The Royal Society of Tasmania
National Science Week 2020
Working on Water: Celebrating women in marine science

Saturday 15th August.

Aired on Edge Radio 99.3FM 2-4pm and released on the RST YouTube channel and wherever you get your podcast.

For National Science Week 2020, the Royal Society of Tasmania secured $2,000 in grant funding from the Tasmanian National Science Week committee for a project profiling four women in marine science. New RST Council member Niamh Chapman led the project in collaboration with the team she directs at That’s What I Call Science.

We are excited to produce local and national radio, podcast and video content from the interviews as well as worksheets on the topic for children. The featured guests were invited to demonstrate the diversity of opportunities for careers in marine science including in industry and research.

Featured guests include:

Claire Butler – Marine Solutions Tasmania. After completing an Honours degree in seaweed ecology, Claire held multiple research assistant jobs at research institutions. Her role in these positions was focused on making existing spatial data (e.g. habitat maps) available to the public for communication and use in scientific (and other) pursuits.

A/Prof Mary-Anne Lea from IMAS, UTAS. Dr Mary-Anne Lea is an Associate Professor at the Ecology and Biodiversity Centre at the Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania. She is interested in the way in which the environment and climate change affect the behaviour, distribution and life history of marine and polar vertebrates.

Mibu Fisher, CSIRO. Mibu is an early career marine ethnoecologist within the multi-use ecosystems tropical coastal group, in CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere, in Brisbane. She is an Aboriginal scientist with engagement skills for strengthening partnerships between First Nations communities and the research sector. Her specific interests are around Traditional Knowledge (science) and management practices being considered within modern day fisheries, coastal and conservation management.

Megan Hartog, CSIRO. Megan completed a degree in marine science at the Australian Maritime College. Her Honours project uncovered soft coral communities in the lower Tamar Estuary. Megan worked for several years in natural resource management, which included regular water quality monitoring in the Tamar. Megan then joined CSIRO Marine National Facility as a Voyage Operations Manager, where she is involved in organising research voyages on the blue-water research vessel, RV Investigator.

Worksheets (with answers here) include artwork from local artist Josh Pringle and sea country artwork by Brisbane-based Aboriginal artist Shara Delaney. Shara also provided a story to accompany the artwork based on Tasmanian marine life.

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF TASMANIA

Memo to Members

Thursday 2 July 2020

Dear Members, 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the office bearers and Council members have worked very hard to keep the Society thriving. We are offering a vibrant program of online lectures via Zoom webinar, and recordings of these can be viewed on our newly established YouTube channel here. We have an exciting project in the pipeline for National Science Week: RST Council member Niamh Chapman is heading up a team to record a series of podcasts for our YouTube channel. This is a great way to share fascinating science with the community, and another first for our Society.

Restrictions on room occupancy mean we are not yet able to hold in-person lectures in our lecture room, but the RST office is open on Wednesday mornings for phone or in-person enquiries and sales of merchandise.

A highlight of the RST year is the launch of the annual calendar, and the 2021 edition is particularly beautiful. We extend grateful thanks to Dr Margaret Davies OAM for her work in compiling this. The images of artworks by Simpkinson de Wesselow come from paintings held in the Royal Society of Tasmania collection on loan to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The calendar features scenes of northern Tasmania in honour of the centenary of the Northern Branch of our Society, which will be celebrated next year.

We are continuing to do our utmost to fulfil the Society’s mission of ‘advancing knowledge.’ Papers are now being sought for our Papers and Proceedings – please consider contributing a paper, and encouraging your friends and colleagues to do likewise. Nominations are now open for the Peter Smith Medal – do you know an outstanding early career researcher you could nominate for this award? Bursaries to secondary students continue to be offered, and the Doctoral Awards will be advertised a little later in the year.

I extend very warm thanks to all the members who have supported our Society by renewing their membership during the pandemic, and we have been extremely pleased to welcome new members each month.

Please email me if you have any queries: [email protected]

Yours sincerely, 

Mary Koolhof
President
The Royal Society of Tasmania

by Professor Greg Lehman
Co-Chair, RST Aboriginal Engagement Committee

On Wednesday, 4 December 2019, the University of Tasmania became the first learned institution in Tasmania to offer a formal apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people.​ ​

Vice Chancellor, Professor Rufus Black, marked the day as one on which “… we reflect on the parts of our past we are not proud of …a moment for humility, truth-telling, pain and accountability.” Broadly welcomed by Aboriginal people and positively reflected on across Tasmanian media, the University’s apology was offered in response to over a century of disrespectful treatment of Aboriginal people by the academy. “For too long the histories we taught hid the true story of war and genocidal behaviour. For too long the wisdom of Aboriginal people was not thought worthy of our academy,” Prof Black said.​

During 2019, the Royal Society of Tasmania has made substantial progress toward the development of its own Apology. Like the University of Tasmania, the Society was also involved in research and treatment of Aboriginal ancestral remains that is now recognised as disrespectful and has contributed to ongoing hurt being felt by today’s Aboriginal people. The development of the Society’s Apology has been a painstaking one, involving independent commissioned research and close examination of Society​ records to ensure that an accurate and objective assessment could be made of a range of activities that impacted on Aboriginal people. The Society’s approach has been to thoroughly account for the decisions and actions that it should take responsibility for and to better understand the context of those actions.​

An Aboriginal Engagement Committee jointly chaired by Prof Matt King and Prof Greg Lehman worked under close direction of the RST Council to produce two discussion papers and reports to Members during 2019, outlining key issues considered by the Apology process, and identifying a number of recommended actions to accompany a formal Statement of Apology.​

Following a special meeting of the Council on 19 December 2019, a draft Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people has now been produced. This was recently presented for confidential consideration by the Aboriginal Advisory Council of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, which is also developing its own apology. It was agreed that the RST and TMAG would work cooperatively to plan an event at which both institutions would present their respective statements. Similar consultation will also be held with the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery’s Aboriginal Reference Group to ensure that sensitive matters involved in the Apology are dealt with appropriately and respectfully. Further information will be provided to Members of the Society when the Apology is finalised and a date for its announcement is set.

Reproduced from the April, 2020 RST Newsletter.