Appropriate planning for Aboriginal self determination

Abstract

This thesis investigates the practice of Aboriginal community planning in order to establish how planning by Aboriginal people can empower them to pursue aspirations for collective self determination. Planning empowers people if it adds to the information, knowledge and control they have over decisions that affect their lives. However, much of the planning that is undertaken by governments acts to perpetuate Aboriginal oppression. The study used action research methods through which the researcher worked as planning facilitator with Irrwanyere, a large extended Aboriginal family whose ancestors lived in the Simpson Desert, and Wallaga, a smaller group of Aboriginal people who live on the far south coast of New South Wales. Investigation of the basis for community self definition was a necessary starting point for establishing how planning can be appropriate to each group's aspirations for self determination. 'Country and culture' provided a central structuring principle for the vision, goals and strategies articulated in each planning process and for addressing issues related to sustainable development. Each case study implemented a participatory, developmental planning process and also documented community plans for use in communication and negotiation with stakeholders. The study found that planners need a wide variety of skills to be effective in such contexts but foremost the capacity to work with the authority and skills of community members. It confirms that planning needs to be an ongoing, flexible and adaptive process, integrally linked to management, if it is to achieve its potential for Aboriginal empowerment. The study establishes the difficulties that Aboriginal people have in obtaining long term support from governments for their planning and particulalry for implementing approaches to community development that are structured around sustaining their relationships to land and natural resources. It concludes by proposing a strategy for improved government support for community based planning by Aboriginal people which would also facilitate Aboriginal participation in government planning processes and the negotiation of regional agreements about Aboriginal rights, aspirations and resources for self determination.