'Many talented women in Canberra': feminist scholar humbled by honour

The professor from Watson is the fourth generation of tertiary-educated women in her family, a highly uncommon achievement for women from Indian backgrounds, she said.

"I am the follower of a great tradition of women in my family, who have fought for the emancipation of women," she said.

Her great-grandmother was one of the first female graduates from University of Calcutta in 1887.

Drawing "energy" from her, the Australian National University academic has spent 20 years studying disadvantaged people in developing countries.

She is most passionate about her research which helped improve the lives of thousands, from landless Indian women who toil at home and on farms owned by male family members, to female artisanal tin miners in Laos and Papua New Guinea whose livelihoods have been disrupted by mining companies.

"I would say that my research has ... given an understanding of what is going on in rural areas in the world," Professor Lahiri-Dutt said.

Recommendations from her studies have guided institutions like the World Bank and the United Nations to take important steps and fund those communities.

She said natural resource management was an issue affecting some of the poorest sections of society which also struggled with gender equality.

Numerous such case studies have been brought into the spotlight by the professor's efforts.

For her contributions to these fields, and tertiary education, Prof Lahiri-Dutt has been honoured as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). "I feel very happy. But I'm also humbled by this honour because I am an ordinary woman. I do not have fancy degrees," she said.

"I'm just one of the many talented women in Canberra who are doing fantastic stuff ... [they] are still waiting to be recognised and that is my next task."

The professor said her AO honour was a recognition of women without decision-making powers.

"This award is for them and for my feminist friends and colleagues who work in this area," she said.

Prof Lahiri-Dutt's next project will be a written record of oral testimonies. Her book will aim to capture the experiences of Indigenous people who were displaced by goldmining in Jharkhand, in northern India, between 2001 and 2021.