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This Concept Map, created with IHMC CmapTools, has information related to: CONTESTED GOVERNANCE anu 2008, SO WHAT FOR OUR PRACTICE implications of the generic to our specific context appreciate the tensions and pressures on the Inala Elders group 1 NETWORKED RELATIONSHIPS OVERLAY Inala Elders INC (point in time of |Govt policy+ administrative financial controls Nodal connectors from our network diagram rather than simple "representational 'approaches to engagement ; a bit of both reflected in the overwork/time poor voluntary nature of Elders Council operation. Family + clan + real life jobs 2 no single right answer to local cultural protocols ( few people with land connections ( Bill Bonner + younger family ) A mix of cultural protocols ( John B from Cairns ??0; No single language, The business of governing: building institutional capital in an urban enterprise Diane Smith ???? For urban organisations and leaders engaged in business enterprises, key areas of vulnerability and challenge include: • negotiating what constitutes ‘the community’ and ‘family’ in the light of historical resettlement, ongoing high rates of mobility, and the often tangled web of urban relationships and land-ownership rights; 206 Contested Governance • negotiating processes of representation and decision making that support their economic goals, at the same time as building the internal and external legitimacy of their governance; • responding to the diverse views and cultural values that Indigenous people have about their community, families and their governance needs; • balancing Indigenous calls for more inclusive ‘community’ participation in, and access to, the services and benefits provided by organisations, alongside the hard-headed decision making and corporate governance required for economic success; • responding to government pressure for ‘whole-of-community’ participation and representation, in circumstances where the community may be heterogeneous or fragmented; and • negotiating the funding labyrinth of governments, and their underlying assumptions that ‘urban communities’ have ‘easier’ access to mainstream services, infrastructure, employment and economic opportunities., The business of governing: building institutional capital in an urban enterprise Diane Smith ???? urban residential ‘hubs’,1 which have become an integral part of their contemporary identities. The resident Indigenous ‘community’ in such locations is not homogenous. More often, it comprises a mixed constituency of large extended families and related individuals, who come and go. These families form social networks within their urban location that stretch outwards to connect to other family members and ‘communities’ in surrounding regions (see Macdonald 2000; Peters-Little 2000: 412; Smith 2000; Sutton 1998). As a consequence, there are usually many ‘communities’ within a community, and extended families invariably form the foundations for these., The business of governing: building institutional capital in an urban enterprise Diane Smith ???? This has flowed through to expectations about the governance of organisations which have been tagged by governments as being ‘community organisations’. These are subject to idealistic expectations that they will have ‘community representation’, ‘community participation’, engage in ‘community consultations’ and so on.3, The business of governing: building institutional capital in an urban enterprise Diane Smith ???? Governments and the private sector commonly prefer to deal with local organisations that are ‘representative’ in this manner. They then look to these organisations to speak for and make decisions on behalf of ‘the community’, when this is invariably a highly fluid, mixed set of sub-groups., The business of governing: building institutional capital in an urban enterprise Diane Smith ???? Indigenous decision-making structures are about social and political representation, whereas optimum business decision-making should be about expertise, experience, knowledge and talent. (Ah Mat 2003: 6), The business of governing: building institutional capital in an urban enterprise Diane Smith ???? The concept of the ‘Indigenous community’ remains fuzzy and confusing, The business of governing: building institutional capital in an urban enterprise Diane Smith ???? In this manner, extended families not only have a form of internal governance, they are also embedded into other layers of governance at community and regional levels, and outwards., The business of governing: building institutional capital in an urban enterprise Diane Smith ???? The so-called Newcastle ‘Indigenous community’ is in fact a network of dispersed nodes of governance in the form of organisations, senior leaders and key families. Some strands of the network are more closely connected than others., The business of governing: building institutional capital in an urban enterprise Diane Smith ???? Increasingly, Indigenous families in communities have come to be associated with images of organisational nepotism and corruption, disputation and violence, debilitating factionalism, self-interested decision making, insular thinking and low business expertise. The transformation of the Indigenous family from a positive to a negative symbol has a long history in Australian colonialism.4, HISTORY 1970-1990 the principle of Indigenous self-determination creation of an ‘Indigenous sector’ land councils, native title bodies, (ATSIC) Regional Councils, ETC ‘practical reconciliation’ focusing on Indigenous socioeconomic disadvantage Nationally agreed priority outcomes and pledged periodic assessment of progress through Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage reports abolition of ATSIC a single Indigenous budget, the establishment of Indigenous Coordination Centres (ICCs) Shared Responsibility Agreements (SRAs) and Regional Partnership Agreements Self-determination gave way to ‘sharing responsibility Minister Brough announced his ‘Blueprint for Action in Indigenous Affairs’ (Brough 2006a), giving Indigenous Australians equitable access to services on the same basis as other Australians, and removing barriers to economic opportunity. designed to foster economic development on Indigenous land, the second tranche was to force greater Indigenous mobility to existing job markets. The pendulum has swung heavily towards treating them as individual citizens to be ‘brought into the mainstream’ and ‘normalised’ to the dominant way of life. In doing so, it is jeopardising deeply-valued Indigenous rights, especially the right of self-determination., The business of governing: building institutional capital in an urban enterprise Diane Smith ???? some organisations have become silos of factional power in communities, competing with each other for members and local legitimacy, as well as scarce funds, resources and staff, leaders defined In 2006, I carried out interviews and informal discussions with board members, the executive, managers and staff on the issue of leadership (see Smith 2006). The qualities of Aboriginal leaders seen to be necessary include: • ‘humility’; • ‘being part of the Aboriginal community’; • ‘having a passion for helping their community not just themselves’; • being ‘selfless’; • ‘having a vision of what’s possible’; • ‘experience in politics’; • being ‘able to mentor younger people’; • ‘able to talk to all kinds of people, and listen well’; and • ‘able to get agreement and consensus’. This model of Indigenous leadership as the following characteristics: 1. The networks reflect ‘enduring webs’ of leadership relationships that are able to both accommodate and persevere in the midst of ‘shifting alliances Indigenous leaders and leadership 253 and cleavages’ between and amongst leaders and groups (Hunt and Smith 2007: 8). 2. Nodal leaders have the capacity to draw on shared histories and mobilise alliances and resources across networks in order to get things done. 3. Such leadership does not translate to the accumulation of material goods or even permanent rights, but represents a web of authority and knowledge that is utilised for the common goals of the group. 4. The system has the occasional prominent or eminent leader, but within a socially-sanctioned network where legitimacy has to continue to be ‘earned’, eminence relies on recognition within the overall system, the ability to work within the network, the ability to bring to fruition the local potential of that system (i.e. ‘get things done’), and the ‘thickness’ of each individual’s networks (nurtured and supported by generosity, reciprocity and other such cultural norms). 5. Leadership can be delegated to certain individuals in order to reproduce and maintain relationships within the colonial intercultural realm. 6. Leaders regularly attempt to engage with other cultural groups, but often fail because of mutual misunderstandings and competition for scarce resources (including followers). This results in misalignment and, occasionally, the fission and fusion of groups and organisations. some men and groups become more influential than others through their own personal attributes, or by the accumulation of power through ceremonial means, women, followers, and access to other desired resources; and • such influential men can broaden their leadership base and prowess by further developing social ties through reciprocal obligations, which can develop into complex networks of authority and power, and may be influenced by contemporary arrangements and resources. The literature occasionally refers to such individuals as ‘big men’ and notes that such ‘bigmanship’8 may only be temporary. LEADERSHIP CONCEPTS clan groups, inter-related by complex webs of kinship, land-ownership identities, marriage systems, historical alliances and ceremonies (see Kesteven and Smith 1984; Smith 2007). In these networks there are ‘nodes’ or points of individual agency and decision making, where particular male and female leaders who have respect and influence are able to mobilise people and resources to create order and collectively get things done leadership is conferred conditionally and has to be constantly earned Disaffected ‘constituents’ can ‘vote with their feet’, withdraw their support, and align themselves with another leader (or become one themselves if they can garner the support). responding to government pressure for ‘whole-of-community’ participation and representation, in circumstances where the community may be heterogeneous or fragmented; Governments and the private sector commonly prefer to deal with local organisations that are ‘representative’ in this manner. They then look to these organisations to speak for and make decisions on behalf of ‘the community’, when this is invariably a highly fluid, mixed set of sub-groups., The business of governing: building institutional capital in an urban enterprise Diane Smith ???? A ‘community’ can be defined as a network of people and organisations that are linked together by webs of relationships, cultural identity, traditions, rules, shared histories, or simply common interests and goals (Hunt and Smith 2006, 2007)., NOW WHAT WILL WE PUT IN PLACE TO HAVE THE BEST CHANCE OF SUCCESS application to immediate decisions A HEADS OF AGREEMENT GLENALA SHS & INALA ELDERS ⇒ iNALA CLUSTER IDEA - SPREAD THE LOAD A MULTI LAYERED CONNECTIVITY ??? (PB keep to the 15- 24 age group negotiate the Glenala separately ?? RATHER THAN ONE SIZE FITS ALL FOR THE CLUSTER ?? CONCEPTUALISE THE IDEA HOLISTICLY AS A NODAL NETWORKS ? SPORT +INDIGENOUS TEACHER AIDES+ STAFF CULTURAL MIX+ ; PARENTS ;+ ELDERS STRUCTURES ???