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Indigenous Governance Toolkit Indigenous Governance Toolkit
Understand Indigenous Governance
Tip: Defining governance
Nov 13 2023
Understand Indigenous Governance
Tip: Defining governance

It’s important to be open to different ideas – to see what works best in your circumstances Experiment with ways of developing solutions that are culturally legitimate, as well as practically effective It’s...

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Systems and Plans
Tip: Financial management
Nov 10 2023
Systems and Plans
Tip: Financial management

If you are a director in your group, you can test your financial reporting knowledge using ASIC’s free financial reporting quiz for directors It’s also a good idea to provide financial training for new...

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Systems and Plans
Running effective online meetings
Nov 08 2023
Systems and Plans
Running effective online meetings

You can find further information and tools for holding effective and engaging online meetings on the ORIC website and ACNC website...

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Assess your governance
Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (KJ)
Oct 27 2023
Assess your governance
Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (KJ)

Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (KJ) is a Martu organisation established in 2005 to work with Martu to build strong, sustainable communities They do this through a range of cultural, enviornmental, and social intiatives The...

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Leadership
Murdi Paaki values-based leadership
Oct 25 2023
Leadership
Murdi Paaki values-based leadership

In 2019, Murdi Paaki Regional Assembly (MPRA) published a document on their ‘lessons learned’ in community-led governance On leadership, they state: “Unity, loyalty and respect are the fundamental governing...

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Acknowledgements
Oct 24 2023
Acknowledgements

Reconciliation Australia created the original Toolkit site We gratefully acknowledge their fundamental role and ongoing support Much of the original site content was drawn from 2 key projects – the Indigenous Co...

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How to use this Toolkit
Oct 24 2023
How to use this Toolkit

You can use the Indigenous Governance Toolkit in many ways, depending on your circumstances and needs There are different ways to navigate through the Toolkit You can read it like a book — start at the beginning...

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About the Toolkit
Oct 24 2023
About the Toolkit

Across Indigenous groups large and small, many of the same questions are being asked and explored From the big picture: What role do we want our cultural values and relationships to have in our governance How can...

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Conflict resolution and peacemaking
Implement peacemaking processes
Oct 24 2023
Conflict resolution and peacemaking
Implement peacemaking processes

This topic takes you through the different peacemaking processes you can use in your organisation, community or nation to manage or resolve conflicts, disputes and complaints Designing your peacemaking processes T...

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Conflict resolution and peacemaking
Understand peacemaking
Oct 24 2023
Conflict resolution and peacemaking
Understand peacemaking

This topic defines peacemaking for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups We also look at the role of healing in peacemaking Defining peacemaking Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives on respond...

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AIGI / Resource Hub / Aṟa Irititja project
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Indigenous Governance Training and the CATSI Act Review.
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Aṟa Irititja project
  • Home triangle
    • Home
    • About the Toolkit
    • How to use this Toolkit
    • Toolkit sections overview
  • Understand Indigenous governance triangle
    • Overview
    • Defining governance
    • Indigenous governance
    • Governance lingo
    • Self-determination and governance
    • Effective Indigenous governance
  • Your culture triangle
    • Overview
    • Centre your culture
    • Culture-smart governance
  • Assess your governance triangle
    • Overview
    • When to assess your governance
    • Know your people
    • Learn from history
    • Assess your purpose and vision
    • Recognise your internal culture
    • Map your assets
    • Monitor your wider environment
    • Plan for the future
  • Build your governance triangle
    • Overview
    • How to get started
    • Choose your governance model
    • Decide whether to incorporate
    • Develop your rules or constitution
  • Your people triangle
    • Overview
    • Your key players
    • Members
    • Board of directors
    • CEO and managers
    • Staff
    • Relationships
    • Diversity, equity and inclusion
    • First Nations women in governance
  • Leadership triangle
    • Overview
    • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership
    • Leadership styles
    • Challenges of leadership
    • Develop your leadership
    • Succession planning
    • Evaluate your leadership
  • Systems and plans triangle
    • Overview
    • Policies and procedures
    • Communication
    • Meetings
    • Decision-making
    • Financial management
    • Strategic planning
    • Risk management
  • Conflict resolution and peacemaking triangle
    • Overview
    • Understand conflicts, disputes and complaints
    • Understand peacemaking
    • Implement peacemaking processes
  • Self-determination triangle
    • Overview
    • Self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
    • Nation building, treaty and development
    • Nation building in practice
  • Governance Stories
  • Glossary
  • Useful links
  • Acknowledgements

Aṟa Irititja project

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Aṟa Irititja project

The Aṟa Irititja digital initiative was developed by the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara peoples (Aṉangu) of Central Australia. Aṟa Irititja means ‘stories from a long time ago’ in the language of Aṉangu. It is an example of Aboriginal peoples’ contemporary flexibility in working cultural rules into digital domains.1 About Aṟa Irititja’, access 2023, [link] Since 2020, the Aṟa Irititja Project has come under the umbrella of Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) and its Executive Board guides the project.

Working alongside local teachers, researchers and IT experts, Aṉangu have created a digital archive that, in 2023, contains over 300,000 repatriated and locally produced materials about their histories and contemporary lives. Aṉangu spokeswoman Sally Scales explains:

“Aṟa Irititja means our history or stories from a long time ago and in the mid-nineties our senior leaders told Pitjantjatjara Council to start a project to retrieve images and materials that missionaries, school teachers, anthropologists, scientists, doctors and government had collected over time and were keeping in cultural institutions like AIATSIS, several museums and their own private albums. Our old people said that they wanted this information back and to teach the young people … and to keep our culture strong… We’ve got items dated as early as 1884 all the way up to 2009 … There are films, sound recording, photos, documents, art works, objects and a map. And there’s more than 75,000 items in Aṟa Irititja … [It is used] to connect to family and culture, for teaching, learning and … for entertainment”– Scales cited in Ormond-Parker et al. 2013, vii

The project is community-based and was developed at the request of Aṉangu communities. Aṉangu have retained control and ownership over the archive. It is a private cultural, social and historical record for Aṉangu communities and is not open to the general public. Aṉangu also own the cultural intellectual property. In these ways, Aṉangu have been able to develop and use this digital technology in a way that is seen as being culturally legitimate.

The archive also uses Pitjantjatjara, Ngaanytjarra and Yankunytjatjara languages to record oral histories:

“The recording of oral histories in Pitjantjatjara, Ngaanytjarra and Yankunytjatjara languages is an integral part of the archives ongoing work. The Aṟa Irititja system needed to be flexible enough to ensure that each of the relevant local Indigenous languages could feature not only in the database title name but throughout the interface, such as in culturally designed graphics for on-screen icons or buttons”– KC Website; Scales et al. 2013, 160

The way the digital archive is governed aligns with and draws from the law of Aṉangu land. This makes it culturally legitimate in the eyes of Aṉangu communities.2Diane Smith, That computer is clever like a dingo: principles and practice for Indigenous digital governance and digital sovereignty (Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, 2022).

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