Leah Lui-Chivizhe - Lecturer

Leah joined the Koori Centre in 1998 in a part-time teaching and research position before taking up a full time lectureship in 2000. She coordinates KOCR 2600: Introduction to Indigenous Australian, KOCR 2601: Indigenous Land and Culture and in semester 2, 2007 introduced a unit of study that examines Torres Strait Islander history: KOCR 2606: Torres Strait Histories and Experiences. Within the Bachelor of Education (Aboriginal) program, Leah is responsible for curriculum development and teaching in KCDE 1104: Researching Indigenous Communities and KCSE 3103: Indigenous Land and Culture.

She has worked in the area of adult education and training for close to 15 years and prior to joining the Koori Centre worked as a Management Consultant with Telstra, delivering cross cultural awareness training to the organization’s staff.

Leah has a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Linguistics, a Graduate Diploma in Material Anthropology and an MSc (Geography) from the University of Sydney.

Current Research

Islanders without islands: Identity construction and Torres Strait Islanders in Sydney
Leah’s MSc research draws on oral histories to examine how the migration of Torres Strait Islanders onto the Australian mainland impacted on their sense of themselves as Islanders. It explores how place and history have shaped Islanders’ constructions of themselves as ‘Torres Strait mainlanders’, as indigenous people and as Australians.

Laying the Tracks: Torres Strait Islander migration and labour in Northern Australia
In September 2007, Leah and colleague Dr Shino Konishi (ANU, Canberra) began work on the Laying the Tracks project. The study will examine the history of Torres Strait Islander involvement in the railway industry in Northern Australia from the 1950s to the 1970s. It will focus on experiences of migration to the mainland and the contribution of Islanders to the construction and maintenance of railways in Central Queensland, the Mt Isa to Townsville line and in the Pilbara region of northern Western Australia.

The Laying the Tracks website is under development.

Contact Details

Phone: (02) 9351 7005
Toll Free: 1800 622 742
Fax: (02) 9351 6924
Location: Room 316 Old Teachers College
leah@koori.usyd.edu.au