Professor Graeme Hugo
Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Adelaide, and Director of GISCA, the National Centre for Social Applications of Geographical Information Systems, is oversaw the development of the computer database and the application of the GIS data; he supervised Andrew Fyfe (see below) as a post-graduate student in his department and as a post-doc University Research Associate. Professor Hugo died 20 January 2015 (see News).
Dr Barry Craig
Senior Curator of Foreign Ethnology, South Australian Museum, provided overall liaison for the research team and the participating institutions and individuals, is assisted with the coding and analysis of the data, and closely supervised Andrew Fyfe.
Dr Andrew Fyfe
Enrolled as a PhD candidate in Professor Hugo’s department at the University of Adelaide 2004. He developed a data collection strategy and travelled to the various institutions and private collectors to record the ethnographic data for the study area. He also determined and applied the statistical methodology to the dataset and interpreted the results of the analyses. In March 2009, he was awarded a PhD for his thesis on the project (on-line at: https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/handle/2440/53352 ).
Previously, Andrew held the position of Research Consultant for Pre-Columbian Art at the National Gallery of Australia between 2000-2003. This followed an internship in the Department of Aboriginal Art at the National Gallery in 1999 during which he was encouraged to study the Pre-Columbian collections by Wally Caruana. He was awarded an Ian Potter Grant to undertake a cultural exchange program in Peru in 2002. He has kept an interest in this field and has made a number of contributions since his internship. Currently, Andrew is a Data Analyst at the Commonwealth Department of Employment.
Professor Andrew Pawley
Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, provided the most up-to-date knowledge of the languages in the region under study.
Dr Bryant Allen
Department of Human Geography, RSPAS, ANU, provided the relevant data for population, agricultural systems and environment.
Jack and Jill Bolton
Both now retired, Jack taught Art and Design and specialized in teaching Aboriginal and Oceanic Art at matriculation level. Jill, an avid spinner, weaver, dyer and knitter, worked in the Mining and Exploration industry and both traveled in PNG and Oceania collecting examples of the arts and crafts. Involvement with the project began after Andrew Fyfe sought Jill’s expertise in braiding and weaving. Together they have identified several classes of looping and braiding techniques. Since then Jack and Jill have been personally responsible for recreating some of the techniques used in looping string bags and binding arrows. Jill has been co-author with Andrew Fyfe of papers arising from this research.