DrNatali Pearson

Natali’s current research focus is her DECRA Fellowship, Sunken Warships: Heritage Diplomacy in Maritime Southeast Asia (2025-2027, DE250100827), which examines the politics of maritime war heritage in a region of strategic importance. This project addresses the political, social, and environmental challenges posed by World War II naval wrecks in Southeast Asian waters and will deliver a conceptual model of heritage governance dynamics in the 21st century, alongside new approaches to optimise global heritage policy.

She is also a Co-Investigator on the ARC Linkage project Reuniting Orphaned Cargoes: Underwater Cultural Heritage of the Maritime Silk Route (2022-2026, LP210200165) led by Associate Professor Martin Polkinghorne (Flinders University); Chief Investigator on the ASEAN–Australia Council project Interpreting Shared Histories through Southeast Asian Maritime Collections (2024, AAC2023-114); and a contributor to the ARC Linkage project Towards Formal-Sector Employment for People with Disability in Timor-Leste (2025-2028, LP240100311) led by Professor Michele Ford (The University of Sydney), where she is conducting research with Associate Professor Kim Bulkeley on accessible heritage tourism within the broader disability employment framework.

Previously, Natali led the Australia–Indonesia Institute project Collaborative Approaches to Capacity Building in Indonesian Maritime Archaeology (2020-2021, AII2020412) and has undertaken research on HMAS Perth (I), an Australian warship sunk in Indonesian waters in 1942, continuing to explore its legacy and community connections. She also maintains involvement in projects addressing ethics, provenance, and the illicit trafficking of underwater cultural heritage.