Indigenous temporary mobility practices in Australia

On the move? Indigenous temporary mobility practices in Australia
Sarah Prout / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
This paper draws together the disparate body of existing research regarding Indigenous temporary mobilities to build a more comprehensive picture of these population dynamics and their policy implications. Posted 24-01-2009

Why the Northern Territory Government needs to support Outstations

Why the Northern Territory Government needs to support Outstations/Homelands in the Aboriginal, Northern Territory and national interest
Jon Altman, Seán Kerins, Bill Fogarty and Kate Webb / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research

This report argues for the urgent need to develop an innovative outstation/homeland policy which solves the problem of government service delivery of Indigenous Australians' citizenship entitlements. Posted 23-12-2008

Indigenous participation in regional labour markets, 2001-06

Nic Biddle, John Taylor and Mandy Yap / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
This paper examines the extent to which Indigenous Australians have shared in the large expansion of the Australian workforce that is revealed by a comparison of 2001 and 2006 census results. Posted 24-11-2008

How realistic are the prospects for 'closing the gaps'

How realistic are the prospects for 'closing the gaps' in socioeconomic outcomes for Indigenous Australians?
Jon Altman, Nicholas Biddle and Boyd Hunter / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
'Practical reconciliation' and more recently 'closing the gaps' have been put forward as frameworks on which to base and then evaluate policies to address Indigenous disadvantage. This paper uses census-based analysis at the national level to examine trends in Indigenous wellbeing since 1971. Posted 24-10-2008

Culture, power and institutions in Indigenous Australia

Contested Governance: Culture, power and institutions in Indigenous Australia
Janet Hunt and others / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
This collection of papers examines the dilemmas and challenges involved in the Indigenous struggle for the development and recognition of systems of governance that they recognise as both legitimate and effective. Posted 18-10-2008

Western Australian labour market

A regional analysis of Indigenous participation in the Western Australian labour market
Nicholas Biddle and John Taylor / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
This paper focuses on recent change in the fortunes of Indigenous people in the labour market and analyses these alongside changes in other population, social and economic outcomes. Posted 11-08-2008

Indigenous welfare reform

Indigenous welfare reform in the Northern Territory and Cape York: A comparative analysis
Jon Altman and Melissa Johns / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
This paper examines and compares two Indigenous jurisdictions in the Northern Territory and Cape York that have been subject to radical policy interventions by Federal and State Governments. Posted 05-08-2008

Locations of indigenous population change

Locations of indigenous population change: what can we say?

John Taylor and Nicholas Biddle / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
Posted: 21-06-2008

John Taylor and Nicholas Biddle have modelled the contribution of net migration to small area population change to address the question of how to be sure that we are measuring the same population over time. This research uses a non-jurisdictional typology of Indigenous settlement reflective of different residential arrangements, and the results have implications for the analysis of change in population characteristics over time.

Re-vitalising the Community Development Employment Program

Re-vitalising the Community Development Employment Program in the Northern Territory
Jon Altman and Will Sanders / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
This paper, focusing mainly on CAEPR research findings produced since 1990, provides evidence-based research findings that the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) scheme is an important and beneficial program for Northern Territory Aboriginal communities and individuals. Posted 23-05-2008

Indigenous legal rights to freshwater

Indigenous legal rights to freshwater: Australia in the international context
Melanie Durette / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
The paper undertakes a comparative overview of the law as it pertains to Indigenous rights in freshwater in four countries: the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Posted 27-05-2008

The entangled relationship

The entangled relationship between Indigenous spatiality and government service delivery
Sarah Prout / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
Drawing on research in Yamatji country, Western Australia, this paper examines the complex and often contested relationship between mobile Indigenous people living in regional and remote areas and the delivery of State housing, health and education services. Posted 27-05-2008

Caring for country

Caring for country: An overview of Aboriginal land management in the Top End of the Northern Territory
Séan Kerins / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
Owning and managing lands of the significance of the tropical savannah of the Northern Territory brings many diverse challenges. This presentation discusses the formalisation of Aboriginal land and sea management activities in the mid 1990s and the establishment of the Caring for Country program. Posted 05-05-2008

Equality and difference arguments in Australian Indigenous affairs

Equality and difference arguments in Australian Indigenous affairs: Examples from income support and housing
W. Sanders / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
This paper explores the complex and never-ending dialectic between equality and difference in Australian Indigenous affairs, including responsibility-based welfare systems and Aboriginal housing policy debates. Posted 01-02-2008

Observations of the 2006 indigenous enumeration strategy

Agency, contingency and census process: Observations of the 2006 indigenous enumeration strategy in remote Aboriginal Australia
Frances Morphy and others / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
During the period leading up to and during the 2006 Census, a team of researchers undertook an observation of the census enumeration in four remote Australian locations in order to provide a frank and objective assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the Indigenous Enumeration Strategy. Posted 03-02-2008

Indigenous property rights in commercial fisheries

Indigenous property rights in commercial fisheries: Canada, New Zealand and Australia compared
Melanie Durette / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University
Through a detailed comparison with Canada and New Zealand, this paper shows that the Australian government's approach to Indigenous customary and commercial fishing rights stands outside developments in other Commonwealth countries. Posted 17-01-2008

Indigenous property rights in commercial fisheries

Melanie Durette / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research

Through a detailed comparison with Canada and New Zealand, Melanie Durette demonstrates that the Australian government's approach to Indigenous customary and commercial fishing rights stands outside developments in other Commonwealth countries. The paper focuses on commercial fishing in particular as an opportunity for Indigenous people to more fully realise their economic rights. Posted 05-12-2007

The social effects of native title

The social effects of native title: recognition, translation, coexistence
Benjamin Smith and Frances Morphy / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
Despite the involvement of large numbers of anthropologists, lawyers, historians, archaeologists and others trained in the social sciences and humanities there has been surprisingly little reflection on the have engaged with native title as a social phenomenon. This collection seeks to make a contribution towards the study of the social effects of native title. Posted 09-11-2007

Indigenous Governance Brief—October 2007

This is the first in a new online series of Indigenous Governance Briefs (No. 1), produced as part of the ARC Indigenous Community Governance Project in partnership with Reconciliation Australia. The series is aimed at policy-makers, Indigenous leaders, and Indigenous community organisations. This issue focuses on the 'Who, what, where, and how of Indigenous governance'. [11 September 2007]

Poverty, Deprivation and Exclusion Among Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians

Poverty, Deprivation and Exclusion Among Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians
—Peter Saunders, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW
CAEPR Seminar Series, 31 October 2007 Streaming Audio / MP3
Abstract: The problematic nature of using low income as a proxy for poverty is widely acknowledged amongst Australian poverty researchers in general, and Indigenous researchers in particular. The reliance on income fails to recognise the multi-dimensional nature of poverty and disadvantage and the credibility of the findings depends upon the poverty line on which they are based. This paper presents findings from a new study that is seeking to identify what constitutes material deprivation and social exclusion as a way of developing new indictors of poverty and disadvantage. The study is being conducted in collaboration with ACOSS, Mission Australia, The Brotherhood of St Laurence and Anglicare, Sydney, and its basic premise is that the measurement of poverty must be grounded in the actual living standards and experiences of those identified as poor. The findings are based on two surveys one of the general population, the other of users of welfare services, that explore community understandings of different dimensions of deprivation, social exclusion and poverty. The extent and severity of deprivation and social exclusion will be compared with conventional poverty measures, in total and for specific sub-groups in the population, including Indigenous Australians.

(Im)mobility:

further thoughts on the nodal network model for regional population structures in north east Arnhem Land October 24 2007 Streaming Audio
—Frances Morphy (Fellow, CAEPR)

Abstract: The structure and dynamics of regional populations in remote Aboriginal Australia are little understood and under researched. Memmott et al. (2004: 1) remark that 'whereas larger scales of mobility are analysable (to a limited degree) using the statistical methodologies of demographers and using the gross census units of Statistical Divisions and ATSIC regions, there is a need to develop a greater understanding of smaller-scale regional characteristics.' One could add that much of the smaller scale research that has taken place has focused on the phenomenon of intra-regional mobility.