Paper short abstract:

We describe the way PNG researchers have negotiated the differences between citizenship and indigeneity when working on a project concerning how the PNG community living in North Queensland look after the elderly. We also outline how other PNG community members deal with the same kinds of issues.

Paper long abstract:

This paper outlines the types of identification that emerged when a team of researchers with PNG affiliations, and multiple links to Australian families, worked on a project outlining how members of the PNG community in North Queensland cared for the elderly both in Australia and in PNG. We outline the complexity of the team's affiliations and indicate how such affiliations worked with, against and around, claims based on citizenship and indigeneity. We explore such processes by showing how some of the team's social relationships were transformed while working on the project. We argue these changes in the team's relationships of belonging were similar to those found among the wider PNG community in North Queensland.