Working Together with Remote Indigenous Communities to Facilitate Adapting to Using Energy Wisely: Barriers and Enablers

Buergelt, Petra; Maypilama, Elaine; McPhee, Julia; Dhurrkay, Galathi; Nirrpuranydji, Shirley; Mänydjurrpuy, Sylvia; Wunungmurra, Marrayurra; Skinner, Timothy; Lowell, Anne; Moss, Simon

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.08.026

Cited by 12 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Continued imposition of significantly different cultural perspectives on water and governance contributed directly to negative impacts in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island residents' health, wellbeing, willingness to participate, and overall community resilience. These lessons echo those from Indigenous engagement and program participation lessons in other sectors [71,76,99,100]. The research illuminated in detail a number of problematic features associated with this technocratic management paradigm, including hierarchical decision-making that reflects the perspective of the dominant actors (i.e., government and service provider management), compartmentalization of water issues which are intricately connected, and poor communication and coordination across actors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Identifying and Overcoming Barriers to Collaborative Sustainable Water Governance in Remote Australian Indigenous Communities

Jackson

Stewart

Beal

2019

Water

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Collaboration between government agencies and communities for sustainable water governance in remote Indigenous communities is espoused as a means to contribute to more equitable, robust, and long-term decision-making and to ensure that water services contribute to broader considerations of physical, social, and economic prosperity. In Australia, the uptake of collaborative water governance in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island contexts has been slow and few examples exist from which to inform policy and practice. This study identifies barriers to uptake of collaborative sustainable water governance, drawing from qualitative interviews with water practitioners working in remote Indigenous Australia and analysis of key project documentation. Thematic analysis revealed discrete barriers across five key categories: (1) governance arrangements, (2) economic and financial, (3) capacity and skills, (4) data and information, and (5) cultural values and norms, with many barriers identified, unique to the remote Indigenous Australian context. The paper provides insights into how to address these barriers strategically to create transformative and sustainable change for Indigenous communities. The results contribute to the greater body of knowledge on sustainable and collaborative water governance, and they are of relevance for broader water management, policy, and research.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Identifying and Overcoming Barriers to Collaborative Sustainable Water Governance in Remote Australian Indigenous Communities

Jackson

Stewart

Beal

2019

Water

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“…Accordingly, future SEL programs for Aboriginal boarders need to consider not just program content and delivery, but additionally the choice of facilitators to ensure program provision occurs in the context of secure, authoritative and nurturing relationships. The finding that complex and changing contextual factors, especially cultural factors, affect the relevance and impact of the program lends further evidence to the importance of co-designing, co-evaluating, co-facilitating and co-revising programs together with Aboriginal peoples [67]. As student recommendations also emphasized the need for greater exchange and development of cultural knowledges, future program development should pay greater attention to drawing on cultural understandings of SEWB to inform the design and facilitation of program learning activities, should ensure that participatory activities structure opportunities share cultural knowledge, and that organizational arrangements support consistent delivery and relational support.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Enhancing Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Aboriginal Boarding Students: Evaluation of a Social and Emotional Learning Pilot Program

Franck

Midford

Cahill

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Boarding schools can provide quality secondary education for Aboriginal students from remote Aboriginal Australian communities. However, transition into boarding school is commonly challenging for Aboriginal students as they need to negotiate unfamiliar cultural, social and learning environments whilst being separated from family and community support. Accordingly, it is critical for boarding schools to provide programs that enhance the social and emotional skills needed to meet the challenges. This study evaluated a 10-session social and emotional learning (SEL) program for Aboriginal boarders and identified contextual factors influencing its effectiveness. The study combined a pre-post quantitative evaluation using diverse social and emotional wellbeing measures with 28 students between 13–15 years (10 female, 11 male, 7 unidentified) and qualitative post focus groups with 10 students and episodic interviews with four staff delivering the program. Students’ social and emotional skills significantly improved. The qualitative findings revealed improvements in students seeking and giving help, working in groups, managing conflict, being assertive and discussing cultural issues. The focus groups and interviews also identified program elements that worked best and that need improvement. Secure relationships with staff delivering the program and participation in single sex groups stood out as critical enablers. The findings lend evidence to the critical importance of collaborative design, provision and evaluation of SEL programs with Aboriginal peoples.

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“…Almost 100,000 Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (NT), Australia (about 50% of the total NT population) live in remote tropical coastal communities [4,11]. These communities face considerable risks from natural hazards, especially those emanating from climate change [5,13].…”

Section: Disaster Risks Of the North Australian Remote Indigenous Commentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among the socio-economic susceptibilities, insufficient and inappropriate housing emerged as a vital factor that increases disaster risks for Yolηu. A survey conducted in six Arnhem Land Indigenous communities, including Galiwin'ku, revealed that, on average, nine people are living in one house, but the authors suggest that this number is likely to be higher in reality [11,61]. While houses can be an important pillar of structural, social, and cultural protection against disasters, overcrowding undermines this asset in Galiwin'ku.…”

Section: Overcrowded Housing and Culturally And Climatically Unsuitabmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One way of facilitating this paradigm shift is to conduct genuinely collaborative research partnerships involving Indigenous peoples and their Western counterparts in ways that facilitate Indigenous peoples reviving and strengthening their Indigenous worldviews, knowledge, and practices and applying them to DRR [11,12]. Such two-way or reciprocal approaches must involve greater coordination between Indigenous and non-Indigenous stakeholders, in order to understand their respective DRR perspectives and integrate the best of both sets of knowledge to support sustainable development at local, national, and global levels [7,8,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Facilitating Sustainable Disaster Risk Reduction in Indigenous Communities: Reviving Indigenous Worldviews, Knowledge and Practices through Two-Way Partnering

Ali

Buergelt

Paton

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The Sendai Framework of Action 2015–2030 calls for holistic Indigenous disaster risk reduction (DRR) research. Responding to this call, we synergized a holistic philosophical framework (comprising ecological systems theory, symbolic interactionism, and intersectionality) and social constructionist grounded theory and ethnography within a critical Indigenous research paradigm as a methodology for exploring how diverse individual and contextual factors influence DRR in a remote Indigenous community called Galiwinku, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Working together, Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers collected stories in local languages using conversations and yarning circles with 20 community members, as well as participant observations. The stories were interpreted and analysed using social constructivist grounded theory analysis techniques. The findings were dialogued with over 50 community members. The findings deeply resonated with the community members, validating the trustworthiness and relevance of the findings. The grounded theory that emerged identified two themes. First, local Indigenous knowledge and practices strengthen Indigenous people and reduce the risks posed by natural hazards. More specifically, deep reciprocal relationships with country and ecological knowledge, strong kinship relations, Elder’s wisdom and authority, women and men sharing power, and faith in a supreme power/God and Indigenous-led community organizations enable DRR. Second, colonizing practices weaken Indigenous people and increase the risks from natural hazards. Therefore, colonization, the imposition of Western culture, the government application of top-down approaches, infiltration in Indigenous governance systems, the use of fly-in/fly-out workers, scarcity of employment, restrictions on technical and higher education opportunities, and overcrowded housing that is culturally and climatically unsuitable undermine the DRR capability. Based on the findings, we propose a Community-Based DRR theory which proposes that facilitating sustainable Indigenous DRR in Australian Indigenous communities requires Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners to genuinely work together in two-directional and complementary ways.

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Working Together with Remote Indigenous Communities to Facilitate Adapting to Using Energy Wisely: Barriers and Enablers

Cited by 12 publications

References 9 publications

Identifying and Overcoming Barriers to Collaborative Sustainable Water Governance in Remote Australian Indigenous Communities

Identifying and Overcoming Barriers to Collaborative Sustainable Water Governance in Remote Australian Indigenous Communities

Enhancing Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Aboriginal Boarding Students: Evaluation of a Social and Emotional Learning Pilot Program

Facilitating Sustainable Disaster Risk Reduction in Indigenous Communities: Reviving Indigenous Worldviews, Knowledge and Practices through Two-Way Partnering

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