Senior Research Associate: Changing the Conversation

From 2022 to 2025 I worked as Senior Research Associate in UNSW node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), researching and evaluating the CABAH Art Series. The Art Series was the flagship initiative of CABAH’s Education and Engagement program. It commissioned four artworks that brought deep time research into dialogue with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the public. I worked across practice-based research, evaluation and research ethics.

As part of the Impact Evaluation Team, led by Professor Lizzie Muller with Stephanie Beaupark, I co-authored Changing the Conversation about Australia’s Deep History: The Impact of the CABAH Art Series (Queensland Museum and CABAH, 2026). Rather than treating art as a way to communicate research findings, the evaluation asked what happens to both the public and the people who make the work when art becomes part of knowledge-making. We designed approaches with each artist, community and cultural partner, drawing on Indigenous research methods, reflective practice and psychosocial methods. From this we developed the Changing the Conversation Framework, which looks at changes in voices, contexts, perspectives and actions. I led the evaluation of Unseeded by UK Frederick, and worked closely with the Dingaal community, Queensland Museum and the team on the evaluation of Mangal Bungal: Clever Hands. I also helped identify the opportunity that became Mangal Bungal itself, and subseqently worked as a practice-led researcher to realise it as part of my doctoral research (see the dedicated Mangal Bungal webpage).

The report identifies four lessons for arts-led research engagement: art can help people know more by feeling differently, build partnerships between researchers, communities and public spaces, support Indigenous leadership, and enable difficult public conversations. A shorter account of the project was published in Quaternary Australasia (2025) and the full report will be avialable via the Queensland Museum website very soon!

I also coordinated research ethics for the UNSW node. The evaluation was conducted in line with the AIATSIS Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research and approved by the UNSW Human Research Ethics Committee. In practice this meant making sure people were not only protected but able to shape the research. Participants reviewed and approved how their contributions were interpreted, and the methods were adapted to ensure that they were culturally appropriate.

Reference: Muller, L., Crouch, L., & Beaupark, S. (2026). Changing the Conversation about Australia’s Deep History: The Impact of the CABAH Art Series. Queensland Museum and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage. [public link will be available shortly]https://www.lizzie-crouch.com/research/mangal-bungal-clever-hands