Partnership principles

The partners to this Agreement are committed to:

  1. Self‐determination for Aboriginal peoples.
  2. Developing long‐term sustainable relationships based on trust.
  3. Respecting Aboriginal knowledge, history, lived experience and connections to community and country.
  4. Shared responsibility and accountability for outcomes and actions.
  5. Redressing structures, relationships and outcomes that are unequal, racist and/or discriminatory.
  6. Recognising Aboriginal cultural rights, protocols, principles, ethics and standards.
  7. Working differently with Aboriginal peoples, recognising that mainstream approaches are frequently not the most appropriate or effective.
  8. Collaborating with community to co-design services to achieve collective impact. Using a self-determination approach means that government does not have exclusive ownership of issues.
  9. Improving long-term well-being for Aboriginal children, families and communities.
  10. The RCIADIC principles of arrest and imprisonment as sanctions of last resort.

Strengthening the partnership

Things have changed since the first AJA was established in 2000. Most government agencies have developed portfolio-specific strategies to address Aboriginal disadvantage, and have established partnership governance structures. The consequence of this is an increased demand on Aboriginal people to participate in a broader range of forums and partnerships. Community representatives are now having to make decisions about how to prioritise their time and where their input will have the greatest impact. Changes to other Aboriginal community-government partnership structures will need to be considered over the life of Burra Lotjpa Dunguludja to ensure it remains relevant, and to support greater Aboriginal decision making.

The evaluation of AJA3 made a number of recommendations to build and strengthen the already robust partnership. These findings and recommendations will see the governance structures of Burra Lotjpa Dunguludja evolve and improve over the life of the Agreement.