Resources and publications

This AGM roadmap has been updated to reflect the significant rule changes that have recently been made for virtual meetings. It remains a user-friendly tool that can be adapted to your entity’s specific needs. In addition to a clear list of deliverables, the roadmap provides you with a regulatory background for each step and prompts you to take action within automatically-generated deadlines.

Checklist to help prepare for large community meetings.

This paper explores how Indigenous community-based natural resource management can generate both conservation benefit and economic development opportunity. We begin by noting that much of the Indigenous estate in north Australia is either thinly populated or unpopulated. There is emerging evidence that, in situations where Indigenous people live on their country, ecological and wider benefits are generated via favourable fire regimes, control over weed infestations, and potentially through feral animal harvesting. When people are on country, they generate economic benefit for themselves by harvesting wildlife for consumption and engage with the market sector by using natural resources in commercial enterprise like arts and crafts production. We argue that there is a strong correlation between such activities and cost-effective natural resource management. Links between landcare, wildlife use and biodiversity conservation need to be recognized, celebrated and supported. The removal of many barriers to enhanced and innovative Indigenous participation in such activities, and equitable public support through programs like Landcare, will facilitate sustainable economic development options that are compatible with Indigenous priorities, while ameliorating Indigenous disadvantage.

This collection of papers examines the dilemmas and challenges involved in the Indigenous struggle for the development and recognition of systems of governance that they recognise as both legitimate and effective.

The Country Needs People campaign is fighting for the growth and security of opportunities for land and sea country management by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Report of a workshop held on Wednesday 4th June 2014 at the National Native Title Conference, Coffs Harbour, NSW, to map current and future research and resource needs for land and sea management.

This guidance offers suggestions reflecting the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and associated regulation. Companies will need to consider their individual circumstances, including their constitutions and any other relevant matters.

The recognition of native title in the Mabo decision has led to consideration and debate in the media and the Australian community over the content and scope of native title rights for hunting, fishing and the taking and using of resources.

This presentation will look at the content of these native title rights, and how they are understood and regulated, including the protections in section 211 of the Native Title Act, the effect of the decision in Yanner v Eaton (1999) 201 CLR 351, and how this interacts with other environmental management and threatened species legislation. It will then look forward to more recent recognition of commercial fishing and trading rights, as considered in Akiba on behalf of the Torres Strait Islanders of the Regional Seas Claim Group v Queensland (No 2) [2010] FCA 643 and Rrumburriya Borroloola Claim Group v Northern Territory of Australia [2016] FCA 776, how those rights can be demonstrated and their interaction with government regulation.

This report is based on the workshop, Implementing native title: Indigenous leadership in land and water livelihoods, held at the 2015 National Native Title Conference, 16-18 June, Port Douglas, Queensland. It details the ways several Indigenous communities from around Australia are implementing their rights and interests following the restitution of their land and sea territories.

This is the second research report by the Indigenous Community Governance Project (ICGP). The ICGP is exploring the nature of Indigenous community governance in Australia - to understand what works, what doesn’t work, and why. The first report, based on 2005 fieldwork, was published as CAEPR Working Paper No. 31/2006.

This report brings together findings from the fieldwork conducted during 2006, based on evidence drawn from case studies of Indigenous governance in action within differing community, geographical, cultural and political settings across the nation.

This paper draws on interviews with leaders of successful Aboriginal organisations to understand the factors behind the successes that they are achieving in their communities.

For native title holders, the ability to exercise native title rights for commercial purposes is crucial to full and meaningful participation in the social, cultural and economic life of Australia. This article examines the extent to which native title gives its holders the power to manage resources, govern their use and exploit them commercially.

Under the Native Title Act 1993, the Social Justice Commissioner is required to prepare a Native Title Report each year for federal Parliament. Through these reports the Commissioner gives a human rights perspective on native title issues and advocates for practical co-existence between Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups in using land.

This paper outlines two pilot case studies which examine how international development non-government organisations (INGOs) conduct their work with Aboriginal organisations and communities in Australia.

This handout offers some ways of thinking about grant proposals and advice about the process of  planning and writing a proposal. 

To assist community legal centres (CLCs) to meet the cultural safety standards in the National Accreditation Scheme (NAS), the National Association of Community Legal Centres (NACLC) has developed this Guide to assist NACLC and CLCs to improve the attraction, recruitment, support and retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in the sector. 

This paper sets out the methodological and conceptual framework for the Indigenous Community Governance (ICG) Project on Understanding, Building and Sustaining Effective Governance in Rural, Remote and Urban Indigenous Communities. The paper describes the Project’s research aims, questions, and techniques; explores key concepts; and discusses the ethnographic case-study and comparative approaches which form the core components of the methodological framework.

As an applied research project, the paper also considers the methodological issues inherent in participatory research, and for the dissemination and application of research findings within Indigenous and policy arenas. The framework draws on the multi-disciplinary expertise of the project team in areas such as anthropology, political science, demography, policy and legal studies, linguistics, and community development.

This guide provides some simple steps to plan a campaign.

New to business and not sure where to start? Starting your business checklist will help guide you through some important steps.

This paper presents a case study of an exercise in Aboriginal community governance. It sets out the background events that led the Yawuru Native Title Holders Aboriginal Corporation to secure information for its own needs as an act of self-determination and essential governance, and it presents some of the key findings from that exercise