About the Gugu Badhun Nation Building Project

Project Partners

Nation-Building Framework and Approach

Nation rebuilding refers to the processes by which a Native nation enhances its own foundational capacity for effective self-governance and self-determined community and economic development. 

The Native Nations Institute’s understanding of Indigenous nation building emerges from 30 years of research by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development (founded in 1986) and the Native Nations Institute (founded in 2001). NNI research efforts have sought to understand the conditions under which sustained development can be successful in Indigenous nations.

Nation rebuilding framework identifies Five Core Principles of Indigenous Nation Rebuilding: 

1. Sovereignty Attitude
   Indigenous nations that have been willing and able to assert self-governing power have significantly increased their chances of sustainable economic development. 

2. Capable Governing Institutions
   The chances of sustainable development rise as Indigenous nations put in place effective, non-politicised dispute-resolution mechanisms and build capable bureaucracies. 

3. Cultural Match
   Institutions that build and innovate upon Indigenous conceptions of authority fare better than those whose form departs from such conceptions. 

4. A Strategic Orientation
   Successful Indigenous nations tend to approach development not as a quick fix for poverty but as a means of building a society that works. 

5. Publicly Spirited Community Leadership
   In successful Indigenous nations, there is typically a group of individuals who recognize the need for fundamental change in the way things are done and can bring the community along with them in building that future. 

The Nation-building framework can support the Gugu Badhun Community in implementing the Gugu Badhun Peoples Community Plan (2020-2025) which is a document that articulates Gugu Badhun’s self-determination goals and aspirations. 

Research Project Team

The following staff from University of Technology Sydney and James Cook University will lead the work. 

Associate Professor Pauline Clague

A Yaegl woman from North Coast NSW she has worked as a storyteller and producer in film and TV for 25 years. She is founder and Artistic Director of Winda Film Festival in Sydney, former programmer for imagineNATIVE media +arts festival in Toronto, Canada and co-creator of NativeSlam a 72 hour Indigenous film challenge held at Maoriland Film Festival in Otaki, New Zealand. Her work in communities has centred around teaching Digital Storytelling as a platform for the community to keep oral history active utilising new technologies. While working at NITV she created the landmark series “Our Stories, Our Way, Everyday” which in 3 years delivered around 380 short documentaries from around the country , winning her the Stanley Hawes award in 2015 for her contribution to Australian Documentaries. Pauline is currently a Researcher and Associate Professor, of Cultural Resilience Hub, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research at the UTS. 

Professor Miriam Jorgensen

Miriam is Research Director of the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona and Professor of Indigenous Nation Building in the Indigenous Nations and Collaborative Futures research hub of the UTS Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research. Her work—in the United States, Canada, and Australia—has addressed issues as wide-ranging as housing, policing and justice systems, natural resources, cultural stewardship, enterprise management, financial education, and child welfare. She is co-founder of the University of Arizona Indigenous Governance program and an author and editor of the field-leading book Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development.

Research Project Team Experience

The Research Project Team have worked on numerous nation-building activities relevant to the proposed project. Four of the most relevant projects are presented below. 

Gugu Badhun Peoples Community Plan 2020 - 2025

Janine Gertz has been working closely with Plan C in the preparation of the Community Plan to support a range of recent changes including, among others: negotiations with Australian Government federal agencies involving a large area of country; increased GBAC governance capacity; and, emerging business enterprise, tourism and research opportunities. The Community Plan provides the GBAC Board and community with direction on how best to achieve Gugu Badhun community social, cultural, environmental, and economic aspirations.

The development of the plan was informed by three rounds of input from engagement with directors and community members at workshops in Townsville and Cairns.

Growing Gugu Badhun Self-Determination through Business Enterprise (2015-2016)

This project asked how Aboriginal communities might continue to move towards self-determination via economic development, namely the establishment of Aboriginal business enterprise. Led by Theresa Petray and Janine Gertz, this research project involved discussion groups at the Gugu Badhun culture camp (September 2015), and with Prof Stephen Cornell in Townsville (December 2015). In the course of these conversations, the community identified important values underpinning economic development as well as identifying several business opportunities which have progressed. 

The initial findings of this research were presented back to Gugu Badhun at Culture Camp in September 2016, and included in two academic publications (Petray and Gertz 2018, Petray and Gertz in press). The findings will also form the foundation of the proposed research (Activity Three). 

Gunditjmara People and Ngarrindjeri Nation

Indigenous Nations and Collaborative Futures Research Hub at Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research - University of Technology Sydney 

The Indigenous Nations and Collaborative Futures Research Hub at Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research at UTS grows out of research that Jumbunna IIER have been co-conducting with the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona (NNI).

Jumbunna IIER and NNI have partnered in this work with the Gunditjmara People from what is now south-western Victoria and the Ngarrindjeri Nation located in the River Murray, Lakes and Coorong region of what is now South Australia. The partnership is facilitated through two Aboriginal organisations, Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (‘Gunditj Mirring’) and the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority (‘NRA’). Interest in the research led to an expansion of the research with individuals and groups from the Wiradjuri Nation in what is now NSW and five additional universities (University of Melbourne, Flinders University, Charles Sturt University, RMIT, and Australian National University).

Since at least the start of the new millennium both the Gunditjmara People and Ngarrindjeri Nation have realised remarkable progress against the goals they set for themselves. For the Gunditjmara People these have included reactivating their 6000 year-old aquaculture complex at Lake Condah; developing a sustainable tourism initiative for the southwest region of Victoria; embedding Gunditjmara cultural knowledge into Victorian natural resource planning; and most recently, achieving World Heritage status for the Budj Bim region. The Ngarrindjeri Nation created the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority, which became the blueprint for state government engagement with the Aboriginal nations of South Australia; created a state-wide agreement making strategy that binds the state government in relation to development on Ngarrindjeri Country; won the prestigious Australian Riverprize for its efforts to entrench Ngarrindjeri values into Murray River Basin management; and represents the Aboriginal nations of South Australia in negotiations concerning the impact of ‘settlers’ breaching the terms of the 1836 Letters Patent for South Australia issued by King William IV.

INCF’s work is best described as having two sets of interests that are at once symbiotic, hierarchical, and equitable (but not equal). The interests are symbiotic in that the Aboriginal nation partners and academic partners rely on each other to achieve their goals. The Aboriginal nation partners—experts in Country, culture, language, law, ceremony, traditional economy, their communities’ values, norms, and ambitions—seek to ‘nation build’ to strengthen their communities. The academic partners—experts in political science, sociology, law, philosophy, and communication design—seek to learn about transferrable examples of strategic and institutional excellence and about the processes, tools, language, experiences, and analyses that trigger and enliven Indigenous nation-building.

The interests are hierarchical in that all research partners – Aboriginal nation and academic partners – put Indigenous self-determination and self-government first. All partners seek to act as Indigenous nation builders and to support the Aboriginal nation partners to achieve their Indigenous nation building goals.

The research projects occurred in a series of steps:

1. The academic partners took instructions from the Aboriginal nations about their      nation-building aspirations.

2. The Aboriginal nation partners and academic partners worked together to decide on tasks that may enhance the nations’ capacities to fulfil these aspirations.

3. The Aboriginal partners used the research team’s expertise about building effective and legitimate governing systems in workshops or conducting executive education sessions or just chatting. The academic partners had the privilege of observing what Indigenous nation building looks like in Australia.

Examples include:

• Developing a Gunditjmara decision-making matrix (ongoing);

• Developing a Gunditjmara research approvals process;

• Conducting a Ngarrindjeri regional governance review. 

Native Nations Institute - University of Arizona

Located on Tohono O’odham Nation traditional homelands, the Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy (NNI) was founded in 2001 by The University of Arizona and the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation as a self-determination, self-governance, and development resource for Native nations. It is housed at the university's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy.

NNI assists in building capable Native nations that can effectively pursue and ultimately realize their own political, economic, and community development objectives. This effort, which we call nation building, is the central focus of NNI's programs.

NNI provides Native nations and other policy makers with accessible research and policy analysis of governance and development in Indian Country and with comprehensive, professional training and development programs designed to meet the needs of Indigenous leadership and management.

The International Advisory Council, composed of Indigenous leaders from the United States and Canada, has been closely involved in the development of NNI. The council provides advice and oversight on an ongoing basis and meets twice a year to advise NNI and help set the organization's strategic direction.  

NNI is an outgrowth of the research programs of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, an organization with which it retains close ties.

Explore our Interactive Timeline on the history of the Harvard Project and NNI.

Proposed Methodology

Approach

All of the engagement undertaken in these activities have been adapted to be online as a result of COVID-19 health restrictions.

Based on the current (draft) Community Plan we are proposing the focus of three streams of nation building activity moving forward.  

1.    Activity One: Story Telling

First approach sits under the Community Plan pillar of Culture – Associate Professor Pauline Clague will lead online workshops in filmmaking techniques to support Gugu Badhun youth to record community stories and interview elders. These will help keep our stories alive for the Gugu Badhun community. This project focuses on enhancing Gugu Badhun’s own strength in the voices of our elders and youth by engaging with Gugu Badhun stories - especially the Gugu Badhun language.

2.  Activity Two: Structuring the Gugu Badhun Aboriginal Nation 

Second approach falling under the Community Plan pillar of Governance is the development of a Gugu Badhun map or structure for the nation.

Working with three Jumbunna researchers, Dr Alison Vivian, Professor Miriam Jorgensen and Professor Daryle Rigney, the nation-building project team will engage with the community to put together an overarching structure for Gugu Badhun as a nation. This is bigger than our current native title corporation structure, and might mean developing a political constitution for the Gugu Badhun Nation.  This is a way we can have further discussions and make decisions about establishing Elders Councils, Youth Councils for example, or a Research Committee to oversee the reporting and monitoring of this project as another example. But most importantly this will help us work through how Gugu Badhun wants to be represented externally to other Aboriginal groups as well as State or Federal Government agencies. 

This area of work will prepare Gugu Badhun for engaging in discussions and making important decisions about treaties with our neighboring Aboriginal Nations, as currently proposed by Girringun’s Process Unity, and recent treaty discussions initiated by the Qld Labor Govt. 

This project will look at the frameworks used by Indigenous nations internationally and here in Australia to work through some of their lessons to help Gugu Badhun community create a culturally matched political structure for the nation. 

3. Activity Three: Economic Development Framework

The third approach is aligned with the Community Plan pillar of Economy.  

Building on some of the initial work undertaken with Dr Theresa Petray and Professor Stephen Cornell (previously outlined under heading of Project Experience), Professor Miriam Jorgensen would lead the discussions which could potentially lead to development of a Gugu Badhun Economic Development Framework which has a strong foundation in Gugu Badhun culture and articulates the Gugu Badhun Nations principles and values that would make a strong economy. Gugu Badhun can take advantage of the years of work already conducted both in American and Australian Nations - we can learn from what has worked, what is sustainable and how to support the programs and understand the policies and legislations that enable a strong Gugu Badhun economy.

4.  Activity Four: Website Development 

Due to Covid-19 health restrictions, we are planning to conduct this work mainly through online spaces within the next six months. This means most of the activity will be conducted via video conference, informational video clips, hosting webinars and where possible live streaming of lectures.  

Underpinning all of this online activity is the further development and refinement of the Gugu Badhun website as a primary communication tool for information to the Gugu Badhun community. 

5.  Activity Five:  Project Reporting

• Regular progress reports to GBAC Board.

• Implementation plan, including expected measures of success. 

• Full Report for delegated Research Committee.

• A separate executive summary document for GBAC Board.

• Newsletters and video presentations to the Gugu Badhun community via website.

• Forum presentation to relevant external bodies and stakeholders.