Cultures of governance and the governance of culture: transforming and containing Indigenous institutions in West Arnhem Land

Researching with reciprocity? Meaningful participant-based research in a remote Indigenous community context

“…In 2008, the Northern Territory's local government sector underwent far-reaching and unprecedented reform: 53 councils, mainly remote and with small and Indigenousmajority constituencies, were amalgamated into eight regional shires (Michel et al 2010; Structured academic research into community perceptions of this reform of the local government sector seemed pertinent and pressing: community governance and local decision-making structures regarding council services had been rapidly overhauled, official promises and expectations around improved service delivery were high (McAdam 2007), and there were many anecdotal signs that the reform was unpopular (Smith 2008;Central and Northern Land Councils 2009;Henderson 2009). This led to many research questions: How satisfied were residents with local government services and the new shires?…”

A small speech community with many small languages: The role of receptive multilingualism in supporting linguistic diversity at Warruwi Community (Australia)

“…Warruwi Community has been treated as an entity by both Church and State since the establishment of the Goulburn Island Methodist Mission in 1916. However, since the disbanding of the ATSIC model of Indigenous self-governance in 2005 Warruwi has had little political representation-currently just two councillors on the local West Arnhem Shire council (Smith, 2008;Howitt, 2012). Regardless, people at Warruwi continue to work together for the benefit of the entire community in various ways.…”

Missed opportunity: The NTER and sustainable development outcomes for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory

“…There is no support for institution-building and indeed efforts to build intercultural institutions for regional government in West Central Arnhem Land up till early 2009 have been largely brushed aside in the transition to the new shire model (Smith 2008). Current policy is actively rejecting Indigenous self-governance and withdrawing powers away from local community councils or regional Indigenous governing bodies such as the Thamarrurr Regional Council in Wadeye which had at least some say over a limited range of decisions affecting their communities.…”

“…Current policy is actively rejecting Indigenous self-governance and withdrawing powers away from local community councils or regional Indigenous governing bodies such as the Thamarrurr Regional Council in Wadeye which had at least some say over a limited range of decisions affecting their communities. There is no support for institution-building and indeed efforts to build intercultural institutions for regional government in West Central Arnhem Land up till early 2009 have been largely brushed aside in the transition to the new shire model (Smith 2008). Finally, there seems little effort to show more than superficial respect for culture and to build on cultural assets and values in the way policy is being driven at present.…”