Lee, E 19 January, The Conversation, Flipping Indigenous regional development in Newfoundland upside-down: lessons from Australia

Publications and outputs 2023

Paper - Lee, E 2023, ‘“States now done, nation to come”: The 2023 Referendum for Indigenous Recognition’, Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues, 26(1–2), pp. 68–71.

Paper - Bellato, B, Frantzeskaki, N, tebrakunna country and Lee, E, Cheer, JM & Peters, A 2023, ‘Transformative epistemologies for regenerative tourism: towards a decolonial paradigm in science and practice?’, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, DOI: 10.1080/09669582.2023.2208310

Chapter - tebrakunna country and Lee, E & Grimwood, B 2023, ‘Refusing tourism’ in Mair, H (ed), Handbook on Tourism and Rural Community Development, Elgar Publishing, UK, pp. 125-138. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800370067.00017

Foreword - tebrakunna country and Lee, E 2023, ‘Acknowledging and welcoming Professor Emeritus Helen Ross contributions and care for country’, in Baldwin, C & van Bommel, S (eds), Rural development for sustainable social-ecological systems, Palgrave MacMillan, Switzerland pp. xi-xiii.

Publications and outputs 2022

Book - tebrakunna country and Lee, E & Evans, J (eds) 2022, Indigenous women’s voices: 20 years on from Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies, Bloomsbury Books, London, UK.

White Paper Roundtable – Greening Australia, April 2022, White Paper - Valuing Nature, Climate action and the economy: Insights from an expert discussion on climate, the economy, society and a better path forward.

Report – Future Earth Australia, 2022, A National Strategy for Just Adaptation, Australian Academy of Science, ACT.

Chapter – Lee, E 2022, ‘Identity in a Time of Rising Tides’, in Nursey-Bray, M, Palmer, R, Chischilly, AM, Rist, P & Yin, L (eds), Old Ways for New Days: Indigenous Survival and Agency in Climate Changed Times, Springer, Switzerland.

Commentary – Lee, E 22 May, The Conversation, Prime Minister Albanese’s victory speech brings hope for First Nations Peoples’ role in democracy

Lee, E 10 June, The Conversation,First Nations people shouldn’t have to wait for a referendum to get a Voice to Parliament

Feature commentary (examples) – Taylor, C et al, 18 Sept, ABC Online, Britain used to rule a quarter of the world. What happened?

Gross, S 1 June, Bloomberg News, Indigenous Inclusion Is a Focus For New Australian Government

Humphries, A & Lehman, R, 18 March, ABC Online, Indigenous Tasmanians sign deal to run commercial abalone fishery

Maunder, S 17 March, SBS World News, Connections to sea country: cultural fisheries program launched for Tasmania's Aboriginal people

Publications and outputs 2021

Report - Hoegh-Guldberg, O, Bowen, K, Capon, T, Church, J, Howden, M, Hughes, L, Jotzo, F, Palutikof, J, Quiggin, J, Karoly, D, King, A, Lee, E, Nidumolu, U, Nursey-Bray, M & Steffen, W 2021, The risks to Australia of a 3oC warmer world, Australian Academy of Science, Canberra, ACT.

Guideline - Verschuuren B, Mallarach J-M, Bernbaum, E, Spoon J, Brown S, Borde R, Brown J, Calamia M, Mitchell N, Infield M & Lee E 2021, Cultural and Spiritual Significance of Nature: Guidance for Protected and Conserved Area Governance and Management, Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Co-Design – Commonwealth of Australia 2021, Indigenous Voice Co-design Process Final Report to the Australian Government, Canberra, ACT.

Paper - Jonas, HD, Ahmadia, GN, Bingham, HC, …Lee, E (tebrakunna country)… 2021,’ Equitable and effective area-based conservation: towards the conserved areas paradigm’,  PARKS: The International Journal of Protected Areas and Conservation, Vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 71-84

Paper – Lee, E 2021, ‘Indigenous peoples shift conservation through best practice’, Nature Human Behaviour, https://doi.org/10.1038/S41562-021-01100-0

Commentary – Lee, E 28 February, The Age, Opinion: Indigenous Voice gives us the chance to work together

Lee, E 23 Oct, The Canberra Times, Opinion: How do we decolonise news reporting?

Feature Profile – Fyfe, M 22 February, Good Weekend, Thank you for the genocide: the Aboriginal activist ‘love-bombing’ white leaders