This preliminary research report by Janet Hunt and Diane Smith is based on the first year of fieldwork conducted by the Indigenous Community Governance Project. The Project is exploring the nature of Indigenous community governance in diverse contexts and locations across Australia through a series of diverse case studies—to understand what works, what doesn’t work...

Nicholas Biddle and Boyd Hunter examine patterns of migration and factors associated with both the decision to move and the choice of destination. The results suggest that Indigenous Australians are less responsive to local economic factors than other Australians, and social and cultural factors appear to play a particularly significant role in their decision making.

In late 2005 Bill Gray and Will Sanders interviewed eleven members of the Commonwealth government’s Secretaries Group on Indigenous Affairs about their experiences of the new arrangements in Indigenous affairs since July 2004. This paper reports their findings on issues ranging from the Ministerial Taskforce and the National Indigenous Council to Indigenous Coordination Centres and...

The social and educational disengagement of Indigenous youth, who see education and training as irrelevant to their lives and experiences, is a looming crisis for many Indigenous communities in remote Australia. Jerry Schwab explores a youth program in Canada, the Junior Canadian Rangers, which addresses a similar crisis in that country. This paper suggests there...

Will Sanders seeks to understand the role of being a senior manager in Indigenous community governance, particularly though not exclusively in remote Aboriginal communities. He argues against the tendency of analysts and would-be reformers of Indigenous community governance to focus on the competence and ethical qualities of those who, from time to time occupy these...