Abstract
Grounded in relations, geared for impact: An ethics of care and responsibility in Indigenous Futures research
As the first Indigenous-led ARC Centre of Excellence, the Indigenous Futures Centre (IFC) carries the hopes and expectations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for unbound futures. Now emerging from its establishment phase, the IFC advances an Indigenous ethics of care through its research. The approach is grounded in relations, responsibility, reciprocity and self-determination. It challenges dominant research paradigms that prioritise speed, scale and outputs over people, process and place. Instead, the Centre holds to relational accountability, recognising that knowledge is produced within networks of obligation: to Country, to Ancestors to Community and to future generations. Care, in this context, is methodological and ethical; and is foundational to achieving outcomes that honour the past, are meaningful in the present and sustainable over time.
By prioritising responsibility over authority, working at a pace that honours consent and story, and designing research that has intergenerational value, the IFC fosters long-term impact, not just through policy and systems change, but also through deep, enduring relationships with Indigenous people and communities and beyond. The approach is about doing research differently, with greater depth and integrity. It ensures that research does not merely generate knowledge but also contributes to structural transformation and lasting benefit. The panel will provide an overview of the IFC and explore how an Indigenous ethics of care and responsibility underpins its research approach, laying the foundations for sustainable, impactful outcomes in Indigenous futures.