2020-

2021
Aboriginal
Affairs NSW
This document has been created for educational purposes and does not reflect the views,
opinions or direction of the Australian Federal Government, State Governments or local
councils nor any affiliates thereof. The writer of this document acknowledges the First
Nations as the custodians of this land and pays respect to Elder’s past, present and
emerging.

Trust Before Treaty: An Engagement

Strategy for NSW Government
Hughes S

Trust Before Treaty: An Engagement Strategy for NSW Government

1. Background

The Australian government has sought to bridge past injustices committed against
Aboriginal people. In 2008, the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised on behalf of the
country to indigenous and Torres Straight Islanders for mistreatment of those who were
from the Stolen Generations. The Prime Minister also apologised for “laws and policies of
successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and
loss” (Australian Government, 2008). This was a step in the right direction of
acknowledgement and is expressed a genuine willingness for reconciliation.

In the spirit of this reconciliation and building bridges with Aboriginal peoples of Australia,
the government of New South Wales (NSW) stated it would negotiate a Treaty recognising
traditional Indigenous ownership of NSW. Thus, a Treaty with Aboriginal peoples of the state
will be created to acknowledge the wrongs of the past, secure a future for indigenous people
and provide a ‘truthful and honourable basis for our reconciliation with the state’s first
people’. Henceforth, the NSW Government has expressed strong interest in building and
maintaining respectful relationship with Aboriginal people in the state. As a result of this,
NSW Government has approached the Aboriginal Affairs Advisor of NSW to develop an
engagement strategy. NSW Government recognises that that without genuine engagement,
it will be virtually impossible to secure the treaty with Aboriginal people of NSW. Thus,
Aboriginal Affairs NSW has developed the Trust Before Treaty Engagement Strategy for NSW
Government to collaborate with Aboriginal stakeholders, communities and agencies in
decision making with respect to the treaty. The Trust Before Treaty Engagement Strategy for
NSW Government takes a purposeful and deliberate approach that is to be implemented
well before the treaty is developed.

2. Stakeholders and their role

Aboriginal people of NSW: Empowered in every step of the decision making process to
ensure that the NSW Government approaches the treaty from a place of understanding.
Therefore, NSW Government must look at the historical context to ensure that that any legal
framework or treaty is to enshrine certain rights for First People, or gives First People
significant levels of control.

NSW Government: The NSW Government is to provide leadership, appropriate funding and
ensure the decision making occurs in a culturally secure manner to build trusting
relationships with Aboriginal people. The Government is to act in a flexible manner and be
transparent by setting achievable goals towards creating the treaty.

Aboriginal Affairs NSW: The Aboriginal Affairs NSW office is to ensure that aspirations of
Aboriginal people are prioritised in the decision making process. They must also ensure that
all decision is an involved process that empowers Aboriginal people of NSW to work with
NSW government as facilitator of Indigenous self-determination. The Aboriginal Affairs NSW

1
Hughes S

has developed this engagement strategy through consultation Aboriginal people of NSW
and literature on effective community engagement.

Treaty Commissioner: The Treaty Commissioner is a newly created position by NSW

Government. As a holder of the position, the Commissioner will consult with Aboriginal
communities and assist to negotiate individual treaties that align with traditional landowners
aspirations.

3. A Strategy for Engaging with Aboriginal people of NSW

3.1. Methodology
Engagement is about the people in the community taking part in shaping the directions,
influencing the decisions and actions that affects them. It is a process, sometimes nonlinear
that brings all stakeholders together and is based on collaboration. Engagement in simple
terms means an interaction between groups of people working towards shared goals.
Engagement is involves having the public participate and community consultation activities
are undertaking to initiate this. To understand the Trust Before Treaty Engagement Strategy
for NSW Government, there are two points of clarification that are paramount to this
Strategy — what we mean by engagement and how we define stakeholders. Engagement is
‘’the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by
geographic proximity, special interest or similar situations to address issues affecting the
wellbeing of those people” (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2011).

In developing this engagement strategy, the use of evidence based approach was crucial in
order to utilise recent literature specific to Aboriginal demographic research to draw from
past learning of the process. An invaluable resource has been National Congress
of Australia’s First Peoples which is an independent of government but funded by it. This
Congress has published a framework for engaging with Australian Government Agencies in
2012. This framework delineated roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder and principles
which are overarching the engagement.

It is also important to note when engaging with people from marginalised groups, a high
level of people’s participation works best and real power sharing is necessary through
empowerment. The Trust Before Treaty Engagement Strategy for NSW Government is
adapted from the public participation framework developed by the International Association
of Public Participation (IAP2) as well as literature from community engagement in the public
arena. The IAP2 is an international organisation that promotes the practice of public
participation. The IAP2 framework is built on foundations of values with the overall goal of
ensuring organisations make better decisions that support public interests and address
concerns of affected demographics.

Often engagement as a concept is referred to spectrum of engagement as found in

literature. The below model of IAP2 engagement framework shows the typical engagement
strategy as a spectrum going from low level engagement that starts with informing the
public to higher level involvement which goes collaboration to empowerment (Doherty and
Beaton, 2000). It is this empowerment phase that the Trust Before Treaty Engagement
Strategy for NSW Government has at its core in. Thus, this strategy seeks to evoke a real

2
Hughes S

sense power sharing in terms of decision making which starts from collaborating – i.e. all
stakeholders are given the opportunity to contribute to the decision making of the Treaty
equally. Therefore, collaborative partnerships must be formed when working with
disadvantaged or marginilsed communities (Vinson, 2009) and to address complex problems
(Lenihan, 2009) especially those of the ‘wicked kind’.

Figure 1 IAP2 engagement framework

3.2 Engagement approach

In order for this engagement strategy to have the desired effect, it must first contextualise
the structural problem it aims to content with. This is made even more complex when the
problem is one that has been long term and faced by the most marginalised people in this
country, the Aboriginal people. Past experience indicates that any engagement must come
from a place of genuine concern, trust, integrity and informed consent from Aboriginal
people. What this means in terms of the spectrum of engagement as per IAP2 framework is
that participation must be of high level starting from empowerment at the minimum. In
Australia, engagement from Aboriginal people has never been supported by comprehensive
legal framework or treaty. This has been problematic because engagement has not been
enshrined rights of Aboriginals. In practical terms, this has resulted in Aboriginal people not
being empowered to significant levels of control in decision making. Literature shows
Canadian Aboriginals experiencing similar problem. This rights for Aboriginal peoples of
Australia to be represented in the decision making process in this treaty comes from The
United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This declaration

3
Hughes S

provides a basis for seeking consent from Aboriginal people prior to engagement through
Aboriginal institutions and is an international framework for best practice in terms of
engagement.

Figure 2 The Trust Before Treaty Engagement Strategy 2020-2021

Figure 2 above is a diagrammatic representation of the components of the Trust Before

Treaty Engagement Strategy. The engagement starts with Contextualise stage which involves
understanding the historical contexts as well social and cultural issues faced by Aboriginals.
This is done in the spirit of fostering empowerment and trust by acknowledging the
continuous power imbalances which Aboriginals have been subjected to in the past. This
leads to the Aboriginal community being enabled to set aspirations and build capacity for
self-determination. Furthermore, many Aboriginal communities are a complicated mix of
people with unique cultural and historical ties. This often causes social fractures as well as
strong loyalties (Kidman, 2007). Thus, Aboriginal communities are often comprised of
different clans, nations, language and ceremonial groups which may have a historical
attachment to the area or custodial rights. Recognising this is paramount in the treaty and
therefore must be reflected in the engagement strategy.

The second phase of the engagement strategy is the Develop stage. At this phase, the
purpose and scope of the engagement strategy is determined with clarity. All stakeholders

4
Hughes S

agree on the outcomes they want to achieve all parties know their roles in the engagement
and responsibilities are allocated. All stakeholders have a level accountability for their roles
and responsibilities and parameters are put in place to measure the outcomes. Furthermore,
all stakeholders determine what indicators of success and monitoring tools they will utilise.
This will be important in the evaluation part of the review stage. In this stage, capacity for
self-determination in Aboriginal communities of NSW is supported through Aboriginal self-
governance. This is a deliberate attempt to bring about an Aboriginal driven process with
NSW government acting as an enabler within a framework of Aboriginal self-determination.
In the Coordinate stage, all resources are collated and built on existing community
governance structures and Aboriginal strengths and assets. The NSW government and
relevant agencies provide the necessary resources including leadership, financial and human
assets. Culturally sensitive staff is empowered to build and maintain trusting relationships
with the Aboriginal communities of NSW. There must also be realistic expectations around
resources and funding capacity and show flexibility in meeting these needs.

In the implement stage, the Trust Before Treaty Engagement Strategy is put into action. This
involves engaging with stakeholders and the Aboriginal community. NSW Government aims
gain feedback from all parties in engagement process. The NSW Government will report
back to the community the results and outcomes of engagement and how decisions on the
Treaty were influenced. The NSW Government will respect the varied views and experiences
of Aboriginal communities in the state and adjust engagement strategy for improvement. In
the final stage of the engagement is the Review phase, which will include taking all feedback
on board and making informed decisions on the strategy’s effectiveness. This will also give
the NSW Government the opportunity to learn from the Aboriginal community. The NSW
Government acknowledges that transparent decision-making means taking evidence based
approach ensuring Aboriginal communities have significant representation in their input. All
views gathered through community engagement activities. All this feedback is then assessed,
complied and reviewed including gathered data in surveys.

It is worth noting that the underlying theme in all phases and stages of the engagement
strategy is the recognition of powner inequalities. This then ensures there are genuine
attempts at sharing power, in the decision making processes and agreed conflict resolution
mechanisms are transparent. The Trust Before Treaty Engagement Strategy aims to be work
in a sustained manner and give Aboriginal communities in NSW the opportunity to
participate in developing treaty. Members of the Aborignal communities are empowered to
be proactively involved in all stages of decision making from the onset through
conetxualising their plight and historical injustices. They are then seen as the central actors in
the development of policies and programs that contribute to the treaty.

3.3 Strengths and potential drawbacks

As with all strategies, The Trust Before Treaty Engagement Strategy is anticipated to have
certain strengths which is hoped will increase its effectiveness. These include:

 Treating Aboriginal communities as equal partners – engagement with

Aboriginal communities must be based on NSW Government committing to
creating and maintaining beneficial partnerships that treats them with respect.

5
Hughes S

 Recognising power imbalance – There is recognition of the unequal power

that exists between Aboriginal communities and government bodies. This
strategy makes a sincere effort to share power for decision making and
ensuring all stakeholders are treated as equals.
 Relationships as foundation – This engagement strategy is built on
 Historical contexts – NSW Government must take into account the historical
tragedy and long term consequences from colonisation. The engagement
process is purposeful and flexible to enable Aboriginal empowerment as
priority in decision making.
 Shared accountability and responsibility –

There are also potential drawbacks with this engagement strategy, some of these may
include:

 There are some ongoing challenges when it comes to governments engage in

marginalised communities on the ground whilst remaining wholly flexible and
taking into account upward departmental accountabilities.
 Engaging effectively in Aboriginal communities that use lateral violence and
group conflict is challenging.
 There I no literature evidence of informed consent has been utilised by
governments in the engagement processes and its effects is not yet available

6
Hughes S

References
Doherty, W.J & Beaton, J.M (2000). Family therapies, community and civic renewal. Family Process,
39 (2), 149-161.

Kidman J (2007). Engaging with Māori communities: an exploration of some tensions in the mediation
of social sciences research. Monograph. Auckland: Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga: National Institute of
Research Excellence for Māori Development and Advancement. Viewed 2 February 2020,
<http://www.maramatanga.ac.nz/
publication/engaging-māori-communities-exploration-some-tensions-mediation-social-sciences-
research->.

Lenihan, D. (2009) Rethinking the public policy process: A public engagement framework. Ottawa,
Canada: Public Policy Forum. Retrieved from
www.ppforum.ca/sites/default/files/FRAMEWORK%20PAPER%20.pdf

National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples (2012). A framework for engagement between
Australian Government agencies and the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. Sydney:
National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. Accessed 6 February 2020.
<http://nationalcongress.com.au/engagement-framework/>.

NSW Labor plans to sign treaty recognising Indigenous ownership. (2018, January 25). The Guardian.
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jan/25/nsw-labor-plans-to-
sign-treaty-recognising-indigenous-ownership

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, MP – Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples. Australian

Government (2008). https://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-
people/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples

U.S Department of Health and Human Services (2011). Principles of community engagement (2nd
edition). Washington DC.

Vinson, T (2009). Markedly socially disadvantaged localities in Australia: Their nature and possible
remediation. Canberra, ACT: Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.