Local Indigenous Perspectives of Community and Co-Management Arrangements

Abstract

"In recent years the Haida of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia and the Yolngu of north-east Arnhem Land, Australia have had to negotiate and interpret various co-management programs operating within their territories. In both areas, various community management organisations have been established to respond to government management regimes and resource allocation programs, and to ensure native law and responsibility provides the template for contemporary agreements. This paper focuses on one such indigenous initiative, the Dhimurru Aboriginal Land Management Organisation in north-east Arnhem Land, a Yolngu community management response to increased coastal degradation associated with the nearby Nabalco mine. Now that native title is recognised in Australia and Canada, indigenous and non-indigenous legal systems are bound to consider the management regimes. It is within the philosophy and practices of indigenous community institutions like Dhimurru that innovative management dialogue might be found."