Indigenous Representation within DFAT; what is the next frontier?

I serendipitously came across a recent blog post on the excellent Lowy Institute Blog The Interpreter highlighting the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) experience with Indigenous recruitment. (Link here).

The post doesn’t mention it, but my (admittedly limited) experience in visiting Australian embassies and High Commissions overseas suggests that they do an excellent job in showcasing Indigenous art, a reflection of the reality that our Indigenous heritage and cultures are one of the unique differentiators which assist us to stand out on the international stage.

The post is worth reading, and reflects the significant progress made in DFAT, and across the APS in recruiting Indigenous staff over the past decade or so. It is largely good news, although there is clearly a long way to go.

The post led to me wondering what the next frontier might be for Australia’s diplomacy and international agenda in relation to Indigenous affairs.

The answer is not straightforward. Looking back, there are two sets of transnational forces which have played a part in the development of Australia’s indigenous policies and indeed in our broader public façade presented to the international community.

The first, which has been relatively unacknowledged and perhaps under-appreciated, has been the drive to surmount the international perceptions, particularly in Asia, that we are yet to substantively put the ‘white Australia’ policy behind us. I think there are strong arguments that post war visionaries such as Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam, along with many of their supporters, recognised that Australia’s economic future was inextricably tied up with expanding our surmounting the blatantly racist elements which underpinned what Paul Kelly has termed the “Australian settlement’ at Federation.

The community support for establishing a role for the national government in Indigenous affairs at the 1967 referendum, and the support for land rights in the Northern Territory a decade later, were arguably products of this changed mindset amongst key interest groups in Australia, including the business community. Notwithstanding the push back which emerged in outlying states and regions, the new mindset held sway, saw the enactment of the Native Title Act, and a more inclusive approach to Indigenous affairs by Australian public and private institutions.

The broad recognition that Australia’s economic interests and future were tied up with the way we dealt with race is in my view the most influential factor in driving the broad thrust of indigenous policy over the last forty years.

A second transnational trend has been the focus by the Indigenous leadership on forging alliances with indigenous groups in Canada, the US and New Zealand in particular, as a means of attempting to pressure Australian Governments to adopt more progressive Indigenous polices. To this end, the Indigenous leadership has directed significant effort and policy resources to participating in various United Nations forums, in particular the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, various expert groups, and perhaps most successfully, the negotiations which led to the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. See link here to the UN Indigenous peoples web page.

While this work is undoubtedly important, and Australian leaders such as Mick Dodson, Megan Davis and others have played important and influential roles in driving UN processes, and in persuading Governments, including Australia, to adopt key UN policies such as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, it remains the case that the UN is effectively marginal to the day to day implementation of Indigenous policy in Australian jurisdictions. Moreover, there is nothing on the political horizon which suggests that the UN is going to move closer to the centre of either international or domestic policy from an Australian perspective.

In my view, it would be a mistake for Indigenous interests to continue to invest substantial policy efforts in the UN to the detriment of the hard grind of domestic policy advocacy.

Looking forward, globalisation will come to play a larger role in Australian economic and social life, and this will force all interest groups, including business and Indigenous interests to rethink their approach to Indigenous policy.

The continuing failure to eliminate deep seated disadvantage, particularly in remote Australia, will have potentially adverse consequences for Australia’s political and economic bargaining position, particularly vis a vis Asia. I don’t claim the solution is simple, or can be implemented quickly, but there is an indisputable case for much greater investment in basic infrastructure (including social housing) in remote and northern Australia, and this will have ancillary benefits in terms of national security.

For Indigenous interests, there is a need to carefully consider the implications of a globalising world (to which Australia is not immune) for their political, social and economic opportunities. The challenge will be to leverage the political gains of the last fifty years into economic, social and cultural gains over the next fifty years. This will require new approaches, mindsets and focus. I venture to suggest that governments will not be the entire solution, and there will be a need to leverage the expanding Indigenous estate, and develop Indigenous commercial institutions which both provide independent sources of revenue and which also allow Indigenous priorities to flourish. These are substantial challenges.

For a vision of what might be possible and/or necessary, have a look at the Alaskan Indigenous consortium Nana Development Corporation (link here) which has an Australian subsidiary!

To return to where I began, for DFAT, I suggest that the next frontier in relation to Indigenous engagement, beyond recruitment and procurement, is to begin to develop the capacity and inclination to provide rigorous and sustained policy advice to governments which joins the dots, and makes the case for stronger domestic Indigenous policies which strengthen our international bargaining power and our national security.