Dr Petra Buergelt

Petra is an Assistant Professor at the University of Canberra, Faculty of Health (Psychology). She is also a Sylff Fellow Ryoichi Sasakwa Young Leaders Fellowship, Tokyo & Nippon Foundation), a member of the International Transformative Learning Association Leadership Committee, a Research Fellow at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research (Massey University, NZ), and an International Associate at the Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research (Victoria University, NZ).

Petra’s research interest is human adaptation and transformation. She is specialising in employing qualitative research to gain a holistic and in-depth understanding of the individual and contextual factors and processes that empower humans effectively managing and even thriving in the face of change, uncertainty and adversity. In particular, Petra is passionate about contributing to restoring humans living in harmonious relationships with nature, self and others by creating a philosophical paradigm shift from Western worldviews to Indigenous worldviews, and the revival of Indigenous knowledges and cultural practices.

To this end, Petra is enthusiastically conducting and supervising research projects that utilise transformative pathways on the nexus of Indigenous worldviews, knowledges and practices; disaster risk reduction; climate change adaptation; and travel/migration. 2014 to 2016, Petra was the principal researcher for an innovative consortia project with six remote Australian Indigenous communities in Northern Australia. This project was funded by the Australian Commonwealth with $12.4 million and awarded several awards including the NAIDOC 2016 Award for the Best Environmental Project. Since the end of 2017, Petra has been co-leading an international, interdisciplinary and intersectorial team that is co-creating and co-implementing an Indigenist research program that aims at facilitating Indigenous Australian and Taiwanese communities exchanging knowledges, skills and cultural practices to strengthen Indigenous peoples and (re)building their adaptive capacities. This program uses Indigenous ecological-cultural exchange and arts to accomplish these aims. So far, she has authored and co-authored over 70 publications (h-index 8), has a shared research grant income of over $2.39 million and has been awarded numerous fellowships and scholarships for her innovate research. Petra is also serving as an editorial board member of the International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches and Disaster Communication.

Petra is passionately committed to strengthening Indigenous peoples and communities; building greater understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal worldviews, knowledges and culture through research and education; and contributing to harmonious relationships between Aboriginal peoples and non-Indigenous peoples in Australian and globally.