Crossing the Green Sea: maritime mobility, trans-oceanic interaction and remote island colonisation in the tropical Indian Ocean

澳大利亚是一个印度洋国家。了解我们的印度洋邻国，包括马尔代夫和塞舌尔等小岛屿国家，在战略和政治上都是重要的。研究他们的历史是这个过程的一部分。在澳大利亚和其他印度洋学者之间建立合作研究能力，发表研究成果，将其纳入教育课程，并在澳大利亚保持印度洋学术专业知识的储备库，这对国家和社区都有好处。此外，关于人类殖民历史和人类对脆弱环境的影响的研究成果对澳大利亚作为一个岛国将具有重要意义。

Australia is an Indian Ocean nation. It is strategically and politically important to understand our Indian Ocean neighbours, including small island nations such as the Maldives and Seychelles. Researching their history is part of this process. Building a collaborative research capacity between Australian and other Indian Ocean scholars, publishing the results of research, building them into educational curricula, and maintaining a pool of Indian Ocean scholarly expertise in Australia is a national and community benefit. In addition, research results on the history of human colonisation and human impact on vulnerable environments will be significant to Australia as an island nation.