Getting started with your governance

Welcome to Tips from the Toolkit, where we share insights from the Indigenous Governance Toolkit to support your governance journey.???

This edition focuses on getting started – what to consider before you start setting up an organisation, community or nation.?

Before you start?

The process of building governance involves time and effort.?

To get started, consider the shared history of your group, purpose and values, authority to proceed and resources to do the job.?

There are common attributes that can help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups get started. Reflect on these before you start. It will help you build your governance in a way that works for your group.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers should be aware that this video may contain images and voices of persons who have passed.?

Purple House CEO Sarah Brown and Board Director Marlene Spencer talk about getting their organisation started. They explain why it was so important for Pintupi people to start their own service.?

Things to consider

– Adapted from Organising Aboriginal Governance: Pathways to Self-Determined Success in the Northern Territory (2015) by Dr Diane Smith.?

Strong leadership and teamwork: Identify a core group of local First Nations people, including young leaders, who can guide decisions and teamwork effectively.?

Shared commitment: Foster a shared commitment to do the hard work of governance by staying flexible, learning from mistakes, and accepting imperfection.?

Clear future vision: Develop a strong group vision by exploring your governance journey and history, evaluating the present, and setting goals for the future.?

Strong relationships: Build relationships through practical, real-world governance actions that deepen commitment to and engagement with your organisation, community or nation.?

Community support: Start with what matters to your people. Engage your community early by discussing governance ideas, addressing their concerns, and highlighting why change needs to occur.?

Negotiation and mediation skills: Develop skills to manage internal and external challenges and plan for sustainable, internally driven governance changes.?

Knowing your community strengths and assets: Understand and leverage your group’s skills, knowledge and resources to strengthen your governance and reinforce a shared commitment to rebuilding.?

Research: Learn from other groups’ successful governance practice to adapt and save time without reinventing the wheel.?

Planning, time and persistence: Be strategic. Set realistic goals, prioritise problems, and take incremental steps to build sustainable governance improvements.?

Strong networks, partnerships and alliances: Build connections with external experts and resources to access support while maintaining your group’s direction.?

A good sense of humour! Someone must lead the way, but you must also keep your members with you on the journey. Lead inclusively and keep the group united, even through challenges, while fostering openness to change.?

Building success

The most successful approaches to building governance are ones that:?

• become part of the daily routine?

• build on existing strengths and knowledge?

• relate to specific conditions and local problems?

• are carried out ‘on the job’ or in the local context, so that understanding is embedded within practice?

• identify culturally legitimate solutions for governance development [1]?

• prioritise time and flexibility. Look at what works best for your group and experiment with ways of developing solutions. The solutions should be culturally credible as well as practically effective.?

• evaluate what works well and what can be improved [2]?

For more on how to get started with building your governance, check out the Indigenous Governance Toolkit. Keep an eye on the next edition of Tips from the Toolkit, when we explore this topic further with some practical steps you can use to build your governance.?

[1] Bauman, T., Smith, D.E., Keller, C., Drieberg, L. and R. Quiggan. 2015. Indigenous Governance Building: Mapping Current and Future Research and Practical Resource Needs, Report of Workshop convened by AIATSIS and AIGI, Canberra July 2014, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra and the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute, Sydney.?

[2] Bauman, T., Smith, D.E., Keller, C., Drieberg, L. and R. Quiggan. 2015. Indigenous Governance Building: Mapping Current and Future Research and Practical Resource Needs, Report of Workshop convened by AIATSIS and AIGI, Canberra July 2014, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra and the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute, Sydney.?

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