Dr Jessica Weir

BA, MEnv&Dev ,PhD
Honorary Senior Lecturer

Dr Jessica Weir is a Geography scholar who contributes to Indigenous Studies, the Environmental Humanities and Science and Technology Studies. She investigates the social-cultural dimensions of environmental governance, learning from Indigenous knowledge traditions and leadership with Country. Dr Weir examines not just how values interrelate, but how they are categorised, including a reworking of the foundational subject/object domains in the social and natural sciences. She examines nature and what counts as evidence about nature, and seeks to overturn discriminatory knowledge generation practices. She has collaborated with Indigenous researchers and leaders across Australia, especially in the southeast and WA. Dr Weir spent ten years working in the Native Title Research Unit at the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), and her substantive position is as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), Western Sydney University.

Research interests

Knowledge practices and their material expression

Natural Hazard risk and resilience

Life on the inside of Country

  • Smith, W, Neale, T & Weir, J 2021, 'Persuasion without policies: The work of reviving Indigenous people's fire management in southern Australia', Geoforum, vol. 120, pp. 82-92pp.
  • Weir, J 2021, 'Terrain: De/centring Environmental Management with Indigenous Peoples’ Leadership', Borderlands e-journal, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 171-206.
  • Harriden, K, Weir, J & Cunio, K 2020, 'Climate Grief, Expert Evidence and Academic Practice', Transform: The Journal of Engaged Scholarship, vol. 5, pp. 13-26pp.
  • Williamson, B, Markham, F & Weir, J 2020, Aboriginal peoples and the response to the 2019-2020 bushfires.
  • Williamson, B, Weir, J & Cavanagh, V 2020, 'Aboriginal People Find Strength Despite Perpetual Grief', in (ed.), Continent Aflame: Responses to an Australian Catastrophe, Palaver, Melbourne, pp. 122-125pp.
  • Thomassin, A, Neale, T & Weir, J 2019, 'The natural hazard sector's engagement with Indigenous peoples: a critical review of CANZUS countries', Geographical Research, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 164-177.
  • Weir, J, Woelfle-Erskine, C, Fuller, S et al. 2019, 'Investigating Best Practice: Doctoral Fieldwork Experiences With and Without Indigenous Communities in Settler-colonial Societies', ACME, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 1300 - 1320pp.
  • Weir, J & Duff, N 2017, 'Who is Looking after Country? Interpreting and Attributing Land Management Responsibilities on Native Title Lands', Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 76, no. 4, pp. 426-442pp.
  • Neale, T, Weir, J & McGee, T 2016, 'Knowing wildfire risk: Scientific interactions with risk mitigation policy and practice in Victoria, Australia', Geoforum, vol. 72, pp. 16-25pp.
  • Weir, J 2016, 'Hope and Farce: Indigenous peoples' water reforms during the Millennium Drought', in Eve Vincent and Timothy Neale (ed.), Unstable Relations: Indigenous people and environmentalism in contemporary Australia, UWA Publishing, Perth, pp. 122-167pp.
  • Neale, T, Weir, J & Dovers, S 2016, 'Science in Motion: Integrating scientific knowledge into bushfire risk mitigation in southwest Victoria', Australian Journal of Emergency Management, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 13-17.
  • Neale, T & Weir, J 2015, 'Navigating scientific uncertainty in wildfire and flood risk mitigation: A qualitative review', International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, vol. 13, pp. 255-265.
  • Tran, T, Weir, J, Strelein, L et al 2015, 'Indigenous governance and climate change adaptation: two native title case studies from Australia', in J Palutikof, S Boulter, J Barnett, D Rissik (ed.), Applied Studies in Climate Adaptation, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., USA, pp. 307-315.
  • McLennan, B, Weir, J, Eburn, M et al 2014, 'Negotiating risk and responsibility through law, policy and planning', Australian Journal of Emergency Management, vol. 29(3): 22-28.
  • Weir, J, Crew, D & Crew, J 2013, 'Wetland forest culture: Indigenous activity for management change in the Southern Riverina, New South Wales', Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 193-207.
  • Weir, J 2013, 'Karajarri: Native title and governance in the West Kimberley', in T. Bauman, L.M. Strelein and J.K. Weir (ed.), Living with Native Title: The Experiences of Registered Native Title Corporations, AIATSIS Research Publications, Canberra, pp. 147-174.
  • Bauman, T, Strelein, L & Weir, J 2013, 'Navigating complexity: living with native title', in T. Bauman, L.M. Strelein and J.K. Weir (ed.), Living with Native Title: The Experiences of Registered Native Title Corporations, AIATSIS Research Publications, Canberra, pp. 1-26.
  • Bauman, T, Strelein, L & Weir, J, eds, 2013, Living with Native Title: The Experiences of Registered Native Title Corporations, AIATSIS Research Publications, Canberra, i-xx, 1-300.
  • Weir, J 2012, 'Country, Native Title and Ecology', in Jessica K. Weir (ed.), Country, Native Title and Ecology, ANU ePress, Canberra, pp. 1-19.
  • Weir, J, ed., 2012, Country, Native Title and Ecology, ANU ePress, Canberra.
  • Weir, J, Stone, R & Mulardy Jnr, M 2012, 'Water Planning and Native Title: A Karajarri and Government Engagement in the West Kimberley', in Jessica K. Weir (ed.), Country, Native Title and Ecology, ANU ePress, Canberra, pp. 81-103.
  • Weir, J 2011, 'How to keep the River flowing', Best Australian Science Writing 2011, Pincock S (ed), NewSouth, Sydney.
  • Weir, J 2011, Karajarri: A West Kimberley experience in managing native title, Native Title Discussion Paper Number 30, Native Title Research Unit, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, pp. 1-31.
  • Weir, J 2009, Murray River Country: an ecological dialogue with traditional owners, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.
  • Weir, J & Ross, S 2007, 'Beyond native title: the Murray Lower Darling Rivers indigenous nations', in BR Smith and F Morphy (ed.), The Social Effects of Native Title: Recognition, Translation, Coexistence, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 185-201.
  • Weir, J 2007, 'The traditional owner experience along the Murray River', in Emily Potter, Alison Mackinnon, Stephen McKenzie and Jennifer McKay (ed.), Fresh Water: New Perspectives on Water in Australia, Melbourne University Press (an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing), Melbourne, Australia, p. 183.
  • Weir, J 2007, 'Native title and governance: the emerging corporate sector prescribed for native title holders', Land, Rights, Laws: Issues of Native Title, vol. 3, no. 9, pp. 1-12.
  • Morgan, M, Strelein, L & Weir, J 2006, 'Authority, Knowledge and Values: Indigenous Nations Engagement in the Management of Natural Resources in the Murray-Darling Basin', in Marcia Langton, Odette Mazel, Kathryn Shain, Lisa Palmer, Maureen Tehan (ed.), Settling With Indigenous People Modern treaty and agreement making, The Federation Press, Sydney.
  • Weir, J 2006, Making the connection between water and sustaining Indigenous cultural life, People, Practice and Policy.