Thinking about Indigenous community governance

Abstract

This document brings together four papers on Indigenous community governance which were written as verbal presentations for conferences, seminars and workshops between 2000 and 2003. They argue, from different starting points in response to conference and workshop themes, that Indigenous community governance is as much about process as about structures and that dispersed governance has benefits as well as costs. In doing so they challenge some common assumptions of would-be reformers of Indigenous community governance. The papers have been brought together for convenience and as a point of departure for debate, as part of an ARC Linkage project between CAEPR and Reconciliation Australia on Indigenous Community Governance.