Career and background

Employment

Independent consultant and sole trader (2017 – present)
CSIRO Research Scientist (2004 – 2016)
Central Land Council Land Management Coordinator (1993 – 2001)
Previous employers: Argyle Diamond Mines, Department of Conservation and Land Management, Kimberley Land Council, Tangentyere Council, The University of Western Australia, Western Desert Aboriginal Corporation.

Education

B.Sc. (Zoology and Botany), Hons. (Botany), The University of Western Australia
Ph.D. (Botany and Anthropology), The University of Western Australia

Dissertation: Walsh FJ. 2009. ‘To hunt and to hold’: Martu Aboriginal people’s uses and knowledge of their country, with implications for co-management in Karlamilyi (Rudall River) National Park and the Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia. Doctor of Philosophy, Departments of Anthropology and Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia. pp 450.

2015 Presentation with Gareth Catt of 'Aboriginal people choose new media for an old practice' to National Rangelands Conference.

2014 Working with Lytentye Apurte Arrernte rangers on a climate change and soil erosion project (photo by Ashley Sparrow)

In 1993, Fiona moved to Alice Springs. Mparntwe and surrounds is customary land of Arrernte people as recognised under native title.

1989 Martu women record life history and land use stories. These were translated and transcribed into a community book.

1988 Martu women head out from Parnngurr for a day's hunting on foot. Fiona walked with them each day for months.

1987 Photos of Lunki (Witchetty grubs) aid in identification and give visual evidence of Martu bush food use (photo by John Walsh)

2015 Plants to sort during facilitation of a 'Martu women's plants and traditional practices workshop'

Background

Fiona was raised in Perth with periods in the Murchison region. As a child from a farming family, she learnt of Aboriginal bush foods, place names and signs of economy and culture in grindstones and artefacts.

When Fiona studied zoology and botany at university, people and their influences were not addressed by the lecturers. Concerned by the schism, she turned to anthropology for some answers. Later, by good fortune, she accompanied an archaeologist to the Western Desert where Martu people introduced them to their country. There a senior Martu woman challenged Fiona to study contemporary life not just times past. After university, she did this, learning from Martu people of Parnngurr and Punmu.

Over more than 35 years, Fiona has worked between town and bush, policy and practice - often a wide divide to bridge. Research papers and technical reports are difficult for local people to use, so Fiona has long collaborated with local groups to make publications with and for them including the awarded book ‘Planning for Country’. She now collaborates with filmmakers to document and celebrate the sophistication of Aboriginal knowledge and skills. Increasingly, Fiona feels an urgency to support local people to record and re-adapt the knowledge of their old people including the dreaming epics and song lines that criss-cross this country. These encode wisdom about ancestors, people, animals, waters, plants for future generations.

Fiona’s skills are transferable throughout Australia. She has projects and partnerships in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia. Aboriginal people and Other Australians are her countrymen and women. Her heartland lies in Central Australia. Alice Springs is her home on Arrernte country and shared with people from many continents.

Her clients and employers include non-government agencies, statutory organisations, state and federal government agencies. Disciplinary collaborators include archaeologists, anthropologists, ecologists, film-makers, geographers, linguists, locals, psychologists, story-tellers, land management practitioners. She collaborates with Aboriginal people as friends, colleagues, traditional owners, rangers, local experts and in other roles. They do country visits, ethnography, participatory activities, video, photos and reports to record old and modern stories for present and future generations. She supports local groups and visitors to understand local, regional and national contexts so the bridges between them are stronger.

Fiona lives in a most complex region where ‘simple solutions’ to ‘indigenous problems’ wreak havoc. She works with a positivist approach to counter inequality, racism, and environmental damage. Many personal and professional challenges have shaped her and her worldview. These experiences have created deeper empathy and insights into the lives of others and a balanced and resilient outlook.