Exploring engagement between Indigenous communities and government: lessons for Country management

Exploring engagement between Indigenous communities and government: lessons for Country management Thesis

Fenner School of Environment and Society

• Author(s): Anderson-Smith, B
• Published: 2008
• Publisher: ANU
• Volume: Honours thesis, Bachelor of Arts (Development Studies) with Human Geography

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Abstract: This thesis explores engagement between Indigenous communities and governments in the Australian context of Country management. Country management describes a blend of Indigenous caring for Country approaches and mainstream natural resource management activities. Engagement refers to interactions and negotiations between Indigenous people and governments, in particular how each tries to communicate with the other and how power dynamics and historical legacies play into this. This qualitative examination of engagement utilises interviews with researchers and practitioners as well as an extensive review of the literature. Assumptions about communities are challenged. Romantic ideals of a homogenous united group are rejected. Instead, I argue for the need to develop an appreciation of the heterogeneous range of individuals caught in ongoing struggles for power and influence. Engagement is about effective and meaningful, two-way interaction. Representation, participation and consultation are examined as different means of engagement, each offering stakeholders differing levels of control over negotiation processes. It is argued that each party has an interest in engaging with the other: Indigenous communities need assistance in dealing with new Country management problems; while governments need Indigenous support to expand and manage the conservation estate. Each party’s understandings and expectations of engagement are explored revealing insights into the frequent miscommunication that occurs at the engagement interface. Examples of engagement processes are examined. Firstly, how Indigenous people have been incorporated into non-Indigenous engagement processes historically, highlighting the one-way intercultural dialogue that has characterised interactions and negotiations from nineteenth century King plates to the 2007 Northern Territory Emergency Response. This is contrasted to various contemporary examples of strategic choices Indigenous people are making to engage at a variety of spatial levels, from Country planning to regional organisations like NAILSMA, MLDRIN and Congress. These contemporary engagement processes reveal interesting choices Indigenous communities are making to provide legitimacy for both stakeholders; securing legitimacy for Indigenous people by working within contemporary Indigenous governances, while often operating as incorporated bodies to provide assurance for governments. It is argued that effective engagement has a variety of elements. Effective engagement: 1. occurs in a true intercultural space that is sensitive to Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of ‘doing business’; 2. provides options for people to participate according to their interest and capacity; 3. is built on relationships providing foundations of trust and respect; 4. is aware of power dynamics both within and between parties; 5. develops a working understanding of the expectations of each party and is therefore able to ensure engagement processes are legitimate for everyone; and 6. takes place at a level of spatial scale relevant for each party.

• Urls: http://www.nintione.com.au/resource/DKCRC-Student_Bronwyn-Anderson-Smith_Exploring-engagement-between-Indigenous-communities-and-government_lessons-for-Country-management.pdf, https://web.archive.org/web/20180405122922/http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/resource/DKCRC-Student_Bronwyn-Anderson-Smith_Exploring-engagement-between-Indigenous-communities-and-government_lessons-for-Country-management.pdf
• Publisher Location: Canberra
• Keywords: thesis, Honours, engagement, community, government, management