First Nations Undergraduate
Student Summer Research Program

• People who are not of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage.
• People who are not Australian citizens or permanent residents.
• People who reside outside Australia.
• People who are not currently enrolled in an undergraduate tertiary program in Queensland.
• Current Queensland Museum employees, Queensland Museum Board members, Queensland Museum Foundation trustees, and members of the Queensland Museum Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Consultative Committee are ineligible to apply.

Yes. A series of broad research projects are listed on the Expression of Interest form.

Your supervisor will work with you to refine your research project whereby it can be completed within the program's six-week timeframe.

Application for the program is via completion of an Expression of Interest form on the Queensland Museum website.

Express interest

You will be asked to provide:

• Your contact details, the name of the course you are enrolled in, current year of study and expected completion date;
• A short Curriculum Vitae including the name and contact details of at least one (1) referee;
• An up-to-date academic transcript (unofficial transcripts are acceptable if downloaded from the official university webpage and clearly show the student’s name and the name of the university);
• Short responses to questions included in the Expression of Interest form.

You will be asked to nominate an area of interest within the Museum to undertake your research project.

Expressions of interest close at 11:59pm on Monday, 18 November 2024.

Late submissions will not be accepted.

• Students should be currently enrolled in a Queensland-based university undergraduate program.
• Students should have a minimum GPA of 4.5.
• Students should be able to come to Queensland Museum Kurilpa to attend the weekly student workshops.
• Responses to the short answers will be considered, particularly why you are interested in participating in the program and your future aspirations.

The assessment process includes:

• Expressions of Interest are checked for completeness and eligibility by Queensland Museum staff.
• An assessment panel comprising Indigenous and non-Indigenous Queensland Museum staff and an external independent member will assess the applications against the selection criteria.
• The panel will determine the Program participants, however may request an in-person interview with potential program participants to gather more information to make a final decision.

Queensland Museum reserves the right not to award all research places if suitable Expressions of Interest are not received.

Depending on the number of Expressions of Interest received, the Assessment Panel may ask you to attend an interview if they need more information about your application.

Yes, all students who submit an Expression of Interest will be notified about the outcome of their application via email by early December 2024.

The program will commence with attendance at the Orientation Day on Tuesday, 14 January 2025.

No. The Summer Research Program is an extracurricular research experience and cannot be counted towards course credit.

Students will receive a stipend of $4,000. Income tax and superannuation may apply.

If successful, you will be paid in fortnightly instalments across the six weeks. It is important to note income tax provisions may apply.

Yes, however we encourage you to check the requirements of any scholarship you hold to ensure you do not breach their requirements.

Queensland Museum cannot provide financial and/or tax advice to students. Should you have any financial or tax-based questions about accepting a place in the First Nations Undergraduate Student Summer Research Program, please contact a finance professional.

Queensland Museum’s Wild State gallery takes visitors through five breathtaking environments – the arid outback, iconic eucalypt forest, tropical rainforest, sun-drenched coastal zones and teeming marine environments. The gallery highlights the extreme beauty, yet fragile state of each environment. It explores how we, the human race, need to protect and preserve our precious natural world for future generations.

In this research project, the student will identify one or two animals in Wild State and undertake research into Indigenous Knowledges connected to those animals, which may include language, song, dance, stories, kinship systems, totems etc. It is intended the information collected will be incorporated into the display and as part of Queensland Museum's Daily Highlights Tour.

This research project will introduce the student to working with, and caring for, Aboriginal material culture through hands-on learning activities and applied collection management theory.

Governed by national benchmark museum standards; changes in collection housing methods; and advancement in collection materials technology, the collection storage upgrade project, will improve the current standard of housing of the Aboriginal club collection bringing it up to industry benchmark standards.

The research project will involve the rehousing of 840 (approx.) Aboriginal clubs. Project work activities will include inventorying; collating and sorting (locality of origin); making custom-made trays/supports; boxing; photographing; and recording object location changes in the Museum's collection database.

Project outcomes will include:

• greater accessibility to the club collection for research, Community engagement and auditing purposes;
• improved collection storage to benchmark standards providing improved care for objects into perpetuity;
• gained knowledge of working with First Nations material culture; and
• an introduction to the collection management profession.

This project involves conducting in-depth provenance research on an Aboriginal breastplate, a significant cultural item with historical and social importance.

Provenance research is often the first step in determining the community of origin for an ancestor or object so they can be repatriated to their traditional custodians. The student will utilise archival materials to investigate the item's origins, creation, removal, and movement through private collections and/or institutions. This research can then be used to inform a community's decision-making process during repatriation, particularly in determining who should be involved and the cultural practices and protocols to be followed during the repatriation process.

As conservators we are interested in the techniques and materials used to weave baskets and bags. Due to the fragile nature of many fibres and their susceptibility to both physical and pest damage, we are interested in developing methods for appropriately caring for woven works in the QM collection.

A research project exploring the conservation of woven fibre works could include an exploration of the different weave types, fibre types, dyes and embellishments. The ways in which other institutions look after their fibre collections could be explored, and treatment options examined.

Queensland Museum's Partnerships team is responsible for sponsorships, partnerships and stakeholder relationship management that support Queensland Museum's revenue generation targets and drive investment in programs of strategic priority across the organisation.

This social impact analysis research project will review and analyse data collected over the last 10 years relating to the impacts and outcomes of Queensland Museum's collaboration with corporate and academic partners. At the conclusion of the project the research will provide a snapshot of the impact and scale of the work undertaken at Queensland Museum due to partner investment.

The Stan Colliver Archives is stored in the Research Library and is comprised of 23 boxes and 42 folders. The material was bequeathed in 1999 and spans the 1830s-1980s. The archives contain publications on First Nations language, loose news cuttings, typed and written manuscripts, photographs, pamphlets (e.g. pamphlets on Australian Aborigines: Rights, Citizenship, Assimilation), single journal issues, letters and meeting reports.

The project will require description of the contents, identifying the material particularly relevant to First Nations with the intent to digitise and/or rehouse appropriately. Part of the project will require updating catalogue records within the Library Management System.

This project requires a student to produce a statement of significance which addresses the historic/social significance, provenance, aesthetic, condition, interpretive capacity and other collection identifiers of the pieces.

With some of the pottery pieces in the Collection relating to Joh & Flo Bjelke-Petersen, there may be potential for the line of research to investigate policies of the Bjelke-Petersen government at the time and to the history of Cherbourg itself and what the Barambah Pottery meant to the community.

The project provides students with insight into the Curatorial process.

The recently launched Say Our Name: Australian South Sea Islanders exhibition explores the relatively unknown histories and lived experiences of Australia's South Sea Islander community.

Working with the exhibition curators, the student will research and write a series of blogs further highlighting elements of the collection and Australian South Sea Islander stories.

Recognising and embracing diversity in the workplace fosters a sense of value among staff for their unique qualities, ideas, and perspectives. This commitment extends to acknowledging that employees may wish to observe culturally significant or religious days and events throughout the year.

In this project, the student will research best practices for cultural leave policies, processes, and strategies; benchmark cultural leave initiatives implemented by government and cultural institutions across Australia; and develop a tailored cultural leave approach for Queensland Museum.