Dr Taryn Kong, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at CSIRO
See Taryn’s full research profile here.
What are your research interests as they relate to northern Australia?
I am a transdisciplinary researcher on systems approach to sustainability issues including climate change adaptation and natural resource management. My research interests in northern Australia have been focusing on sustainable development of Indigenous estate. My research include Indigenous enterprise development process, non-governmental investment in Indigenous land and sea management, Indigenous innovation models and benefits of Indigenous environmental activities. My research uses transdisciplinary and systems approaches to enhance local collaboration in sustainable development and natural resource management. I apply knowledge and experience from qualitative intercultural research, environmental sciences and business to create innovative methods and theoretical perspectives. In my CSIRO Postdoctoral Fellowship, I applied my science to investigate pathways for enterprise development in and sustainable management of Indigenous estate. This builds on my transdisciplinary research on climate change adaptation and land degradation in South Africa and USA, where I also tapped into local knowledge to innovate solutions and understand complex problems.
What do you love about working in northern Australia?
Northern Australia is a unique place to research sustainable development because of its diversity in so many aspects from cultural to ecological, and of the significance of Indigenous estate and roles in shaping the future development. As a transdisciplinary researcher, these two features make northern Australia a treasure for collaborative research with Indigenous partners to find innovative solutions to sustainability issues. I am very fortunate to visit many special places and engage with different Indigenous communities in northern Australia through my research. Each place is distinctly beautiful that I find it hard to pick a favourite spot to work in.
Current project
Completed project
