Resources and publications

This report is the final report resulting from the federal parliamentary inquiry into the destruction of the Juukan Gorge Aboriginal heritage sites by Rio Tinto on 24 May 2020. This tragic event, and the national condemnation of the actions of Rio Tinto, has sparked action to address the legislative failings that allowed the destruction of the Juukan Gorge sites–and similar sites around the nation. The Juukan Gorge disaster is just one example of countless instances where cultural heritage has been the victim of the drive for development and commercial gain. The report makes a number of recommendations aimed at preventing future destruction.

This template can be used to establish a plain English Code of Conduct for board members or your general PBC staff.

This board induction checklist provides a downloadable template for your PBC to formalise the induction process of new board members. It contains suggestions on documents to be included in an induction kit and when and by whom the new board is inducted. 

This information sheet provides brief information about materials relating to native title compensation research.

ORIC newsletter about CEO accountability. 

This resource provides guidance and important questions for organisations to consider when establishing an archive of their own. It includes what an archive is, why archives are important, what can go in an archive, and outlines steps which could be taken to set up an archive.  Links to other resources and contacts are also contained in the booklet.

The Good Governance Guide is a practical resource for anyone involved in the decision-making process in Victoria’s local government sector. It focuses on the areas where good governance has the most impact and offers suggestions for how it can work.

This discussion paper presents the issues faced in Australia for the protection and management of Indigenous Knowledge. 

The topic 'Leadership' from the Indigenous Governance Toolkit has seven sections,

1. Leadership for governance
2. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership
3. The challenges of leadership
4. Evaluating your leadership
5. Youth leadership and succession planning
6. Building leadership capacity to govern
7. Case studies

This publication reports on the proceedings of a two-day national workshop on the use and security of cultural and other information accumulated through the native title claims process, which was held at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra on 16–17 March 2015. It provides an overview of the most significant factors affecting the capacity of native title organisations to manage, secure and provide appropriate access to their holdings of native title information.

The Mornington Island Restorative Justice (MIRJ) Project has worked with families to establish a community-based alternative dispute resolution (mediation or peacemaking) service inclusive of Island culture and conforming to the requirements of the criminal justice system.

A key purpose of the plan was to better educate government and nongovernment agencies, researchers and the wider Australian public on Ngarrindjeri connection to Country and their associated rights and obligations to Yarluwar-Ruwe. 

Ourcommunity.com.au provides useful resources for succession planning in Not-for-Profit organisations. 

This website details the changes and processes of the board, staffing, and donors, whilst also covering topics on documentation, recruitment, and induction.

ORIC newsletter about the role of the CEO

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. 

The National Native Title Conference 2016 (the conference) was co-convened by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) and the Northern Land Council, and hosted by the Larrakia people in Darwin, Northern Territory, 1-3 June 2016.

With the success of past Indigenous talking circles, such as the men’s and women’s circles at the conference each year, and a growing level of recognition of the importance and value of Indigenous youth voices in the native title sector, this year’s conference program became host to the inaugural Indigenous youth forum.

The forum, comprising two talking circles held on the first and last day of the conference, aimed to maximise the potential attendance of conference delegates under the age of 35 years. The forum was facilitated by Natalie Rotumah, CEO of NTSCorp, and attended by 24 delegates from the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Also in attendance was Professor Taiaiake Alfred, international keynote speaker and Professor of Indigenous Governance and Political Science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Professor Alfred led discussions around cultural resurgence and confidence and provided an international perspective on the issues discussed by the delegates, using his extensive experience advising First Nations governments on Indigenous land, governance and youth issues. The delegates shared their native title experiences and aspirations, and examined the barriers to their participation in the native title sector. The delegates then explored ways of overcoming the barriers to achieve increased youth involvement in the sector.

Taungurung Land and Waters Council and AIATSIS collaboratively produced a decision-making guide for Taungurung people to use in governance.

The guide contains practical information on:

• Compliance and legal requirements
• Decision-making models
• Separation of powers
• Conflicts of interest
• Subsidiarity
• Cultural governance

The guide is of practical use for Taungurung Land and Waters Council in governance, assisting communication and engagement, inducting new board members, and managing disagreements about procedures and policies.

It will also be of interest to other Indigenous corporations that are working on their own decision-making structures, processes and models, particularly native title Prescribed Bodies Corporate (PBCs) and other traditional owner corporations.

In this award-winning work Carlson explores the complexities surrounding Aboriginal identity today. Drawing on a range of historical and research literature, interviews and surveys, The politics of identity explores Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal understandings of Aboriginality and the way these are produced and reproduced across a range of sites and contexts.

Emphasising Indigenous debates and claims about Aboriginality, The politics of identity explores both the community and external tensions around appropriate measures of identity and the pressures and effects of identification. An analysis of online Indigenous communities on social media that have emerged as sites of contestation adds to the growing knowledge in this area, both nationally and globally.

This is a brave and personal contribution to the often vexed subject of Aboriginal identity and offers a distinctive and fresh line of analysis.

A large and profitable Indigenous heritage management industry has emerged in the wake of the resources boom of recent decades, with thousands of Indigenous heritage impact assessments conducted every year. Yet few governments have successfully reformed heritage laws to accommodate native title rights, and conflict over site destruction is regularly front page news.

The right to protect sites brings together a range of authors who explore native title and Indigenous heritage regimes around the country, and charts the history of advocacy and policy development, highlighting the successes, limitations, inequalities and opportunities of current arrangements.

Short factsheet about succession planning for Aboriginal Organisations