The Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) and
Desert
Knowledge
Australia (DKA) are sister organisations that have grown out of
the Desert Knowledge movement.
They represent the efforts of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
people of desert Australia to develop sustainable desert
economies.
Both are national organisations with offices in Alice Springs,
and are governed by independent boards.
DKA is a cross-border organisation that builds networks and
partnerships across desert Australia for an economic and socially
sustainable future. Its networks extend into every state and
territory with a remote or desert region, from Kalgoorlie, Mt Isa,
Alice Springs, Broken Hill to Port Augusta.
DKA’s Linked Business Network project is supported by the
Desert Knowledge CRC, and helps desert businesses from across
Australia to network, share information, build critical mass and
develop joint business opportunities.
Another project, the Desert Knowledge Australia COOLmob, raises
awareness of energy efficiency in Alice Springs.
DKA is funded by the Northern Territory Government and supported
by the Australian Government.
A bit of history ....
During the 1990s Central Australian desert people began to
realise that their knowledge of living and working in desert
Australia was valuable. They believed that developing this
knowledge, both ancient and recent, could help to improve the
livelihoods of desert people everywhere.
The Desert Knowledge ‘movement’ was born in 2000,
when community and government formed the Desert Knowledge Steering
Committee. Desert Knowledge Australia (DKA) became a statutory
corporation in 2003. It set out to build on people’s desert
knowledge by creating a research organisation linking the best of
Aboriginal knowledge with the best of Western science.
DKA won a bid to the federal Cooperative Research Centre Program
to fund a Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). In
July 2003, the Desert Knowledge CRC began to operate as a national
research network with partners nationwide and a small secretariat
in Alice Springs.
From 2007, the Desert Knowledge CRC, Desert Knowledge Australia,
and the Desert Peoples Centre (formerly the Centre for Appropriate
Technology and Batchelor Institute for Indigenous Tertiary
Education) will be co-located at the new Desert Knowledge Precinct
on the southern outskirts of Alice Springs.
