Queensland Museum is pleased to launch its second annual First Nations Fellowship. The Fellowship is generously supported by The Maria Vasas Foundation.
Learn more about Queensland Museum’s First Nations Fellowship and check your eligibility. Expressions of Interest close 11:59pm, Monday 25 August 2025.
Queensland Museum’s First Nations Fellowship is a professional development and research opportunity for an early career Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person working in, or aspiring to work in, the arts, cultural heritage, or galleries, libraries and museums (GLAM) sectors.
Delivered through a 12-month individually tailored program, the Fellowship supports the development of a research project that explores Queensland Museum’s collections and contributes to new knowledge. While the Fellow may focus on the Museum’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collections, they are also encouraged to explore other areas – such as the Biodiversity or Geosciences collections – where they can bring First Nations perspectives to the interpretation of objects, specimens, and data.
Access to collections across Queensland Museum sites will support three-way learning and knowledge sharing between the Fellow, Queensland Museum staff, and the Fellow’s community. This exchange facilitates contemporary interpretation of First Nations cultures and histories, while creating and documenting new insights into the Museum’s collections.
Applications for the 2026 First Nations Fellowship close on Monday 25 August at 11:59pm.
Collections
Queensland Museum is the custodian of rich and diverse collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artefacts, art and histories.
Queensland Museum acknowledges that First Nations peoples have rights to access, control and maintain their cultural heritage, also known as Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) rights.
With appropriate Community consultation and approvals, the Fellow will be supported to access collections that may have significance to their community. Through their research, the Fellow may uncover new information and perspectives that deepen and enrich our knowledge and understanding of the collection.
Collaboration
The Fellowship is grounded in principles of mutual learning and knowledge exchange. It encourages strong collaboration between Queensland Museum, the Fellow, and the Fellow’s Elders and communities. It is expected that the Fellow will share the outcomes of their research project with the communities to which the collection items are connected.
Connections
The Fellowship experience will include:
Queries
For queries about the First Nations Fellowship, please get in touch via email.
We expect the Fellowship to commence in November 2025 and run for 12 months. Research projects are self-paced.
Applications must be for a research project using Queensland Museum’s collections and should address:
1. Experience working with First Nations Communities and Cultural Heritage
Applicants should outline any prior experience working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities on cultural, heritage or creative projects, cultural programs or events.
Examples of skills, knowledge and experience could include:
2. The proposed research project
Applicants should outline the proposed research project and address:
3. Benefits of the Fellowship
The successful applicant will be notified in early October 2025 ahead of a public announcement on 30 October 2025.
Shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend an interview with the judging panel in late September 2025, either in-person or online.
You may request feedback.
You will have 12 months to complete your Fellowship.
During your Fellowship, you will be expected to complete some agreed deliverables (such as progress reports, blogs, staff and public presentations). You may also be required to deliver your stated outcomes.
No. Late applications will not be accepted.
The First Nations Fellowship stipend is $20,000.
Specific deliverables will be discussed and confirmed with the successful applicant prior to commencing their project. In general, the Fellow will be expected to:
Expenditure of stipend is at the discretion of the Fellow to support them during their project.
There is an expectation that some of your time will need to be spent onsite at Queensland Museum so you can access our diverse collections and staff expertise.
Yes. Induction will include workplace health and safety, building tour, collections access, and familiarisation with workspaces. You will also meet the First Nations team and other key Queensland Museum staff and receive a general orientation to begin your Fellowship project.
Yes. Anyone who meets the eligibility criteria can apply.
Yes. Applications are accepted from individuals or co-applicants (maximum of two individuals). Co-applicants will share the stipend.
Yes. Some of your time will need to be spent onsite at Queensland Museum so that you can access our collections and staff expertise. You will need to arrange and fund your travel to Queensland Museum.
Yes. Please indicate in your application what funding you have received, and what stage your project is at and how the additional funding will benefit the final outcome of the project.
Yes. Your project may be at the beginning or already in progress. Please indicate what stage your project is at in your application.
Yes. You must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and you must reside in Australia and be able to meet the deliverables of the Fellowship.
Please submit an Expression of Interest through the Queensland Museum website.
To apply you must be of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person and be accepted as such by the community in which you live or have lived.
Your application should address the selection criteria and include:
Through his Fellowship, Dylan’s research project focusses on understanding and repatriating the Burnett River Rocks from sites around Queensland. Dylan’s research will serve to uncover the little-known stories of these ancient petroglyphs which hold immense cultural and historical significance for the Gooreng Gooreng and Taribelang peoples.
Dylan says 'Stories and places are connected in ways still yet to be discovered. I choose to listen to the knowledge etched in the stone of long ago'.
He is involved in the research and development of cultural knowledge and practice, that can be shared with the wider community from where these stories take place. It is Dylan’s aim that all people can not only be intrigued by Indigenous culture, but they can also start to appreciate the role we all play in acknowledging First Nations people.
“In my Kooma Guwamu language, buyal means knowledge and nhubala, a term borrowed from English, means new. From a Kooma perspective, it’s a striking combination of words because knowledge is something that develops over deep time across many generations. It’s with that in mind that I have fashioned the term buyal nhubala for my Fellowship – weaving together old ways and new.
Buyal Nhubala will explore the Queensland Museum collections with a focus on my Kooma (Guwamu) culture. The project will help tell the story of people and Country, and our social experiences in other places like Barambah Mission and Brisbane’s World War II Camp Muckley.
Working with my Kooma community, I will build an understanding of what has been collected by the Museum and how to support future work with the Museum including possible repatriation. I am also approaching the Fellowship as a poet and writer of creative non-fiction, interpreting the collection through authentic storytelling that uncovers hidden histories of Kooma people.”
Expressions of interest close on Monday 25 August 2025 at 11:59pm. Late applications will not be accepted.
Before submitting your Expression of Interest, please read the information about Queensland Museum's First Nations Fellowship, including frequently asked questions.
In addition to this form, please remember to upload the following documents:
Apply by post
Address your application to:
Executive Director, First Nations
Queensland Museum
PO Box 3300
South Brisbane BC Q 4101 Australia
Queensland Museum commits to ensuring representation and respectfully showcasing the contributions and stories of Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islanders through our research, exhibitions and programming.
Explore Queensland Museum's reconciliation journey and our current Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
Find out about our cultural and natural collections and explore thousands of specimens and artefacts online.