Linda Payi Ford

Biography

Associate Professor Linda Payi Ford, a Senior Research Fellow at the Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University (CDU), is a Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu woman from the Northern Territory, Australia. She holds a PhD in Education, and with over four decades of research and teaching, she specialises in advancing Indigenous knowledge and practice in academia and overcoming Indigenous disadvantage in fields such as Aboriginal health, housing, and education, currently focusing on climate change and environmental impacts on country and livelihoods. Ford has significant experience leading large projects, including three ARC-funded initiatives and the National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network. Her recent work involves collaborations focused on respiratory conditions and climate-related health impacts on Indigenous communities. With over 100 research outputs, Ford is highly regarded locally and internationally for her contributions and support for Indigenous communities worldwide, as well as her expert knowledge in education, health, and Indigenous knowledge.

Ford has developed and supported teaching and learning frameworks, as well as materials and resources for implementation in Indigenous policy, curriculum development, and delivery of higher education courses at CDU. Her research methodology, deeply grounded in her cultural identity, is known as the ‘cycad’ approach, which speaks to the parallels of processing pelanggu (the cycad fruit), which is not consumable without transformative processing, emphasising the transformative processing of knowledge in a way that respects Indigenous worldviews and supports collaborative and sustainable research design. Ford has successfully applied this approach to her research, outreach and impact work, including pedagogy, industry, policy writing and advising, and creating and sustaining community partnerships.