Property rights, individual incentives and remote-area Aboriginal economic development

Development policy seeks to deliver improvements in various economic and social indicators, yet compared with the general population few indicators indicate success for Indigenous Australians in non-urban locations. Markets are failing to progress economic development in remote Aboriginal communities. Institutional constructions such as the form of organisation of activity for governance and accountability have been Western-free-market-oriented. Yet these communities often lack the 1ong history of preceding development of trade, individual appropriation of benefits and opportunity for individual wealth accumulation of Western societies. Traditional cultural influences should influence institutions. Kinship, relatedness, cooperation, sharing and reciprocity are an important\ud component of the traditional social context in some situations. This collectivism can be harnessed by the form of organisation to mediate alienation from competitive market interactions