Indigenous leaders and leadership

Agents of networked governance

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20059982
AutoresBill Ivory (autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Fecha de publicación2008-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoCHAPTER
RevistaContested governance (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialANU Press (PUBLISHER • AU)
DOI10.22459/caepr29.08.2008.09
OpenAlexW2947271932
ISBN9781921536045
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas20

Bill Ivoryhe shook hands with a local Aboriginal landowner and council representative and then hurriedly moved on.Under a nearby tree, unnoticed by the official party, were several bemused elderly Aboriginal gentlemen, one in a wheel chair, patiently watching the events unfold, and waiting to welcome their official guest.These men were in fact senior leaders 3 of the Port Keats region, experts in group survival, directors of ceremony, and adept at negotiated decision-making and consensus building. 4Most had spent time 'droving bullocky' as expert stockmen, working for the cattle barons of the NT, and more recently had been engaged in establishing representative organisations within the community.Later, they were briefly acknowledged by the Prime Minister as his party swept on through the community.Meanwhile, Aboriginal community residents, well aware of the importance of these old men, respectfully gave them their due deference and attention. 5In the wider historical context of Indigenous affairs and the NT intervention, this scene raises important questions.Why is it that in Australia, Indigenous leaders are often disregarded or at best grudgingly recognised by non-Indigenous people and their leaders?Why is Indigenous leadership seemingly invisible to non-Indigenous eyes?Is Indigenous leadership so politically under-developed that it is ineffective in today's post-colonial Australian society?Are the leaders themselves content to sit in the background and let the intercultural vortex marginalise them?This chapter draws on field research conducted at Port Keats to examine the conditions for the reproduction and enactment of Indigenous leadership with the aim of bringing both the concept and practical workings of leadership into sharper relief in the contemporary Australian intercultural setting.A model of networked Indigenous leadership is proposed that enables us to better understand how Indigenous leaders are produced and developed, and how local Indigenous societies, at least to this point, have been able to promote cultural resilience and collective survival.To do so, the chapter looks back at the leadership history of the community and the personal life histories of people who are regarded by their peers and kin as 'leaders'.It also positions Indigenous leadership and governance within the wider environment of mainstream Australian governance 3 These men were senior leaders (among others) within their clan-groups and also within the wider ceremonial arena.Each clan, and there are 20 within the Thamarrurr region, has senior leadership.As the Prime Minister was entering a particular clan's land, referred to as the Kardu Diminin, these men were the appropriate authority figures for this occasion. 4Two of these senior leaders have since passed away. 5The Prime Minister was at Wadeye to acknowledge its prominence as the selected NT trial site for a major Council of

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