To paraphrase Wellin and Fine (2001: 323): ‘Whatever else it might be, anthropology is work.’ In this seminar, Dr. Eddie McDonald shares his extensive experience as a working anthropologist, largely outside of academia, focusing on applied work over a career spanning more than 47 years.

Dr. McDonald’s career encompasses a wide range of research and policy areas, including welfare service delivery, Aboriginal housing and homelessness, juvenile justice, foster care, day care, team design and skill formation in heavy industry, worker participation, community relations, community development, Aboriginal heritage, and Native Title. His career is marked by various forms of precarity, initially with short-term contracts and later as a consulting anthropologist. He has worked both solo and as part of anthropological and multidisciplinary teams.

His applied work has involved producing knowledge and reports aimed at practical outcomes or providing expert and policy advice to various government, Indigenous and non-Indigenous NGOs, and private sector organisations. Throughout his career, Dr. McDonald often felt like a stone skipping over deep pools of knowledge as he continually sought to gain competency and skills across diverse substantive areas. He will explore issues related to skilling up, learning by doing, and managing commercial consultancy enterprises, particularly in the latter part of his career.