Negotiating indigenous self-determination at the regional level: experiences with regional planning

[Extract] The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 established sixty Regional Councils across Australia.¹ As the elected arm of the revamped, decentralised federal administration of Aboriginal affairs, these Regional Councils were to assume the role of decision -makers at the regional level and to feed into the national policy-making process via Zone Commissioners. To help them achieve this, Regional Councils were required by legislation to establish a Regional Plan for: 'improving the economic, social and cultural status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents in the Region' (ATSIC 1991). ATSIC intended that the Regional Planning process would focus on the preparation of regional goals and strategies which Councils could work towards over a specific time frame, usually between three to five years. ATSIC expects Regional Planning to reflect community concerns as an integral part of the strategic plan, and that Regional Councils determine these concerns through a process of community-based consultation. Keeping this in mind, most Regional Councils have developed their plans through the application of a variety of participatory processes (see Wolfe 1993). Regional Planning represents a new, and until recently, untrialed experiment in the decentralisation of government administration and the implementation of self-determination policies. However, Rowse has already cautioned that the concept of Regional Planning may either: 'do no more than oil the existing machinery of government, or ... open up government processes to new popular forces' (Rowse 1992, 22) If the latter eventuates, there is real chance that Federal policies seeking self-determination for indigenous people can be achieved. The meaning of self-determination, however, is yet to be negotiated at a number of levels. The government can only do this by negotiating on a case by case basis with each of the many self-defined organisations and groups that constitute Australian indigenous society. Regional Councils provide an important opportunity to support such negotiations at the regional level. This paper explores which of the alternatives suggested by Rowse (1992) will be the more likely outcome of the ATSIC Regional Planning experiment. We consider this by reflecting upon the constraints and opportunities that we faced while facilitating Regional Planning work on behalf of the first term Regional Council in Queensland between June 1992 and March 1993. It had a mixed urban and rural constituency