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NPY Women’s Council Co-ordinator Andrea Mason and chair Yanyi Bandicha. Image, Wayne Quilliam
Effective leadership is important for achieving better social, economic and cultural outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Governance is about more than just leadership—but without visionary and accountable leaders your governance can quickly become ineffective and can lack credibility.
Today, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups are working to rebuild their leadership and decision-making authority; develop better ways of selecting, supporting and mentoring their young leaders; and establishing more effective governing bodies.
To revitalise their leadership, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are tackling fundamental questions such as:
This topic gives you information and ideas about developing and strengthening your leadership. You will also find several tools to help you support, sustain and evaluate them.
Topic 5 includes more detailed information about the work of leaders in the governing bodies of incorporated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations.
There are many definitions of leadership, and many different kinds of leaders.
“Leaders are essentially creatures of habit. They don’t really do extraordinary things that often.
They do ordinary things often and consistently and persistently …
Good leaders keep turning up, they’re there, … at the coalface, they want to take on the challenges,
they want to fight the fight, regardless of how overwhelming the opposition seems, from both in and outside.”(Mick Dodson, Chair, Indigenous Governance Awards, presentation to Mt Isa Sharing Success Workshop, September 2007)
“Ultimately, a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus …”
(Martin Luther King Jr, Speech, ‘Remaining awake through a great revolution’, 31 March 1968)
Definition: Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. Leadership is about providing guidance and direction. It doesn’t always have to be done from the front; and it’s not an easy thing to achieve. A leader is someone who has the style, personal qualities, values, skills, experience and knowledge to ‘mould consensus’ and mobilise other people to get things done together.
Leadership and management are not the same thing. These days, nations, communities and organisations need to have both—but not all good leaders are good managers and equally, not all managers are good leaders.
Depending on how they exercise power and use their authority, leaders can either undermine their nation or organisation, or they can inspire people and foster commitment and cooperation. So the qualities and skills of your leaders are critical to the effectiveness of your governance.
But remember, leadership is not just for people at the top. Everyone can be a leader by using his or her talents to make a difference each day. Building collective leadership is an important part of nation building and community development.
Every society has its strong, visionary leaders, and its weak leaders.
Effective leadership is about the wise use of power. The legitimacy of leaders is stronger and more sustained when they gain the respect and trust of their members, and when there is open communication with these members.
To do that, leaders need to:
This kind of leadership better enables a group of people to achieve the things that matter to them.
Gary Banks, Chairman of the Australian Productivity Commission reports on ‘Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage’ for Australian governments. He suggests that solving the issues confronting communities and nations is not just a matter of money—legitimate and effective leadership plays a vital role:
“Community leadership and the legitimacy of this are absolutely essential.
How leaders marshal resources, engage partners, mobilise assets and generate support to
enact their visions is at the heart of effective governance.”
(Gary Banks, ‘Elders bring new hope to the Kimberley’,Reconciliation Newsletter, No 25, page 9, December 2012)
The English terms ‘leadership’ and ‘leader’ are foreign or unknown in many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. There is often no precisely equivalent word.
There are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders—men and women—but their leadership is exercised according to different values and criteria than it is in the wider Australian society.
Nyarri Nyarri Morgan, Martumili Artist. Parngurr, Western Australia. Image, Wayne Qulliam
The Indigenous language of governance
“Ultimately a Yolngu leader is someone to whom other people listen, a person who can create consensus… Thus, leadership is only conferred conditionally, and has to be constantly earned. It is a process rather than an ascribed position in a hierarchy. Clan leaders in Yolngu society are not called mulkurr ‘head’: they are not the ‘heads’ of their clans. Rather, they are called ngurru, ‘nose’, and in ngurru-X, ‘leader of clan X’… the English metaphor implies a view of the leader as the apex of a vertical hierarchy, the Yolngu metaphor characterises a leader as being on the same horizontal plane as those who confer authority on him through consensus.”
(Frances Morphy, ‘The language of governance in a cross-cultural cultural context: what can and can’t be translated’, Ngiya: Talk The Law, Vol. 1)
“Amongst the Pintupi, the closest equivalents to the term ‘leader’ are mayutju (boss), tjila (big one) and ngurrakartu (custodian). These are people who are described as ‘holding’ or ‘looking after’ (kanyininpa) their family, kin, subordinates and country…. A boss is yungkupayi, someone ‘who freely gives’, a ‘generous one’. They will ‘look after’ (kanyilku) people and country.”
(Fred Myers, 1986, Pintupi Country, Pintupi Self: Sentiment, Place and Politics Among Western Desert Aborigines, AIATSIS, Canberra)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ‘leaders’ have had a role in traditional systems of governance in Australia for tens of thousands of years, undertaking responsibilities for maintaining and protecting ancient laws, traditions, systems of knowledge, and jurisdictional rights and interests.
Leadership is complex because:
Senior women often have significant authority within their own groups, providing valued social support, and having recognised expertise and knowledge in areas of restricted women’s ceremony. But their leadership may not always be as visible as men who often are the ones working on the governing bodies of incorporated organisations and interacting with external stakeholders.
The individual authority of leaders is based on their cultural knowledge and reputation, personal qualities, recognised expertise and their ability to look after others—not only their family and group, but also the land, its resources, and related systems of knowledge and law.
Strong relationships with family and close kin, and values of demand sharing and mutual responsibility are at the very heart and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership practices.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership is networked leadership.
There are networks of leaders who are closely related to each other through shared responsibilities and interconnected roles. For example, today there are leaders of extended families, clan groups, kinship groups and nations. There are leaders of ceremony, ritual, sacred sites, songlines and Dreaming tracks. There are leaders who are holders of restricted knowledge, and separate leaders for men’s and women’s ‘business’.
Today, there are also leaders of organisations. The traditional forms of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership are not as easily recognisable to outsiders as the more ‘visible’ leaders in organisations.
Together, these leaders form the governing backbone of social groups. They activate their strong relationships in order to get things done.
This means that a network of influential people, not just one individual, makes up the leadership of a nation, community, extended family or clan group.
You can see these networks in formal and informal governance models across the country. They are also often drawn in dot and bark paintings.
Joan Evans is a member of the Murdi Paaki Regional Assembly, she represents the Aboriginal community in Cobar NSW on the Assembly. Murdi Paaki Regional Assembly includes representatives from 16 communities across western NSW. Image, Wayne Quilliam.
Definition: To represent means to act as a recognised delegate or spokesperson for somebody else’s interests, wishes, rights or welfare.
Definition: To be accountable means to answer for your actions and take responsibility for your mistakes, to be responsible to another, to be able to explain what happened.
An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leader’s representation and accountability operates in multiple directions, across the layers of their networks.
There are strong culturally-based rules and values that stress the need for leaders to only speak on behalf of (i.e. to represent) the ‘right’ people (their own mob or land-owing group), about the ‘right’ issue (i.e. their own country and own business).
The strongest expectation then is that a leader should, first and foremost, ‘look after’ and be accountable to their own family and local group.
Leaders are also expected to go back to their fellow group members to discuss information, ideas and decisions with them. This means their legitimacy has to be continuously earned and proven through their actions and communication in that social arena.
Leaders should also act on the basis of consensus.
In resolving issues and making decisions, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ‘leaders’ usually spend a lot of time hearing from everyone. It is considered important in maintaining harmonious relationships and allows people to share thoughts about the issue. The result is that decisions are often open to ongoing negotiation.
This is called consensus decision making.
“Leadership in an Aboriginal cultural context is not given or measured by how much media you get or if you earn big money. True Aboriginal leadership does not come from high-level appointments or board membership.
It doesn’t come from and cannot be given by white constructs. Leadership is earned; it is given when you have proven you can deal with responsibility and you understand that responsibility.”(The Hon. Linda Burney MP (first Aboriginal politician to be elected to the NSW Parliament),
‘Yarnin’ Up: Aboriginal People’s Careers in the NSW Public Sector’, NSW Government)
Before you start making changes to your leadership, it will help to identify the different layers involved in who you represent and are accountable to, and how well you are doing your job in those areas.
Indigenous leaders and participants in the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre (AILC) talk about Indigenous leadership.
The Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre (AILC) is the only provider of accredited Indigenous leadership training courses in Australia, offering leadership and Indigenous mentoring courses across the country. Founded in 2001, the AILC is a non-profit organisation predominately run by Indigenous people for all Australians.
A leader’s style—that is, the way they put their values, personal qualities, vision and sense of purpose into action—can make a difference to their own and other people’s performance and accomplishments.
It’s important to understand your own values and qualities as a leader, and to find out from the members of your community or nation how they might judge the success and legitimacy of your leadership.
Definition: Values are a set of beliefs, standards or qualities about what is right, good and appropriate. There are many different types of values—such as financial, social, spiritual, natural, moral or ethical—and they can vary greatly between cultures.
Before you start making changes to your leadership, it will help to identify the leadership values that you support and want to strengthen.
“Integrity, strength and fairness. Integrity is an important quality for leaders to have.
We need leaders we can respect and who are able to lead by example … A leader also needs to be strong. And they don’t just need to be strong talkers who are able to speak up and be heard …
You need to be strong enough to make decisions that may not make you very popular but are fair.
Which leads us into the last important quality of good leadership: the ability to be fair.
Leaders need to be willing to consider the needs of everyone and represent the views of everyone … I’m not saying that these qualities are the only qualities Indigenous leaders should possess, but I believe they are the basic ingredients of a good leader.”(Nicole Kilgour, ‘The leadership challenge for young Indigenous women’,Indigenous Governance—Challenges, Opportunities and Outcomes seminar series, 6 July 2005)
Many qualities and skills have been identified by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as being important in their leaders.
These qualities and skills include:
This resource lists the qualities and skills that participants in the national Indigenous Governance Awards and the Indigenous Community Governance Project see as being important for strong leaders to have.
What are the strengths of your leaders?
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership is perhaps even more demanding than it used to be. Not only is it based on traditional values, knowledge, laws, and extended family relations, but leaders also have to operate within the contemporary environment of Western-style governance, its different standards and financial requirements.
“True leaders in the Aboriginal community are often burnt out through the pressures of doing all with nothing … Leaders in the Aboriginal community have to be strong, resilient, moral and highly skilled in both Aboriginal and mainstream politics. It also doesn’t hurt to have the ability to sell ice to Eskimos, as you have to get support from both the community and government to get things done.”
(Marjorie Anderson, ‘Leadership: An Aboriginal perspective’, 7 April 2006, Sydney)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural values and principles of leadership are often at odds with those of western liberal democracies, which expect leaders to be independent from the demands of family and kin.
One of the biggest challenges facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders is finding the difficult balance between ‘looking after’ and being directly accountable to their own families and ‘own mob’, at the same time as fulfilling their wider responsibilities of working for their nations, communities and organisations, and with governments and other stakeholders.
Sometimes leaders say that they have two-way accountability. In fact, today they are required to be accountable in several different directions.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders may not always be able to make decisions on the spot. The timeframes for important consensus decision making and communication processes may seem slow to government officials or resource companies, but rushed processes can undermine the legitimacy of leadership and governance.
Generally there is also a small pool of leaders in communities and organisations. That means individual leaders have huge workloads and have to wear many different hats, with multiple responsibilities and obligations.
Sometimes leaders suffer from the ‘tall poppy syndrome’ and often seem to have to work twice as hard to gain legitimacy and keep faith with their own mob.
On the one hand, they can be harshly criticised for speaking out about matters if they are not seen to have the cultural right to do so. On the other, they can sometimes be held accountable for issues out of their control.
Effective governance requires a delicate balance between a continuous, stable leadership, and the need for renewal.
Perhaps the biggest pressure for leaders is the ability to adapt and respond daily to the ‘three Cs’—change, crises and conflict — at the same time as ensuring the ongoing resilience and self-determination of their group’s governance arrangements.
The Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) was a Finalist in Category A of the 2014 Indigenous Governance Awards. Here CEO Adrian Carson and Jody Currie, Director of Operations and Communications discuss some of the complications of shared governance and how they tackled challenges that arose in bringing together four health services.
In this clip Murdi Paaki Regional Assembly (MPRA) Chair Sam Jeffries talks about how MPRA chose not to become an incorporated model and how their Charter of Governance serves as their guiding document.
It is critical to keep an eye on the effectiveness and legitimacy of your leadership in the context of governance, because so much depends upon that leadership.
Everyone in the community has a responsibility for what goes on, not just the leaders. Community and group members have to keep their leaders accountable. Effective leadership can descend into self-serving behaviour when members do not want to hold their leaders accountable, or when there are weak rules and procedures to support members doing that.
As one senior leader in West Arnhem Land said, “My community members are my jury: they keep me honest and give me their verdict on whether I’m doing my job properly”.
It is pretty easy to identify the signs of poor leadership qualities and values.
You’ll know something is going wrong if you notice that leaders are:
This check-up is not meant to replace a thorough evaluation of your leadership arrangements. It also doesn’t assess traditional systems and practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership. Its main purpose is to help you:
You will find more ways of evaluating leadership in the governance of incorporated organisations in Topic 5.
This evaluation is for leaders working both formally and informally in organisations or the wider community. You can use it to find out how effective, capable and legitimate your leadership is.
Another way to learn about your current leadership is to look back at your leadership history.
Talk with others in your community or committee about the kind of leaders you had in the past.
Then use these questions to think about what kind of leaders you have now, and what kind you need in the future. You can adapt the mapping your governance history template in Topic 3.2 to help you do this.
Once you have identified and ranked the problem areas in your leadership you can then start thinking about a strategy and actions to make the changes you want.
There are sections in the governance development and action plan described in Topic 3.1 that can help you to start working through some of the leadership challenges you’ve identified from the leadership health check-up.
In Topic 5 you will also find other resources to assist with planning and implementing your ideas and solutions about leadership within your organisation.
Clockwise from back left: Yvonne, Nicola, Joshwin, Goliath, Marty, Nathaniel and Ziggy, WYDAC. Yuendumu, Northern Territory. Image, Wayne Qulliam
“Make sure you have a succession plan in place and that young leaders can contribute their new ideas now, not later. Too often charismatic leaders have been amazingly successful, but when they retire or fail in their leadership bid, the community falls apart. Leaders build for the future by mentoring youth who will carry on their good work long into the future.”
(Neil Sterritt, The trials and legacies of Mabo and Delhamuukw: Converting rights into outcomes for Australian and Canadian First Nations Peoples, Keynote presentation to Native Tile Conference, Cairns 2012, page 40)
Achieving sustainable governance is about working out the balance between the need for stability and consolidation, and the need for renewal and experimentation. This means looking at your succession planning.
Definition: Succession planning is about ensuring there are experienced and well-trained leaders to guide a nation, community or organisation in the future. Leaders today need to mentor and develop the leaders of tomorrow.
The idea of succession planning has been part of traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies for a long time. There have always been rules and processes for educating the next generation of leaders by passing on the knowledge, practical skills and experience they need to progressively take on leadership roles.
Today these traditional processes are under considerable pressure. Rapid changes across the globe mean that nations now need different kinds of leadership for different purposes.
This may also be the case for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations and communities.
For example, the kind of governance and leadership that worked for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to get them through fighting for legal rights, or to negotiate resource and native title agreements is not necessarily what will work for implementing those rights and delivering outcomes on the ground.
To meet contemporary governance challenges, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations and groups need to be able to grow their own young talented leaders, managers, negotiators and politicians, and give them real support and real roles.
The Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) was a Finalist in Category A of the 2014 Indigenous Governance Awards. Here CEO Adrian Carson describes the importance of a positive vision for the future.
Many younger Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people complain about the chronic under-use of their talents and enthusiasm.
Some feel they get trapped in a vicious circle of being asked by senior people to ‘stand-up and take on some responsibility’; only to be told to ‘stand down, we don’t need you yet, you’re pushing yourself in front too much’.
On the other hand, fast-tracking young leaders who don’t have the governing experience and skills to do the job yet—and do not have community legitimacy and connections—can have disastrous effects, both on them and the wider community.
The invitation and desire to serve must be supported by the capacity and confidence to do so.
The Marruk Project was awarded First Place in Category B of the 2014 Indigenous Governance Awards. Here Project Manager Angela Frost and Youth Leadership Group member Bayden Clayton discuss the central role of young people in guiding the project. The Youth Leadership Group empowers young people in the Swan Hill community.
Murdi Paaki young leader Isabelle Orcher talks about the organisation’s young leaders program and succession planning.
Honouring elder leaders
It is important to balance the need for leadership renewal with the need to respect and recognise.
The transition of leaders from one generation to the next needs to be done with sensitivity. When you lose a leader you lose important knowledge, experience and skills.
Young leaders stand on the shoulders of elders.
In recognition of this and the enormous contribution that elders and senior leaders have made, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations and organisations are designing ways of publicly honouring them.
This resource outlines helpful strategies and questions to ask to ensure you are setting up your governance for future generations to come. It also contains some great examples of what others have done.
NPY Women’s Council Chair Yanyi Bandicha and Co-ordinator Andrea Mason on succession planning, and bringing younger women into the organisation.
“Capacity building is about regeneration of our communities from the inside out—communities renewing themselves by identifying, appreciating and using their assets …
Each individual and organisation is a resource on which to build.”
Martumili Artists, Parngurr, Western Australia. Image, Wayne Quilliam.
Definition: Capacity development is ‘the process by which individuals, groups, organisations, institutions, societies and countries develop their abilities, individually and collectively, to perform functions, solve problems, set and achieve objectives, and understand and deal with their development needs in a broader context and in a sustainable manner’ (United Nations Development Programme 1997).
Capacity development or capacity building is all about helping people develop their own capabilities so that they can achieve their goals.
It is about giving people the chance to improve and strengthen their skills so they can perform tasks better and become more independent.
Capacity building is much more than just formal training, and the capacity to govern requires particular kinds of knowledge, skills and experience from leaders.
There may be many other capacities you can identify as important for your leaders. Consider putting together a list that applies to your situation.
| The capacity to work with others |
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| The capacity to define a vision and consensus |
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| The capacity to create and enforce rules and strategies |
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| The capacity to manage |
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| The capacity to assess and implement plans and goals |
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| The capacity to provide and support strong local leadership |
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Leadership for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander governance is a specialist area of knowledge and expertise.
As a leader, developing your capacity to govern is more than just a matter of personal development.
It requires building shared values, attitudes, ways of behaving, and acquiring the specialist abilities that are needed to do the collective job of governing.
First it must start with developing strong cultural values and confidence:
“… imbuing young people with a strong sense of their culture and identity gives them the best chance of finding their way in the world. Embedding culture in communities and young people is a form of Indigenous investment. [Indigenous] people … invest their knowledge, time and resources in young people because they know no one else, not teachers, or social workers or governments, can give what they give.”
(Mick Dodson, ‘Indigenous governance: Self-determination in action’ Reconciliation News No 25, December 2012, page 11)
However, having a strong cultural identity and recognition as a leader must be supported by the practical ability to get things done on behalf of others.
If future leaders are to govern their nations and organisations well, they will need to have access to the right tools, skills, experience and knowledge to carry out these responsibilities.
Three specific areas of capacity development for youth ‘governance leadership’ are central to a cultural reinvestment in youth. They are:
Bringing younger people along to negotiations, high-level meetings and conferences, and involving them in your strategic planning and decision making are important ways to develop future leaders.
The benefits for the young people are obvious, and these individuals have much to contribute as they add energy, enthusiasm and a fresh perspective.
This strategy of shadowing alongside a leader needs to become a routine part of the work of senior leaders, so that upcoming generations are exposed to critical experiences, can build their own skills, and can acquire the trust and recognition they will need from their own people.
The Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre (AILC) is the only provider of accredited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership training courses that focus on ‘leadership for governance’ in Australia. The AILC was established as a registered training organisation in 2005 and offers accredited courses in Indigenous leadership, and non-accredited short courses in specific leadership and mentoring skills. You can read more about the AILC by visiting its website: www.ailc.org.au.
Ensuring the involvement of the next generation
The Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation (ALPA) is an Aboriginal-owned and managed organisation which provides benefits to its members through running community retail stores.
The next generation of Yolŋu youth are given opportunities to become involved in managing ALPA through the Associated Director program. The Associate Director program includes two positions for young Aboriginal people to participate in the management of ALPA at a Board level. The Associate Directors are supported by the Non–Executive Directors, as well as being appointed a Mentor Associate Director, who is usually an Elder in the community with Board experience. The Mentor Associate Director assists the young Associate Directors in understanding the Board meeting protocols and processes as well as answering any questions that may arise about the content of discussions. The Associate Directors are not given any voting rights but are actively encouraged to participate in all Board discussions.
This program ensures that young Yolŋu people are not only given the opportunity to develop valuable leadership and business management skills but that they also given a voice in how their organisation is run.
The benefits of a diverse and skilled board
KARI is a vibrant Aboriginal community non-for profit organisation based in Liverpool, NSW. KARI provides an Out of Home Care (foster care) service for the Aboriginal community as well as a number of early intervention, prevention and cultural community programs aimed at supporting the Aboriginal population across Sydney and some outer regions.
KARI is governed by a Board of Management consisting of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, invited because of their expertise, knowledge and skills. Members are selected because of their skillset and the value they bring to KARI. Selection criteria focuses around an understanding of finance and business development, which KARI believe are essential attributes for a governing body. Equally as important is the relationships each member has with their local communities as KARI was born out of community demand and a need for cultural inclusion. Furthermore, Board members are assessed for the specific skillset they bring to the table and how it fits within the existing group, which KARI believes provides for a diverse skillset and range of expertise when making decisions.
Developing young and future Elders
Cunnamulla Aboriginal Corporation for Health (CACH) aims to promote, maintain and improve the health and wellbeing of people in South Western Queensland.
The CACH Murri Network has developed a Young Elders and Future Elders program as a forum that allows the future leadership and skill development of the younger generation. The Elders of the community see this as a very important strategy to engage the younger people of their community and to ensure the transfer of knowledge from Elders onto the younger generation.
Young Elders are identified in the community as being proactive and possessing the same qualities and leadership abilities of community Elders. Future Elders are two senior students identified by their peers and school staff as being future leaders in their community. Their role is to work closely with Young Elders as members of the CACH Murri Network as well as act as advocates and a voice for the youth. By developing this strategy, the CACH Murri Network is able to encourage, develop and nurture the younger generation through mentoring and support in order strengthen their skills and aspirations to become the future leaders of Cunnamulla.
