Governance
Projects relating to governance are listed below.
Living Country, Working Country: A Sustainability Strategy for the Kimberley Region of Western Australia
Researcher: Steve Kinnane
The project will facilitate the investigation of sustainable occupation of country in the Kimberley region through documenting and critiquing past, present and planned developments within the region and their impact upon and relevance for Indigenous communities. This will involve negotiation with and investigation of the practices of Indigenous Land and Sea Management Units (LSMU) within the Northern Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA), The Kimberley Development Commission, and regional government and non-government development agencies. The project will investigate avenues by which Indigenous approaches to sustainable development of Country through culturally appropriate economies are operating in the region, and identify necessary strategies for the support and development of sustainable practices within the region that benefit Indigenous peoples and operate within Indigenous aspirations in regard to development in the region. It will evaluate the viability and efficacy of partnership projects, market-based projects and government-based Natural Resource Management (NRM) against mainstream sustainability principles, policies and movements, as well as identified Indigenous aspirations and visions for the region.
The project will result in an overall report titled ‘Living Country, Working Country: A Sustainability Strategy for the Kimberley Region of Western Australia’, comprising five sections ( a Regional Sustainability Discussion Paper, case studies of bioregional areas of saltwater country, desert country and freshwater country, and draft sustainability strategy for the region).
Culture, Management and Governance in Indigenous Communities and Organisations
Researcher: Patrick Sullivan
This has been an ongoing field of interest since research for the monograph All Free Man Now. Recent contributions to this field have been Indigenous Governance: the Harvard Project on Native American Economic Development and Appropriate Principles of Governance for Aboriginal Australia, Reciprocal Accountability: Assessing the Accountability Environment in Australian Aboriginal Affairs Policy and Bureaucratic Process as Morris Dance: an Ethnographic Approach to the Culture of Bureaucracy in Australian Aboriginal Affairs Administration.
Public and Community Sector Governance in Indigenous Affairs Administration
Researcher: Patrick Sullivan
This case study is a component of the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre's project Desert Services that Work. It aims to increase understanding of the service delivery environment in remote communities. It investigates government and community sector service providers and their clients. Is major focus will be on concrete proposals for achieving effective service delivery in arid areas within the new mainstreaming of Australian Indigenous Affairs. By investigating the 'human factor' in Indigenous development organisations, which are in the process of adapting to the needs of this fundamentally new policy, the project aims to contribute positively to new regional arrangements meeting Aboriginal needs. The project is developing in cooperation with the Ngaanyatjarra Council and the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku.