From left to right: Mt Newman iron ore mine, WA; Andoom mining area,western Cape York near Weipa, Qld; landscape northwest of Laverton, WA; Comalcoport area, Lorim Point and Napranum Aboriginal Community, near Weipa, Qld;Palm Valley, NT [photos by R Howitt]

Richie Howitt is Head of Department for a three year term from February 9, 2005. He is also currently the Director of the Environmental Management program.

Richie Howitt's research, teaching and community service is concerned with issues of social justice, ecological sustainability, economic equity and cultural diversity. In particular his work is oriented towards advancing and facilitating indigenous self-determination. His practice as a professional geographer includes applied research and community activity including native title negotiations, advocacy of indigenous rights, social impact assessment of resource-based development projects, critical evaluation of corporate culture in Australia's resource industries, and research on issues of power, human rights, research ethics and geographical scale.

Richie's background includes work with a wide range of local, regional and national Aboriginal organizations, field experience in mining regions of NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, experience as a public servant (Aboriginal Education), a classroom teacher (Infants and Primary), an education consultant (peace studies), and occasionally work as a musician.

Teaching

At present Richie Howitt is Director of the Division of Environmental & Life Sciences Bachelor of Environmental Management program. He also contributes to the Human Geography, Resource and Environmental Management and Aboriginal Studies programs of the University at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His teaching responsibilities include:

·        CMGT170       Aboriginal Issues in Resource Development (part of the Advanced Diploma in Community Management ­ Aboriginal Organizations)

·        ELS300           Environmental Decision Making

·        GEOS114       Global Environmental Futures

·        GEOS387       Special Interest Seminar (Social Impact Assessment & Cross-Cultural Negotiation ­ undergraduate offering)

·        HGEO802      Social Impact Assessment & Cross-Cultural Negotiation

·        HGEO803      Cultural Issues in Wildlife Management (with Sandie Suchet-Pearson)

Richie and colleagues in the Department of Human Geography also provides short courses and training in a range of issues including cross-cultural social impact assessment, negotiating native title issues and community development planning.

Richie sees geographical education as fundamental to active global citizenship and supports the delivery of quality educational experience in schools, communities and universities. He has been an advocate of greater emphasis on quality teaching in Australian Universities. In 1999 he received a a Macquarie University 'Outstanding Teacher Award' and an Australian Award for University Teaching (Social Science) [go to Richie's Teaching Pages for an outline of teaching philosophy and other information].

Research

Richie’s current research includes:

• corporate responses to changing human rights, environmental performance and indigenous rights regimes, funded through and ARC Large Grant.
• economic and social impacts of mining and infrastructure projects on Aboriginal interests.
• geographical scale as a core concept of geography [go to scale Project Home Page]
• implications of recognition of native title and indigenous rights in Australia, involvement in innovative negotiations concerning Native Title for the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement of South Australia.

Research supervision

Richie has also supervised a number of innovative student projects and postgraduate research projects in recent years, dealing with native title, planning, indigenous co-management, water rights, disability, environmental ideologies, local governance in remote areas, applications of GIS to indigenous planning, development of regional agreements, land claims and land management, and urban development and planning.

University and Community Service

Richie is an active member of the Institute of Australian Geographers. He served as Treasurer of IAG 1999-2002. He became a Fellow of the IAG in April 2004.

He was a foundation member of the IAG’s Indigenous Issues Study Group, which has organised special conference sessions and workshops. Papers from some of these sessions are available on this site. [go to INDIGEONETLINKS].

Richie is also a member of Macquarie University’s Human Ethics Review Committee and regularly provides support to researchers on ethical concerns in cross-cultural and environmental research.

Publications

Richie's recent publications include:

·         Rethinking Resource Management: justice, sustainability and indigenous peoples, London, Routledge. (2001)

·         scale and the other: Levinas and geography. Geoforum 33.3: 299-313 (2002)

·         scale, in: J. Agnew, K. Mitchell and G. Toal, A Companion to Political Geography. Oxford, Blackwell: 138-157. (2003)

·         scale as relation: musical metaphors of geographical scale. Area 30.1: 49-58 (1998)

·         Recognition, reconciliation and respect: steps towards decolonisation? Australian Aboriginal Studies 1998/1.28-34 (1998)

·         For Whom do we Teach?: the paradox of 'excellence'. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 24.3: 317-323 (2000)

·         Decolonizing Research: ethical and methodological issues, Institute of Australian Geographers Conference, ANU, Canberra, July 2002.

·         Inequality: local injustices, invisibility, blindness and their legacies. NSW Local Government Association Conference, Sydney, November 2002.

·         Some things do change: indigenous rights, geographers and geography in Australia. Australian Geographer 29(2), 155-173. (1998), with Sue Jackson.

·         Resources, Nations and Indigenous Peoples: case studies from Australasia, Melanesia and Southeast Asia. Oxford University Press, Melbourne (1996), with John Connell and Phil Hirsch.

Many of Richie’s publications and presentations can be found on his publications page. These are made available on this site to foster public discussion and debate but you are asked to respect copyright and intellectual property rights on these pages. Please feel free to comment via email. If there is a particular publication that you are interested in that is not available on-line, please feel free to e-mail for further information.

About this website

I try to update this website annually, but inevitably such ambitions aren’t always achieved. In updating the content in February 2005, I have tried to fix a number of dodgy links and also provide a number of more recent papers and other materials.

Please let me know if there are missing links or other problems that you can identify ­ or other material that you would like to see included on the site ­ and I will try to respond. Many thanks for your interest in Human Geography at Macquarie and my work on various issues.

e-mail toRichard.Howitt@mq.edu.au

go to Richie Howitt's Publications Page

go to Richie Howitt's Teaching Pages

Authorised by: Richie Howitt
Date: 02.02.2005
© Copyright 2005, Macquarie University