Resources and publications

Guide to developing a corporation's vision, preamble, guiding principles and objectives.

The Prescribed Body Corporate (PBC) research snapshot series has been developed to share findings from the Native Title Research Unit’s (NTRU) investigation into the constitutions and financial reports of PBCs. This research forms part of the PBC Capability project which aims to develop a long-term national picture of the PBC sector. This snapshot provides an overview of the main findings from this research and identifies key areas where PBCs have adapted their constitutions from the default rules offered by the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC).

ORIC newsletter about making changes to a corporation rulebook (constitution)

ORIC newsletter about the separation of roles in a corporation.

Outlining the requirements for keeping a register of members.

This report of the discussion, which considered current practice for the treatment of connection material and other documents collected in the claim process, forms part of the 2005 Native Title Conference.

In April-May 2005, the Native Title Research and Access Officer, Ms Grace Koch conducted a survey of NTRBs to find out about current storage practices and plans for the future of documents that have been either collected or generated by the native title process.

In June 2006, representatives from 13 NTRBs met in Canberra to discuss databases and the needs of their organisations for collection management practices. Through this report, a list of ideal fields of information was drawn up along with some guidelines for access of native title material. Several NTRBs have used the information from this workshop to design their own databases.

Presentation provided to the Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC) training workshop for native title anthropologists. It gives an overview of the three year project, its case studies, challenges and results. 

On the 14th May 2019 AIATSIS visited YMAC to discuss the process of returning native title materials from their perspective. This summary concerns the second field trip, to the RRKAC office for the receiving parties’ point of view. 

This report presents a summary of a two-day workshop on 14-15 May 2019 at the Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC) office in Perth.

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.

The native title process has created valuable research resources assembled during the claim research. Although some of this material has come from other sources, the arrangement of the documents coupled with original field research gives a unique description of Indigenous societies and their connections with the land. Also, much of the field material is irreplaceable because the elders who gave the information may have passed away. This connection material is of great value, not only to claimants, but to the wider community because it offers a valuable contribution to Australian history, anthropology, sociology, land management and other disciplines.

Example rule book that corporations can use to make their own rule book that complies with the CATSI Act and suits their needs. This rule book satisfies the requirements for most corporations registering under the CATSI Act. This rule book satisfies the requirements for a constitution under the CATSI Act and includes some good governance ideas. It keeps some of the ‘replaceable rules’ under the CATSI Act, and replaces others. It doesn’t include all of the set law under the CATSI Act.

The rule book info kit is comprehensive and takes advantage of the full range of options under the CATSI Act. It includes extra information and notes to help corporations pick and tailor rules.

It is a longer document which includes set laws from the CATSI Act which cannot be changed (rules that apply to all corporations) as well as:

• rules that must be completed (special to that corporation)
• rules that can be replaced
• laws that can be changed
• rules that are good governance ideas recommended by ORIC.

Additional resources associated with The Rule Book - Info Kit can be found by following this link.

This book contains pictures to help explain some of the concepts within the rule book.

This template can be used as checklist when you visit the AIATSIS collection or other collection institutions when researching your native title claim or materials relevant to your PBC's work.