Rekindling Japanese and Torres Strait Connections (Japan-Australia Research Project)

Julie Lahn is a Fellow in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at The Australian National University. Julie is a Chief Investigator on the project, Rekindling Japanese and Torres Strait Islanders connections: celebrating 50 years. She has engaged with Torres Strait Islanders for more than twenty-five years through her PhD research about Torres Strait culture and history, her contributions to Native Title claims and post-determination processes, and through the pursuit of stolen or forgotten Torres Strait cultural heritage held in academic and cultural institutions.

Annick Thomassin is a Canadian Anthropologist based at the Australian National University. Her work focuses on Indigenous fisheries, environmental stewardship perspectives and Indigenous-State relations. She recently won a Wenner-Gren Foundation’s Hunt Fellowship to write a book on the politics of co-management in the Torres Strait. Annick is a chief investigator of the project Rekindling Japanese and Torres Strait Islanders connections: 50 years on which revisits and important Japanese research about Torres Strait in the 1970s.

Jacinta Baragud is an Iamagal woman from the Kulkalgal nation of the Torres Strait (Queensland, Australia). She is a Research Officer in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University (ANU) as one of the key members of the project Rekindling Japanese and Torres Strait Islander (Australia) Connections: the Kwansei Gakuin University expeditions 50 years on funded by the Australia-Japan Foundation, the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) and the Australian Research Council Discovery Project scheme. Before joining the ANU, she worked in multiple positions for the Australian Public Service but more recently as a Corporate Support Officer. Jacinta’s research interests include Indigenous socio-economic policies, Torres Strait knowledge systems and languages, and the impacts of climate change on Indigenous communities. She is passionate about improving access for Torres Strait communities to the results of research conducted in their region. Through this, she built an interest in examining historical research information captured in and about the Torres Strait and their meanings and uses for contemporary Torres Strait societies. When she is not working, she enjoys going hiking and spending time with families. She lives up to her Kantok family moto ‘Do your best, never give up’.

Samantha Faulkner is a Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal woman, (Badu and Moa Islands, Torres Strait and Yadhaigana and Wuthathi peoples, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland). Her poetry and short stories have been published nationally and internationally. She is the proud author of Life Blong Ali Drummond: A Life in the Torres Strait, (2007) and editor of Pamle: Torres Strait Islanders in Canberra (2018). She also is a member of the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Network, MARION (ACT Writers) and treasurer, First Nations Australia Writers Network and Us Mob Writing Group. In 2023, she was the inaugural Torres Strait Islander curator for the Brisbane Writers Festival.