Creative Technologist. Designer. Saltwater Woman.#
Angie Abdilla is a Professor at the School of Cybernetics. She is a palawa woman who works with Indigenous knowledges and systems in technology.
She started out studying film, making documentaries, and video art before witnessing the dramatic change of storytelling mediated through the internet and the various resulting platforms. This divergence sparked a shift in her focus, to the tools being central components of the story’s telling and experience.
Angie’s research interests reside in the complexity and sophistication of Indigenous Knowledge systems, how they shaped ancient technologies, and their capacity to inform new technologies that embody a spirit and connection to Country. She prioritises a Two-Way learning approach to all research activities and has published on these topics. Furthermore, her research intersects with her creative practice, incorporating art and film works utilising rich visual and oral storytelling, the use of Artificial Intelligence and realised through transdisciplinary formats.
She is the founder and Director of Old Ways, New. Over the past decade, she and her team created the methodology, Country Centered Design, supporting a cultural process to research, community engagement, and strategic design for technology product development. During this time the team utilised CCD in the consultancy to produce services and products for the private and public sectors spanning the continent.
Angie co-founded the Indigenous Protocols and Artificial Intelligence working group (IP//AI). She is a member of the Scientific Council of the Association of AI Ethicists (AAIE), CSIRO Data61 Advisory Group, the National AI Centre Think Tank, and has been a member of the Global Futures Council on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity as part of the World Economic Forum in 2022.