ABSTRACT
Child environment researchers span a number of disciplines, often applying an inter or transdisciplinary perspective across the arts, sciences, humanities, and social sciences. The fields of architecture, environmental psychology, ecological psychology and in part, anthropology have informed the transdisciplinary perspective taken in this study on Aboriginal children and their local environment. This chapter examines that transactionally orientated research is in many ways congruent with transdisciplinary research, supports holistic investigations into people environment relationships, informs and guides specific theoretical approaches. A convergent approach applied throughout this study is the functional approach, which is particularly relevant to ecological psychology and can add theoretical rigor and direction to the exploration of children's environmental place use and experiences. More recently, research into the lives of Australian Aboriginal children was sparked by a government inquiry into the protection of Aboriginal children from sexual abuse.
