Dr Kellie Pollard is a Wiradjuri Koori archaeologist, lecturer and Research Fellow at the Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University. Dr Pollard's current research interests are developing interface models of Indigenous epistemologies (ways of knowing), ontologies (ways of being), and axiologies (ways of doing) in collaboration with Indigenous communities in Australia for archaeological research on Country. Her work theorises Indigenous research philosophy and methodologies of knowledge-making to guide non-Indigenous researchers in how to help co-design place-based, local community self-determination of Indigenous intellectual sovereignty in research.

Kellie Pollard is Co-Lead of the Australian Hub of the Centre for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CIBKS), a USD$30 million initiative hosted by the University of Massachusetts and funded by the United
States National Science Foundation.  This international collaboration connects 57 Indigenous communities across eight international hubs in the US, Canada, Aotearoa and Australia and is dedicated to the meaningful integration of Indigenous and Western scientific knowledge systems.

Kellie served as Deputy Academic Secretary of the 10th World Archaeological Congress (WAC-10), held in Darwin in June 2025, which had 3,413 participants (2,294 in person and 1,119 online) and provided financial support for the in-person participation of 1050 participants from 80 countries, and for Global Regional Hubs in eight countries.

Her wider interests include Indigenous-Australian contact archaeology; Indigenous archaeology; historical archaeology; emancipation research methods; truth-telling Australian history and treaty-making. Kellie Pollard received her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 2008 from Charles Darwin University and a PhD in Archaeology in 2019 from Flinders University. On International Women's Day 2024 the Australian Academy of the Humanities listed her as one of the "Ten women in archaeology you should know about”.

ARC GRANTS

2022 $1,760,680 Indigenist archaeology. Kellie Pollard, Claire Smith, Liam Brady, Nicholas Bullot, Craig Taylor. IN220100079.

2020 $717,566 Before Cook: Contact, Negotiation and the Archaeology of the Tiwi Islands. DP200100559

2010 $158,000 Archaeology in the longrass: Aboriginal fringe camps. Kellie Pollard, Claire Smith, Heather Burke. DI100100297.

OTHER MAJOR GRANTS

2023-2028 USD $29,781,415 Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledge and Science. National Science Foundation, Science and Technology Center Grant. Sonya Atalay, Principal Investigator. Hosted by the University of Massachusetts. (Funding in U.S. dollars, renewable for an additional 5 years $30 million). 2243258/VGJHK59NMPK9.

MAJOR COLLABORATIONS

Deputy Academic Secretary, 10th World Archaeological Congress (WAC-10), Darwin, 2025

Australian Hub Co-Lead Partner of the University of Massachusetts based Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CIBKS) funded by the United States National Science Foundation awarded grant of USD $30,000,000

Pollard, K. and N. Bullot. 2020. Truth-telling Seminar Series, College of Indigenous Futures, Arts and Society. Charles Darwin University.

Pollard, K., Bullot, N., and A. Sefton-Rowston. 2020. Digital Arts Northern Territory (DANT) initiative Charles Darwin University

Pollard, K,. and L. Ray. 2022. Decolonization and Place (Unit INDI 4010FA/SOCJ 5011FA/AIS 403/AIS 523). Charles Darwin University and Lakehead University online teaching.

PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS

Australian Research Council College of Experts (current)

Indigenous archaeology; historical archaeology; contact archaeology; Indigenous/Australian history; Indigenous research methodologies; Indigenous epistemologies, ontologies, axiologies; Indigenous knowledges, philosophies; Indigenous research ethics; Indigenous capacity building/self-determination in research; truth-telling; treaty making; Indigenous political representation; and Ethnography; Social science; Sociology; Philosophy; Social justice.