Community Case Study For Northern Land Council

Discuss about the Community Case Study for Northern Land Council.

The co-existence of different communities within a geographical region is of immense importance to the overall growth of the said region. Conflicts and differences in cultural opinions are prevalent among the places where several communities and groups live and work together. These conflicts and opinion differences have to be solved in an efficient and effective manner acceptable to the involved communities. One of the most important issues to be addressed in this case is whether the cultural, human and intellectual rights of both involved groups are being implemented and followed. The ways of addressing the human, ethical, cultural, and intellectual rights of the Indigenous people in Australia have been detailed and discussed. An ethical protocol for accessing knowledge regarding the Indigenous issues has been selected.  Herein, this study is about co-existence of different communities with reference to the state of the Indigenous population in Australia.

The Northern Land Council is an organization situated in the Top End of the Australian Northern Territory. Established in 1973, it owes its origins to the struggle that Australian Aboriginals and Indigenous people have endured, in order to gain equal rights to fair opportunities and facilities. These rights include a fair treatment as far as wages, salaries and land ownership are concerned. Its main headquarters is situated in the city of Darwin, Australia. It also has regional offices in places such as Jabiru, Borroloola, Timber Creek and Katherine (Marks, 2014, p.44).

While it is an important land council of that region, it is not the only relevant organization of its type in the Northern Territory. It is one of four major entities of this type in that region, the others being Central Land Council (covering the southern regions), Tiwi Land Council (covering the Tiwi Islands situated to the north of Darwin) and the Anindilyakawa Land Council (covering the Groote  Eylandt region situated in the Gulf of Carpentaria).

This Council has some major responsibilities, one of them being consulting traditional landowners who have a specific interest in Aboriginal land use. This procedure leads to acquiring valuable knowledge that can help in efficient land management. Other areas for consultation include external tourism access, mining and other relevant businesses looking for expansion in the region. These processes often include facilitation of group negotiation, to the point of directly helping in consensus building among many Aboriginal groups dealing with landowning (Zander et al. p.445).

Ethics Protocol in Utilizing the Indigenous Knowledge

The aforementioned negotiation also involves looking after the situation of other Aboriginals who have suffered because of land related situations and conflicts in the past.  Despite the fact that most of the Aboriginals in the Northern Land Council now live in major cities, there are around two hundred communities of Indigenous people living in scattered areas of Aboriginal land. This Council is a representative body for them, bringing their main issues and problems to light and ensuring that they receive equal treatment compared to other people living in these territories. Its authority stems from the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, and it has responsibilities under Acts such as the Pastoral Land Act 1992 and the Native Title Act 1993.

In association of the situation where the rights of the indigenous people have been portrayed as the situation where the people in the group of the aboriginals are treated with differ aspect of motive and space. In terms of the situation, there are issues, which have marked the opportunity in the association, and the factors have shown the rights of the eopl from the indigenous community are in dire state of stake (Castellano, 2014).  The universal declaration of the human rights which guarantees in providing all the required steps for the smooth availing of the help in the gaining of the rights in basic causes have failed in some of the situation. There are issues in terms of the factors where the indigenous people face the problem of coping with the situation in where due to unknown reason there is issue in the safeguarding of the factors of the existence in the community. Due to the fall in the assistance in the society the indigenous people of the community faces the factors in the continuing of the daily commuting life. The government polices in the society have seen the fall of the awareness in case of the people in the society with the indigenous pact of the society. The underdevelopment cases of the indigenous people of the society have undergone huge change in somewhat a negative sense and have seen that the issues in the daily life for the factors of the unemployment rate (Louis, 2017)

The discrimination and the issues in the case of the caste and race have shown huge issues faced by the common people in the society. In case of the workplace, scenarios the people of the society from the indigenous group have seen exploitation in the workplace also. The language of the indigenous are deemed to be not studied in the universities and schools as a means of exploiting their origins and suffocating them to leave the place. The managing of the traditional right of people from the indigenous group of people in managing the rights of the lands other assets is also taken away. The enforce policy of assimilation have led to more distress in the society filled with the proportion of the indigenous people and have mostly affected the situation of the people living with family. The culture and tradition are not given due respects due to which there are situation where the people of the society from the indigenous group have led to oppose. Utter lacks of respect have also led to the situation where the objectives of the indigenous people are not given importance (Lavallée, 2015).

The resolving of the issues has seen no proper acceptance in the society and has led to the fall in the development of such community. It is clear that the variety of people in the society with the background of indigenous group have facer the utter problem in the managing of the issues in the society. The resolving of the issues in the society with the factors in the society has been in unsuccessful due to the factors of less importance and knowledge in the society.  The argument of the people from the group of the indigenous background on the topic of freedom of expressing the traditional culture have not seen any light as cause of the ineffective form of government policies over the development of the society.  One of the prime issues that the indigenous group of people faces in daily life but is overlooked is the freedom of addressing theory known issues in the notice of the government of the country (Kovach, 2015).

A proper understanding of the western systems and social cultures through the medium of education is a process of cultural transmission. It has become a prior aspect in conducting ethical research about the Indigenous people of Australia. The generation of knowledge and the process of dissemination are product of influence of the imperialistic colonialism across the globe. The AIATSIS has formulated certain ethical protocols in course of researching about the aboriginals and indigenous people of Australia to respect their solidarity. There are certain guidelines that need to be followed in order to use or ventilate the knowledge about the aboriginal people gathered from the research work. The procurement of GERAIS or Guidelines for Ethical Research in Australian Indigenous Studies had made the process of maintenance of ethical considerations more feasible to protect the knowledge about aboriginal people to help them to enjoy their willing seclusion from the so called civic and developed society of Australia. This rules and protocols supervise the process of meaningful engagement through maintaining reciprocity for further scopes of the research (Aiatsis.gov.au, 2017). The protocol focuses of keeping a good relationship between the researcher and the community of indigenous people. The researchers need to follow the ethical standards in order to maintain the civic rights of the aboriginal people along with their right of confidentiality and privacy. The ethical codes for aboriginal research are to maintain utmost respect for them through providing them their civic rights with complete recognition. On the other hand, an existence of negotiation and mutual understanding between the researcher and the community is essential before using the aboriginal knowledge in either academic or commercial purpose. The aspect of collaboration and participation of the community representatives is important in the process of ventilating the aboriginal knowledge.

The indigenous people contribute to the researches through providing relevant resources as this needs to be acknowledged by the researcher by providing immediate access to the indigenous people. Apart from that, the researcher needs to ask for permission to the community before sharing the acquired knowledge among public otherwise it can be considered as a sheer violation of the code of conducts in the ethical protocol for the research of aboriginals and indigenous people of Australia (Nhmrc.gov.au, 2017). The government of Australia has imposed some restrictions in using the knowledge of indigenous people in order to respect their solidarity and uniqueness whereas the research ought to account the restrictions in ventilations of knowledge before using the information in ethical process. The evaluation and application of ethical protocols in indigenous research helps in ceremonial complexities of the unique knowledge system of the indigenous community of Australia. The researcher cannot manipulate the collected data based on assumptions as this ethical rule is imposed for safeguarding the image and simplicity of the indigenous people before world. Any manipulation or perception of the researcher can incur sheer inappropriateness in the knowledge of aboriginal people of Australia. On the other hand, the sources of the information must be acknowledged with firm proficiency to maintain the ethical standards of research with aboriginal people of the country.

The article 3 of the Draft Declaration of the Rights of indigenous People of Australia stated that the aboriginal people possess a national right for self determination. The political status can be freely chosen by the aboriginal people with the virtue of civil rights imposed on them. Apart from that, they are completely free to pursue their development practices of society and culture as the government can never interfere in these things. In a research about the indigenous people, the critical issues related to their human and intellectual property rights needs to be ventilated to act as a whistle blower. The indigenous people of Australia are facing serious troubles in modern world of globalization and technological advancement. The very civic rights of the people are violated due to systematic policies of the government that raises sheer hindrances in the very existence of the aboriginal people of the country (Nhmrc.gov.au, 2017).

As per the researches in current schedule, the aboriginal people of Australia ranks higher in the indicators of undeveloped people of the country whereas their employment rate and income stability is less than any other community in the country. This aspect of injustice towards the human rights of the aboriginal people needs to be brought out through the researchers. The literacy rate is also lower of the aboriginals as many termed them as inferior for the government and so called modern society. Along with that, the researches should explore the discrimination faced by the aboriginal people in the workplace as they are not even allowed to learn their mother tongue in the schools. There are even administrative issues related with their land as many sacred lands and sacred ruins of Tasmanian aboriginals are captured by the government with unjust treaties. The indigenous people face sheer problems to live with their cultural heritage as the civic society always intends to impose their culture on them (Aph.gov.au, 2017).

The international laws of human rights fail to protect the cultural and social humanitarian rights of the indigenous people. The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of Australia is often considered as a major threat for the cultural maintenance of the aboriginal people. The cultural property of the aboriginal people of Australia includes some unique knowledge and creative expressions of indefinable antiquity as it needs to be protected by the government with adequate modifications in the policies for the protection of aboriginal people. The artworks of the indigenous people are presented with inappropriate process that damages the credibility and respect of the aboriginal people through depriving them from their rights (Kovach, 2015). The knowledge of the aboriginal people faces major problem of recognition through acquiring patent for their creative work. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is formulated for every single human being on earth as the endangered rights of aboriginal people need a different and unique statutory regulation to protect their cultural and social rights in the tumultuous situation for struggle of existence.

Conclusion

The aboriginals or indigenous people of Australia are the root of the culture of the continent whereas the present culture or trend of the Australian society is largely influenced by the British culture. The ancient culture of Australia is somewhere lost in the pressure of Occidentalism culture and style of the colonialism by the western superpowers. The originality of the Australian culture lies with the culture and lifestyle of the aboriginal people of the country. Thus, the protection of the aboriginal people along with their human rights is sheer important for a country to protect the heritage and cultural authenticity of the country. The exploitation of the intellectual rights of the aboriginals needs to be prevented in order to safeguard the true identity of the nation along with the original people of it.

References

Aiatsis.gov.au (2017). Ethical research. Retrieved from: https://aiatsis.gov.au/research/ethical-research/guidelines-ethical-research-australian-indigenous-studies/managing-research-use-storage-and-access [Accessed on 24th ma 2017]

Aph.gov.au (2017). Public departments. Retrieved from: https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/RP9697/97rp20 [Accessed on 24th ma 2017]

Castellano, M.B., 2014. Ethics of Aboriginal research. International Journal of Indigenous Health, 1(1), p.98

Kovach, M., 2015. Emerging from the margins: Indigenous methodologies. Research as resistance: revisiting critical, Indigenous, and anti-oppressive approaches, p.43

Lavallée, L.F., 2015. Practical application of an Indigenous research framework and two qualitative Indigenous research methods: Sharing circles and Anishnaabe symbol-based reflection. International journal of qualitative methods, 8(1), pp.21-40

Louis, R.P., 2017. Can you hear us now? Voices from the margin: Using indigenous methodologies in geographic research. Geographical research, 45(2), pp.130-139

Marks, G., (2014). Two sides of the same coin: Outstations policy and land tenure reform. AILR, 18, p.44.

Nhmrc.gov.au (2017). Ethical aboriginal knowledge. Retrieved from:  https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-ethics/ethical-issues-and-further-resources/ethical-guidelines-research-involving-aboriginal- [Accessed on 24th ma 2017]

Nhmrc.gov.au (2017). Publication guidelines. Retrieved from:  https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines-publications/e52 [Accessed on 24th ma 2017]

Zander, K.K., Dunnett, D.R., Brown, C., Campion, O., Daniels, C., Daniels, G., Nelson, E., Daniels, G., Blitner, G., Carson, D. and Garnett, S.T., (2014). Indigenous Cultural and Natural Resources Management and Mobility in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia. Human ecology, 42(3), pp.443-453.