Leading from Between: Indigenous Participation and Leadership in the Public Service 9780773559639

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L e a d in g f ro m Between

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McGill-Queen’s Native and Northern Series (In memory of Bruce G. Trigger) John Borrows, Sarah Carter, and Arthur J. Ray, Editors   1 When the Whalers Were Up North Inuit Memories from the Eastern Arctic Dorothy Harley Eber   2 The Challenge of Arctic Shipping Science, Environmental Assessment, and Human Values Edited by David L. VanderZwaag and Cynthia Lamson   3 Lost Harvests Prairie Indian Reserve Farmers and Government Policy Sarah Carter   4 Native Liberty, Crown Sovereignty The Existing Aboriginal Right of SelfGovernment in Canada Bruce Clark   5 Unravelling the Franklin Mystery Inuit Testimony David C. Woodman   6 Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785–1841 James R. Gibson   7 From Wooden Ploughs to Welfare The Story of the Western Reserves Helen Buckley   8 In Business for Ourselves Northern Entrepreneurs Wanda A. Wuttunee   9 For an Amerindian Autohistory An Essay on the Foundations of a Social Ethic Georges E. Sioui 10 Strangers Among Us David Woodman 11 When the North Was Red Aboriginal Education in Soviet Siberia Dennis A. Bartels and Alice L. Bartels

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12 From Talking Chiefs to a Native Corporate Elite The Birth of Class and Nationalism among Canadian Inuit Marybelle Mitchell 13 Cold Comfort My Love Affair with the Arctic Graham W. Rowley 14 The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7 Treaty 7 Elders and Tribal Council with Walter Hildebrandt, Dorothy First Rider, and Sarah Carter 15 This Distant and Unsurveyed Country A Woman’s Winter at Baffin Island, 1857–1858 W. Gillies Ross 16 Images of Justice Dorothy Harley Eber 17 Capturing Women The Manipulation of Cultural Imagery in Canada’s Prairie West Sarah Carter 18 Social and Environmental Impacts of the James Bay Hydroelectric Project Edited by James F. Hornig 19 Saqiyuq Stories from the Lives of Three Inuit Women Nancy Wachowich in collaboration with Apphia Agalakti Awa, Rhoda Kaukjak Katsak, and Sandra Pikujak Katsak 20 Justice in Paradise Bruce Clark 21 Aboriginal Rights and Self-Government The Canadian and Mexican Experience in North American Perspective Edited by Curtis Cook and Juan D. Lindau

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22 Harvest of Souls The Jesuit Missions and Colonialism in North America, 1632–1650 Carole Blackburn

35 Eighteenth-Century Naturalists of Hudson Bay Stuart Houston, Tim Ball, and Mary Houston

23 Bounty and Benevolence A History of Saskatchewan Treaties Arthur J. Ray, Jim Miller, and Frank Tough

36 Uqalurait An Oral History of Nunavut Compiled and edited by John Bennett and Susan Rowley

24 The People of Denendeh Ethnohistory of the Indians of Canada’s Northwest Territories June Helm

37 Living Rhythms Lessons in Aboriginal Economic Resilience and Vision Wanda Wuttunee

25 The Marshall Decision and Native Rights Ken Coates

38 The Making of an Explorer George Hubert Wilkins and the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913– 1916 Stuart E. Jenness

26 The Flying Tiger Women Shamans and Storytellers of the Amur Kira Van Deusen 27 Alone in Silence European Women in the Canadian North before 1940 Barbara E. Kelcey 28 The Arctic Voyages of Martin Frobisher An Elizabethan Adventure Robert McGhee 29 Northern Experience and the Myths of Canadian Culture Renée Hulan 30 The White Man’s Gonna Getcha The Colonial Challenge to the Crees in Quebec Toby Morantz 31 The Heavens Are Changing Nineteenth-Century Protestant Missions and Tsimshian Christianity Susan Neylan 32 Arctic Migrants/Arctic Villagers The Transformation of Inuit Settlement in the Central Arctic David Damas 33 Arctic Justice On Trial for Murder – Pond Inlet, 1923 Shelagh D. Grant 34 The American Empire and the Fourth World Anthony J. Hall

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39 Chee Chee A Study of Aboriginal Suicide Alvin Evans 40 Strange Things Done Murder in Yukon History Ken S. Coates and William R. Morrison 41 Healing through Art Ritualized Space and Cree Identity Nadia Ferrara 42 Coyote and Raven Go Canoeing Coming Home to the Village Peter Cole 43 Something New in the Air The Story of First Peoples Television Broadcasting in Canada Lorna Roth 44 Listening to Old Woman Speak Natives and Alternatives in Canadian Literature Laura Smyth Groening 45 Robert and Francis Flaherty A Documentary Life, 1883–1922 Robert J. Christopher 46 Talking in Context Language and Identity in Kwakwaka’wakw Society Anne Marie Goodfellow 47 Tecumseh’s Bones Guy St-Denis

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48 Constructing Colonial Discourse Captain Cook at Nootka Sound Noel Elizabeth Currie 49 The Hollow Tree Fighting Addiction with Traditional Healing Herb Nabigon 50 The Return of Caribou to Ungava A.T. Bergerud, Stuart Luttich, and Lodewijk Camps 51 Firekeepers of the Twenty-First Century First Nations Women Chiefs Cora J. Voyageur 52 Isuma Inuit Video Art Michael Robert Evans 53 Outside Looking In Viewing First Nations Peoples in Canadian Dramatic Television Series Mary Jane Miller

59 Inuit Shamanism and Christianity Transitions and Transformations in the Twentieth Century Frédéric B. Laugrand and Jarich G. Oosten 60 No Place for Fairness Indigenous Land Rights and Policy in the Bear Island Case and Beyond David T. McNab 61 Aleut Identities Tradition and Modernity in an Indigenous Fishery Katherine L. Reedy-Maschner 62 Earth into Property Aboriginal History and the Making of Global Capitalism Anthony J. Hall 63 Collections and Objections Aboriginal Material Culture in Southern Ontario, 1791–1914 Michelle A. Hamilton

54 Kiviuq An Inuit Hero and His Siberian Cousins Kira Van Deusen

64 These Mysterious People Shaping History and Archaeology in a Northwest Coast Community, Second Edition Susan Roy

55 Native Peoples and Water Rights Irrigation, Dams, and the Law in Western Canada Kenichi Matsui

65 Telling It to the Judge Taking Native History to Court Arthur J. Ray

56 The Rediscovered Self Indigenous Identity and Cultural Justice Ronald Niezen

66 Aboriginal Music in Contemporary Canada Echoes and Exchanges Edited by Anna Hoefnagels and Beverley Diamond

57 As affecting the fate of my absent ­husband Selected Letters of Lady Franklin Concerning the Search for the Lost Franklin Expedition, 1848–1860 Edited by Erika Behrisch Elce 58 The Language of the Inuit Syntax, Semantics, and Society in the Arctic Louis-Jacques Dorais

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67 In Twilight and in Dawn A Biography of Diamond Jenness Barnett Richling 68 Women’s Work, Women’s Art Nineteenth-Century Northern Athapaskan Clothing Judy Thompson 69 Warriors of the Plains The Arts of Plains Indian Warfare Max Carocci

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70 Reclaiming Indigenous Planning Edited by Ryan Walker, Ted Jojola, and David Natcher 71 Setting All the Captives Free Capture, Adjustment, and Recollection in Allegheny Country Ian K. Steele 72 Before Ontario The Archaeology of a Province Edited by Marit K. Munson and Susan M. Jamieson 73 Becoming Inummarik Men’s Lives in an Inuit Community Peter Collings 74 Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America Nancy J. Turner 75 Our Ice Is Vanishing/Sikuvut Nunguliqtuq A History of Inuit, Newcomers, and Climate Change Shelley Wright 76 Maps and Memes Redrawing Culture, Place, and Identity in Indigenous Communities Gwilym Lucas Eades 77 Encounters An Anthropological History of Southeastern Labrador John C. Kennedy 78 Keeping Promises The Royal Proclamation of 1763, Aboriginal Rights, and Treaties in Canada Edited by Terry Fenge and Jim Aldridge 79 Together We Survive Ethnographic Intuitions, Friendships, and Conversations Edited by John S. Long and Jennifer S.H. Brown

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80 Canada’s Residential Schools The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939 The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume 1 81 Canada’s Residential Schools: The History, Part 2, 1939 to 2000 The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume 1 82 Canada’s Residential Schools: The Inuit and Northern Experience The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume 2 83 Canada’s Residential Schools: The Métis Experience The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume 3 84 Canada’s Residential Schools: Missing Children and Unmarked Burials The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume 4 85 Canada’s Residential Schools: The Legacy The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume 5 86 Canada’s Residential Schools: Reconciliation The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume 6 87 Aboriginal Rights Claims and the Making and Remaking of History Arthur J. Ray 88 Abenaki Daring The Life and Writings of Noel Annance, 1792–1869 Jean Barman 89 Trickster Chases the Tale of Education Sylvia Moore

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90 Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws Yerí7 re Stsq’ey’s-kucw Marianne Ignace and Ronald E. Ignace 91 Travellers through Empire Indigenous Voyages from Early Canada Cecilia Morgan

93 Iroquois in the West Jean Barman 94 Leading from Between Indigenous Participation and Leadership in the Public Service Catherine Althaus and Ciaran O’Faircheallaigh

92 Studying Arctic Fields Cultures, Practices, and Environmental Sciences Richard C. Powell

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Leading from Between Indigenous Participation and Leadership in the Public Service

C at h e r i n e A lthau s a n d C i a r a n   O ’ F a i rc hea lla ig h

McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Chicago

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©  McGill-Queen’s University Press 2019 isb n isb n isb n isb n

978-0-7735-5913-4 (cloth) 978-0-7735-5914-1 (paper) 978-0-7735-5963-9 (eP DF ) 978-0-7735-5964-6 (eP UB)

Legal deposit fourth quarter 2019 Bibliothèque nationale du Québec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Funding was also received from Griffith University.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Title: Leading from between: Indigenous participation and leadership in the public service / Catherine Althaus and Ciaran O’Faircheallaigh. Names: Althaus, Catherine (Catherine Eileen), author. | O’Faircheallaigh, Ciaran, author. Series: McGill-Queen’s native and northern series; 94. Description: Series statement: McGill-Queen’s native and northern series; 94 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190165723 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190165847 | ISB N 9780773559141 (softcover) | IS BN 9780773559134 (hardcover) | ISB N 9780773559639 (eP DF ) | IS BN 9780773559646 (eP U B ) Subjects: L CS H: Indigenous peoples—Employment—British Columbia. | L C SH : Indigenous peoples—Employment—Australia—Queensland. | L C SH : Public service employment—British Columbia. | L CS H : Public service employment— Australia—Queensland. | L CS H: Canada—Officials and employees. | L C SH : Australia—Officials and employees. | L CS H: Civil service—British Columbia. | LC SH: Civil service—Australia—Queensland. | L C SH : Diversity in the workplace—British Columbia. | L CS H: Diversity in the workplace—Australia— Queensland. Classification: L CC J F 1659.M 56 A48 2019 | D D C 331.6/3970711—dc23

This book was typeset by Marquis Interscript in 10.5/13 Sabon.

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Contents

Tables and Figures  xi Acronyms and Abbreviations  xiii 1 Indigenous Peoples in Public Services: Leadership, Culture, and Bureaucracy 3 2 History and Context: Indigenous Marginalization and Survival 23 3 Indigenous Employment in the Queensland and British Columbia Public Services, 1991–2015  50 4 Research on Public Sector and Indigenous Leadership  74 5 Indigenous Understandings of Leadership: Personal, Community, and Bureaucracy  98 6 Barriers to Indigenous Participation and Leadership Practice  134 7 Indigenous Participation and Leadership: Facilitators and Impact 174 8 Conclusion: Indigenous Participation and Leadership in Public Services 214 References 233 Index 249

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Tables and Figures

Tables 3.1

Indigenous proportion of population, workforce, and labour force in Queensland, 1991–2011 (%)  52 3.2 Proportion of Indigenous employees in the Queensland Public Service and Indigenous percentage of Queensland population, selected years, 1993/94–2012/13  60 3.3 Aboriginal employment in the BCP S, 2011–15  66 A3.1 Proportion of Indigenous employees in the Queensland Public Service (%)  69 A3.2 Percentage Indigenous and non-Indigenous employment by salary level, Queensland Public Service, 1993/94–2014/15 70 A3.3 Numbers of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Queensland Public Service employees at nine salary levels, Queensland Public Service, 1993/94–2012/13  72

F ig u r e s 4.1 4.2

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Key differences and similarities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal leaders  86 Graphic representation of components of traditional Indigenous leadership  87

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Acronyms and Abbreviations

A A N DC ABS A DM A PS A DA A N Z SOG A TSIC BC B C PS B C PSA B C TC C OA G DA TSIP EEO EOPEA EEOMP HB C IDS LFS LTMS MC FD N DIS N DP OPSC PSER C PSMC

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Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada Australian Burau of Statistics Assistant Deputy Minister Australian Public Service Anti-Discrimination Act Australia and New Zealand School of Government Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission British Columbia British Columbia Public Service British Columbia Public Service Agency British Columbia Treaty Commission Council of Australian Governments Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Equal Employment Opportunity Equal Opportunity in Public Employment Act Equal Employment Opportunity Management Plans Hudson’s Bay Company Inclusion and Diversity Strategy Labour Force Survey Leadership Talent Management Strategy Ministry of Children and Family Development National Disability Insurance Scheme New Democratic Party Office of the Public Service Commissioner Public Service Employee Relations Commission Public Service Management Commission

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xiv

Acronyms and Abbreviations

QPS QPSC R DA SC R G SP

Queensland Public Service Queensland Public Service Commission Racial Discrimination Act Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision SSHR C Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada U N DR IP United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

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I had sitting on the table over there a little turtle, you know how you get those stress balls, it’s made of the same material and it is a stress turtle and it’s from Palm Island. The [school] principal made them and he gave them to the kids … on the back it has ‘two way strong,’ and that’s part of the philosophy of that school. The principal tells the teachers and in turn reminds the kids, because the turtle is an important symbol for that mob on the Island and reminding the kids that a turtle can adapt to two worlds, in the water but also on the land. They may be able to move better in the water but they can still do what they need to do on the land. And so he reminds the kids and he says to the teachers, ‘Our job is to remind the student that they have to be two way strong like the turtle, to be strong on Palm Island life and culture, but to be strong for mainland life as well.’ And if that’s the expectation of a preppy, of a six-year-old – I’m getting emotional because it’s a huge burden – why can’t any adult in the public service, in the corporate sector, in community, in society have that same burden too? Interview with Queensland public servant, February 2018

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1 Indigenous Peoples in Public Services Leadership, Culture, and Bureaucracy

In t ro du cti on Since the 1970s governments in Australia and Canada have introduced policies designed to recruit Indigenous people into their public services, from which they were then largely absent. Today there are thousands of Indigenous public servants in these countries, and hundreds in senior roles. Their presence raises numerous questions. Why have governments sought to recruit them and have government goals been achieved? How do Indigenous people experience public sector employment and what are their motivations? Are their experiences different to those of non-Indigenous colleagues? Are Indigenous public officials just “public servants” like any other, or do they bring quite different perspectives to bear? Do they have a unique impact on the design and delivery of public policies towards Indigenous peoples and on policymaking more generally? How do they understand leadership in a public service context? Is their practice of leadership different from that of their non-Indigenous colleagues? What, if any, are the wider ramifications of Indigenous participation for the way in which the public sector deals with cultural diversity, and for conventional understandings of leadership and of the way public bureaucracies operate and should operate? This book seeks answers to these questions through a study of Indigenous participation and leadership in the public services of British Columbia and Queensland. There is already a small body of work that examines the opportunities and challenges facing Indigenous public servants. But much of this focuses on Nunavut in Canada, where public service and governance structures are being created that are intended to be Indigenous

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in purpose and design (Hicks and White 2015; Timpson 2006, 2009), or it addresses specific dimensions of the Indigenous experience – for instance the extent to which Aboriginal public servants in Australia’s Northern Territory understand themselves to represent other Aboriginal peoples in their work (Ganter 2016). Little of it focuses on Indigenous leadership per se. We examine the experiences of Indigenous public servants working within a non-Indigenous mainstream public service – specifically their understandings of, and exercise of, leadership. We explore not only personal experiences and understandings, important as these are, but also the wider ramifications of Indigenous participation for the formulation and content of both Indigenous affairs policy and more general policy, for the way in which public services deals with difference, and for public sector leadership. We consider how the struggles and achievements of Indigenous public servants might inform how we think about traditional Weberian bureaucratic forms, and how the choices they confront and their experience in straddling Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures throws light on the ideals and practice of public service. We argue that the experiences of Indigenous public servants also have important implications for the prospects of justice and reconciliation in Australia and Canada, suggesting that we have troubling histories to confront and important decisions to make if there is to be any hope of achieving reconciliation and forging new relationships between Indigenous and settler populations. Despite debates about the possible “hollowing out of the state” as governments supposedly withdraw from regulatory and service delivery roles (Rhodes 1994), public services continue to play a critical role in Western liberal democracies, and indeed in some respects their importance is increasing (Goodsell 2014). Given this reality, public services exist as potentially significant sites of societal transformation, both in their own right and as a result of the policies they develop and deliver. What we think and do about the public service as an institution and cultural entity is thus extremely important. Indigenous public servants can offer valuable insights into how a public service should be designed to serve the needs of all its citizens, as well as the values and leadership qualities it needs to be imbued with and promote. If we can begin to listen to the stories of Indigenous public servants and the leadership they practice, we may open ourselves to the possibility of a new vision for public service that incorporates the

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Indigenous Peoples in Public Services 5

Indigenous history and culture of Australia and Canada. In sum, we hope to provide an opportunity for Indigenous public servants to give voice to their experience, and to consider the implications of this experience for the sort of public service we need if governments are to better meet the needs of all of their citizens. In the following sections we locate ourselves in relation to the research described in this book, and explain our approach to undertaking research that involves Indigenous peoples. We highlight the importance of terminology in studies both of Indigenous peoples and of leadership. We introduce three overarching themes that recur throughout the book: contrasting models of bureaucracy (“Weberian” and “representative”); the distinctive position of Indigenous public servants who choose to work within agencies of states that have in the past sought to destroy Indigenous cultures and identities; and the potential impact of Indigenous public servants on policies that affect Indigenous people and communities. We then outline the approach and methods adopted in the study, and explain the selection of the province and state (British Columbia in Canada, Queensland in Australia) as the level of analysis.

L o c at in g O urselves Much research on Indigenous peoples by non-Indigenous scholars has rightly been criticized for misrepresenting itself as “neutral” and “scientific,” whereas in reality it inevitably reflects the cultural assumptions and histories of the researchers (Smith 1999). It is therefore important to locate ourselves in personal and professional terms and explain our motivation in undertaking this research. In addition, while we are not Indigenous people and do not claim to follow Indigenous ways, we do wish to be respectful of Indigenous research methodologies and philosophies (see for example the work of Kovach 2009; Smith 1999; Wilson 2008). One way of doing this is to pursue a relational connection and responsibility between the researcher, participants, and research audiences – an approach that hopefully encourages due acknowledgment of Indigenous perspectives and experiences, respect for the integrity of Indigenous cultures, and reciprocity in the creation and sharing of knowledge (Kirkness and Barnhardt 1991). It is also important to explain how we came to the research in this time and place, and with what motives and intentions.

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Ciaran O’Faircheallaigh spent the first twenty-two years of his life in Ireland and after undertaking postgraduate study in Australia taught and researched at the University of Papua New Guinea. Since returning to Australia in 1984 his research and professional practice has focused on the interrelationship between large-scale mineral development and Indigenous peoples. He has worked for Indigenous peoples in Australia, Canada, and Papua New Guinea negotiating agreements with mining companies. O’Faircheallaigh has also pioneered the use of community-controlled impact assessment as a means of helping Indigenous communities make informed decisions about proposed resource projects, and allowing them to play a greater role in the planning and management of projects they are prepared to approve. This work has provided many opportunities to observe the practice of Indigenous leadership, and to observe the positive impact of effective leadership and the consequences of leadership absence or failure. It has also involved spending extended periods in Indigenous communities, which in turn has greatly increased his awareness of the general policy and governance issues facing Indigenous peoples. Over the same time Ciaran has also worked extensively in “mainstream” public sector management, with a specific interest in policy evaluation and policy implementation. A focus on Indigenous leadership in public services thus constitutes a logical “bringing together” and extension of his research and professional practice. Catherine Althaus was raised in Brisbane but spent almost nine years on Vancouver Island in Canada before returning in 2016 to Melbourne. She is a so-called “pracademic,” having worked as a public servant in Queensland and then as a teacher, researcher scholar, and consultant in public administration and policy across Australia and Canada. Catherine’s father, before he had married and started his family, lived in a remote community and taught Aboriginal children in northern Queensland, and stories from his experience set a backdrop to some of her family history. Together with intellectually identifying a gap on Indigenous and multicultural perspectives on public sector leadership, this family connection inspired her to attend a presentation at the National Library in Canberra on Indigenous public service leadership programs given by Kerrie Tim, a senior Aboriginal policy adviser from the Australian Public Service. From the stories that Kerrie shared on that day, Catherine was roused from a position of fear of saying or doing the “wrong thing.” The stories led her to a conscious choice to better understand and help rectify injustices

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towards Indigenous peoples and to contribute to reconciliation and self-determination, notably in her field of practice and research: public administration and policy. Our independent paths leading to a focus on Indigenous public service leadership coincided when Catherine reached out to Ciaran as her former undergraduate instructor and PhD supervisor with a grant application proposal. We discovered our mutual interest in the topic and started our path together by winning funding, along with South African collaborator Gerda van Dijk, through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (S S H R C ). We later won a grant from the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (A N Z S O G ) with collaborator Bill Ryan to widen the study to New Zealand. In addition to the funding support of these agencies, we would like to acknowledge collaborators who have supported different components of the research from across South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia. These include Gerda van Dijk, Bill Ryan, Daryn Bean, Te Aroha Hohaia, Fiona Main, Mike Phillips, Heather Johnston, Rebecca Middleton, Janet Leonard, Robina Thomas, Anthony Corbett, and Lyndon Murphy. We especially acknowledge with thanks and respect the Indigenous public servants from Australia and Canada who met with us and shared their stories and journeys, and who were prepared to have them documented throughout this book.

In d ig e n o u s R e s e a rc h Methodology a n d a N o t e o n Termi nology In undertaking this study, we were guided by the “four R” approach suggested by Kirkness and Barnhardt (1991) for Indigenous research, which requires researchers to conduct themselves and their research activities with respect, relationship, reciprocity, and responsibility. To assist us to conduct our work in a respectful manner, we engaged with Indigenous scholars and students wherever possible and sought counsel from Indigenous advisers and elders. We would like to acknowledge their generous sharing of leadership, wisdom, and experience. From this engagement we have faced important questions that made us view our research in new ways. For example, we were asked by one participant to establish our “line in the sand” in considering how research findings might be used. It was suggested, for instance, that

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mining companies might use information on Indigenous governance generated by our research to do harm in their interaction with Indigenous communities. Were we prepared to let that happen? How could we seek to prevent it? We have taken such questions to heart and reflected on ways to ensure that our research would be used for good and to avoid harm. This in our view goes to the heart of exercising responsibility in conducting research. We took action to respect the traditions of participants in the research and in doing so also sought to build relationships with them. In Canada, gifts are exchanged by many Indigenous peoples as a sign of acknowledgment and respect and are often given upon meeting a person – not as a token of gratitude after an exchange. We followed this gift-giving practice regardless of people’s decision to participate in our research. Ongoing connection with participants is another feature of a relationship-based approach. We have worked to stay in contact with our network of participants as an indication of respect and to avoid the harmful “fly-in-fly-out approach” that can characterize research practices with Indigenous communities (Drew 2006; Minniecon et al. 2007). We have also sought to practise the principle of reciprocity and giving back knowledge to the participants. We offered a website to our participants, intended as a community space of practice and learning should this be useful. We have helped initiate networks of Indigenous public servants in Australia and New Zealand. Written material, including this book as well as publicly available conference papers, web-based articles, and direct presentations to participants and public sector agencies, have been developed that document ways in which Indigenous public servants bring unique and valuable skills to bear on their work. This material helps participants to build a case concerning their contributions, and to “give back” to communities their knowledge in a form that may be beneficial. We acknowledge that much of the information and knowledge we share in this book belongs to the participants. Our role is not to appropriate this knowledge but rather to gather and share it. Finally, we have sought to be careful and self-conscious in our use of language, which we acknowledge can involve the exercise of power in ways that fail to show respect and can cause harm (Smith 1999, 20). In this regard one area of complexity involves how to refer to Indigenous peoples in specific contexts. Some Indigenous people prefer the term “Aboriginal”; others prefer “Indigenous”; some prefer “First

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Indigenous Peoples in Public Services 9

Peoples” or “First Nations, Métis, and Inuit”; and some people prefer the terms “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.” Others prefer to use names associated with individual peoples and territories, such as “Wik,” “Innu,” “Tł cho˛,” or “Wiradjuri.” Much depends on context and the issues that are under consideration (I CT , n.d.). The practice we have adopted is that in drawing on interviews we have always used the terms employed by our Indigenous interviewees. In presenting statistical data on employment in public services in chapter 3, for consistency and ease of interpretation we use the terminology employed by the government bodies that collect and publish the data. In contexts where a generic term is required that applies across peoples and jurisdictions, we use “Indigenous.” We apply this term for example when talking generally about Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. Another issue of language and terminology, and a critical one for this study, involves “leadership.” The concept of leadership has particular connotations and meanings in Western theory and practice that do not necessarily apply in Indigenous cultures and traditions and in fact may have negative connotations for Indigenous people (Sinclair and Evans 2015; Warner and Grint 2006). This is indicated for example by the fact that a directly corresponding term for “leader” or “leadership” is absent from many Indigenous languages (Morphy 2007; Warner and Grint 2006) and, as will become apparent, many participants defined the concept of “leadership” in ways quite different from those generally employed in Western society. While we use the term “leadership” throughout the book, we stress that in doing so we are not assuming normative value for Western understandings of the term. Instead, we use the term to explore the assumptions that non-Indigenous and Indigenous people bring to ideas of leadership, and about practices and behaviours that are or should be involved in its exercise.

R e c u r r in g Themes Three themes recur throughout the book. Indigenous public servants form part of a movement towards “representative bureaucracy,” discussed in the next section, which demands scrutiny – especially because it challenges the established Weberian model of bureaucracy, sometimes in ways that are unexpected and not obvious. The second theme involves a fundamental choice facing Indigenous public servants,

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regarding whether to participate in public service structures. Because of the historical and contemporary roles of the state in relation to Indigenous peoples (see chapter 2), other public servants do not face this choice. The way in which they deal with it constitutes a unique experience that deserves to be recognized and explored. The third theme includes the contribution of Indigenous public servants to public service processes and outcomes, including their impact on policies that affect both Indigenous peoples and society more widely. Representative Bureaucracy Governments seek to recruit Indigenous public servants with the goal of “matching” public service demographic profiles with those of the general population in the jurisdictions concerned (see chapter 3). Yet the intention behind this approach to public service recruitment is unclear. For example, do governments pursue Indigenous inclusion purely on an affirmative action “numbers” agenda? Or do governments presume Indigenous public servants offer something unique that helps influence, disrupt, or “leaven” the wider public service? If so, what is this unique contribution assumed to be? The theory of representative bureaucracy has led public services across the globe to pursue active recruitment of women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and visible minorities (Bradbury and Kellough 2011; Ng and Sears 2015). Representative bureaucracy is premised on the belief that employee diversity automatically promotes equity and includes into policymaking the views of the populations that are represented. Scholars have challenged these assumptions, highlighting a distinction between “passive” and “active” representation (Mosher 1968), and arguing the need to go beyond organizational analysis and towards individual experience in assessing outcomes (Bradbury and Kellough 2011). A “passive” representation perspective suggests that filling a numeric quota is enough to ensure representation of the relevant demographic group. “Active” representation, on the other hand, argues that public servants must proactively promote the views and interests of the particular group they are meant to represent. The representative bureaucracy model, especially its active form, involves moving away from the traditional Weberian notion of bureaucracy. The Weberian model advocates the stripping away of traditional forms of human authority and culture, to encourage a particular form

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of administrative culture. This comprises in particular a system comprised of hierarchical, rule-based, neutral, rational-legal, technocratic, and expert civil servants. It is intended to promote objective, stable, predictable, equitable, and efficient ways to meet the administrative needs of the entire population. For Weber, the authority of charisma and tradition, often expressed through charismatic and hereditary leadership models, does not promote efficiency, but instead encourages nepotism, inequity, and inefficiency. While he bemoaned the possibility that a Weberian bureaucracy might end up creating an “iron cage” that pursued its own ends rather than the needs of the society it was meant to serve, the overall benefits of the system justified its use (Baehr 2001; Gerth and Mills 1946; Weber 1930). What the representative bureaucracy agenda has done, often unconsciously, is to challenge this Weberian model. In particular, representative bureaucracy and the diversity movement suggest that a range of cultural perspectives and practices is beneficial to bureaucratic structure and practice. In this context we interpret “culture” broadly, to include ways of knowing, worldviews, and modes of governance and social organization. An open dialogue has yet to occur, however, on how much cultural diversity to introduce, on whose culture should be introduced, and on the implications of a representative bureaucracy for public bureaucracies and the peoples they serve. An issue specific to our study is that Indigenous public servants in British Columbia and Queensland continue to be small in number and act against a history of colonialism, which can impose a burden of representation that does not apply in the same way to other affirmative action groups. Individual Indigenous public servants are somehow meant to encompass an ability to express and represent the entire spectrum of Indigenous views on any given issue (Main 2014; chapter 6 below). While female public service employees or employees from particular ethnic backgrounds within a multicultural workforce might also be seen to confront this burden, the position of Indigenous public servants is different because they are often presumed or required to bring to their work a homogenous Indigenous view (Main 2014). An official with Chinese ethnicity working in an Australian public service, for example, might be called on to speak for the views of Chinese migrants (although this might be considered somewhat unusual), but is not usually required to speak for all migrants. A female public servant might be asked to give a feminist perspective on particular matters within the purview of public service work.

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Nevertheless, feminism is recognized as being a diverse spectrum (Eisenberg and Spinner-Haley 2005; Henley et al. 1998) and so it is unlikely that a homogenous or universal view would be expected from any one woman. In making these distinctions, it is worth noting recent research that argues for multiplicity in personal identity, with implications for analysis of Indigeneity and representation. For instance Corbett (2012) argues that narratives of Pacific political leadership are dominated by the notion of moving between “two worlds” as a metaphor for contrasting modern with traditional ways of life for Indigenous peoples, especially in colonized environments. He rejects this dichotomous characterization in favour of fluid identities where multiple sites and coexisting interpretations are used to navigate and construct agency and meaning. We acknowledge that such fluidity does exist for Indigenous public servants, as it does for all people. Every human being navigates across and through identity characters that include gender, age, ethnicity, generational status, professional association, familial connection and role, kin, clan, or tribal affiliation. Indigenous people also navigate such identity multiplicity. In recognizing this similarity, however, we should not downplay the importance of recognizing differentiation (Muller 1998, 24; Ospina and Foldy 2009, 978). There are Indigenous peoples across the world who have experienced a particular form of colonial domination and who, to this day, have not acquiesced to the colonization process. They continue to resist it in favour of fighting for the human right to practise, maintain, and reinvigorate their traditional identities and culture and on that basis to forge their own destiny. For them, the concept of “bridging” cultures or moving between “two worlds” may be highly relevant, even though identity “fluidity” is also present. Muller’s research, for example, illustrates its relevance and indeed centrality for American Indian women managers (Muller 1998). As we can see from this preliminary discussion, the notion of representative bureaucracy involves assumptions and raises complex issues that challenge simple arguments favouring diversity and inclusion. “Active” representation in particular raises the important questions of how to balance principles of equity with valuing cultural diversity, and of how the potential additions to knowledge offered by Indigenous participation can be mobilized and incorporated into public service practice. We pursue these questions in later chapters by exploring the experiences of Indigenous public servants in British Columbia and Queensland.

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The Unique Experience of Indigenous Public Servants The experience of Indigenous public servants can be differentiated from that of other public servants, including non-Indigenous minorities, women, and disabled people, because of the history of colonization experienced by Indigenous peoples. This poses a problem and ultimately creates a choice for Indigenous individuals: do they embrace working within the public bureaucracies that constitute part of imposed state structures, or do they reject it? This question of whether to work as an “insider” or maintain a position as an “outsider” (Nadasdy 2003; Sanders 2008) is not relevant to other public servants in the same way it is for Indigenous employees and potential employees. Critics may argue that public sector employees who do not share the same views or ideology as the government in power also confront decisions about whether or not to remain in the public sector. A public official opposed to abortion and its endorsement through public health insurance made available under government policy, for example, may decide to resign because they cannot reconcile their moral values with continued employment. The difference however is that this official does not belong to an Indigenous population whose obliteration as a separate people with their own cultural and social forms was for decades official state policy (in Australia and Canada). The issue is not just one of a colonial past. All Indigenous peoples in colonized states live with contemporary legacies of history and, while the architecture of explicit racism has now been dismantled, many Indigenous people are still profoundly suspicious of their state’s intentions towards them (see chapter 2). We are not suggesting that this fundamental choice facing Indigenous public servants is exercised on a “one off” basis when they decide whether or not to enter the public service. Rather the choice of whether to be an “insider” or “outsider” requires continuous reflection and revision. It marks the experience of virtually all the Indigenous public servants we interviewed, continuing to shape their choices and career paths (see chapters 5 and 6). The Impact of Indigenous Public Servants The assumptions that underlie representative bureaucracy involve a belief that inclusion of Indigenous public servants in mainstream bureaucracies will improve policymaking for Indigenous peoples. In fact, diversity theory normatively suggests that inclusion not only

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assists the affirmative action population itself, but also the wider population (Bradbury and Kellough 2008). Empirical research suggests that more nuanced work needs to be done to measure different effects of diversity and representation on public sector performance (Pitts 2005), but a key argument of this book is that attention to Indigenous culture and practices can improve policymaking at large. If non-Indigenous policymakers and processes are open to new ways and ideas emerging from Indigenous inclusion, the possibility exists for positive transformation of the entire policymaking system. While inclusion of Indigenous public servants should not be seen as a panacea for Indigenous policy challenges, let alone for those of policymaking generally, recognition and respectful incorporation of Indigenous public servant experiences and contributions can make a positive impact (Bradbury and Kellough 2008; Ospina and Foldy 2009). It is in this context that we discuss the possibility of a particular and unique perspective on public service leadership brought by Indigenous public officials. We believe there is value in comparing and contrasting our existing knowledge of non-Indigenous perspectives on public sector leadership and public administration with the understandings and practices of Indigenous public officials, and that it will benefit all.

A p p roac h a n d M e thodology Our research focuses on the following key questions: do mainstream public services and Indigenous cultures share common or conflicting notions of leadership? What possibilities and challenges exist for Indigenous peoples to exercise leadership within Western bureaucracies? How can the exercise of Indigenous leadership enhance public policymaking with respect to Indigenous peoples as well as more broadly? We adopt a comparative approach in seeking to address these questions. Comparative analysis allows for assessment of similarities and differences between jurisdictions, testing cases and experiences against each other to achieve improved robustness of analysis and testing of hypotheses (Jowell 1998). For this book, our focus is on a comparison between Australia and Canada, chosen because they have a high degree of similarity in terms of the diversity of their Indigenous populations, the numeric proportion of their Indigenous population to the overall population, and their federal system of government that helps

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shape the public service in particular ways. In addition, we wished to take advantage of our lived knowledge and professional experience of British Columbia and Canada, and of Queensland and Australia, as this increases our ability to interpret contextual information and provide greater depth to our analysis. While part of our wider study, New Zealand warrants separate discussion because it is different to both Australia and Canada in important ways. In particular, Māori constitute a much higher proportion of the population; moreover they are, in comparative terms, relatively homogenous; New Zealand is a unitary state; and it is pursuing a bicultural approach and experimenting with “Indigenization” of its public service in ways not yet attempted in Australia or Canada (Awatere-Huata 2014). New Zealand’s approach is explored separately in the work of our colleague Daryn Bean. We selected the provincial (Canada) and state (Australia) level of the public sector for our analysis because of the close relationship between Indigenous peoples and this component of the state in federal systems, especially in the area of service delivery. We acknowledge that in both jurisdictions national governments (and to a lesser extent local municipalities) implement policies and deliver programs that help shape the lives and futures of Indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, it is at the provincial/state government level that Indigenous peoples and communities interact most widely and frequently with respect to the modern state. British Columbia and Queensland were selected for their contextual similarities (see chapter 2), as well as for the pragmatic location of key researchers in these jurisdictions, leveraging existing in-depth jurisdictional knowledge and facilitating access to research participants for the study. Within the comparative case study approach we use quantitative and qualitative methods to address our research questions. We used quantitative analysis of employment data regarding Indigenous public servants in British Columbia and Queensland to help trace the history of Indigenous participation and the parameters of the population from which our interviewees are drawn. The number, representation, and distribution across occupational categories is similar in British Columbia and Queensland (see chapter 3), facilitating comparisons between the two. We then turned to a review of both academic and “grey” literature to establish the existing state of research on Indigenous public servants, about their contributions, and about concepts of leadership that might

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be relevant to their experiences. We focused on Australia and Canada because they provide the context for our case studies, but ranged more widely in seeking any available information on Indigenous concepts of leadership and leadership practices, both historical and contemporary. We did not attempt to secure access to, and do not have access to, information on what could be referred to as “sacred” aspects of Indigenous leadership (for a discussion of this point in the legal context, for example, see Ginibi 1994). What emerged clearly from the statistical analysis and the literature review was that there exists a substantial population of Indigenous people working in mainstream public services whose specific experiences, understandings of leadership, and leadership practices have not been the subject of systematic study.

L e a d e rs h ip Focus The focus of our research on Indigenous public service leadership is broad in interpretation and exploratory in nature. We sought the views of any Indigenous public servant who wished to offer insights regarding Indigenous public service leadership, rather than seeking out a particular cadre of the population who we, or others, might see as “leaders.” We believe this broad approach helps to ensure that a wide range of views about what constitutes leadership can emerge. It is also consistent with contemporary leadership thinking that argues leadership is not confined to positions of authority “at the top” of organizations but can instead be exercised across many levels of organizations and areas of society. Pursuit of a wide range of views responds to a general trajectory in leadership studies in the public sector that is documented by Montgomery Van Wart (2003, 2013) and discussed further in chapter 4. In broad terms, Van Wart explains that the leadership literature has moved over time from a focus on (i) the great man thesis; to (ii)  the identification of leadership characteristics; towards (iii) acknowledgment of the role of context; (iv) the prioritization of followership; (v) the advent of James MacGregor Burns’ transactional versus transformational leadership dichotomy; (vi) the emergence of “servant” leadership and other ethical models of leadership including Barbara Kellerman’s (2004) notion of “bad” leadership; to (vii) integrated models of leadership that attempted to marry valid components of all these models. More specifically within public sector leadership,

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Van Wart identified broad administrative leadership paradigms associated with (i) traditional hierarchy vis-à-vis (ii) public choice models, augmented more recently by (iii) network models that advocate collaborative or facilitative leadership. What this extremely abbreviated snapshot of the leadership literature highlights is that a comprehensive approach to leadership is warranted that avoids the temptation to ascribe leadership only to an elite group of formalized senior positions within the public service. To focus only on such a small group risks attenuating the scope and force of leadership, while broadening the population from which leadership can emerge avoids assumptions about what leadership is and how and by whom it can be performed. Accordingly, while we sought to identify people in formal leadership positions within the public sectors, we also talked to people within public services and within Indigenous communities to identify Indigenous public servants who exercise leadership regardless of their formal position or role.

In t e rv ie w A p proach For the Canadian component of the study, we undertook semi-structured interviews with twenty-two participants who self-identified as First Nations, Métis, or Inuit and who had direct experience working within, or closely with, the British Columbia Public Service (BCP S ). Recruitment took place using personal networks and a snowball method and paid attention to key characteristics of participants – notably age, gender, geographical location, Indigenous community affiliation, and public service agency position and seniority. This facilitated access to a range of different perspectives, while not following a formal, purposive sampling approach (Birks and Mills 2011; Palys 2008). We resisted the idea of directly recruiting participants through the B C P S Indigenous Youth Internship Program. This is a program designed to develop leadership and professional skills of young Indigenous peoples and promote their consideration of a career in public service or Indigenous organizations in British Columbia. We avoided deliberate recruitment from this cadre in order to avoid potential skewing of results, as they are likely to have specific characteristics not shared by Indigenous public servants as a whole. Nevertheless some of our participants do happen to have links to this program.

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Participants were drawn from different parts of the province, five from northern BC, three from the interior, four from the lower mainland, and twelve from Vancouver Island. A higher representation of participants based in Vancouver Island is a result of the concentration of government offices and employees in Victoria, the provincial capital. The locations listed here refer to the location of participants’ workplaces at the time of interview, and does not always reflect their professional history in other parts of the province or country. Affiliation with a BC First Nation was not a criterion for inclusion and as a result some participants are affiliated with First Peoples outside of B C . Participants represented ten ministries within the BC government, and two outside organizations that work closely in partnership with the B C government. The professional position of participants ranged from frontline service to senior executive roles, and included three junior staff, eight middle level advisors and managers, and twelve senior managers and executive level staff. Participants represented a wide range of time employed within the public service, ranging from four months to thirty-one years. On average participants had worked twelve years within the public service, but most had worked under ten years (four months to nine years). Participants ranged in age from thirty to fifty-eight, with most between thirty-six and fifty-five. Eight were male and sixteen were female. A similar approach was used for the Australian case study. We undertook semi-structured interviews with eighteen participants who self-identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and who had direct experience working within, or closely with, the Queensland Public Service (Q P S ). Thirteen participants were based in Brisbane and the remaining five in regional centres throughout Queensland. Again, this refers to the location of participants’ workplaces at the time of interview, and does not always reflect their professional history in other parts of the state or country. Participants represented nine departments or agencies within the Queensland government, and two other public sector organizations that work closely in partnership with it. The professional position of participants comprised ten in senior executive roles and eight in middle level management or policy positions. Participants represented a wide range of time employed within the public service, ranging from one to forty-three years. On average participants had worked twenty-three years within the public service. Participants ranged in age from thirty-two to sixty-five. Ten were female and eight were male.

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We used an informal approach with open-ended questions, aiming to create room for participants to move beyond the semi-structured questions and topics covered in the interview guide. We also hoped to allow for other ways of knowing to emerge through stories and examples from areas that might not have been considered in planning the interviews. Interviews lasted from 30 to 120 minutes, with most lasting between 60 and 90 minutes. Where possible, interviews were done face-to-face and in the work environment of the participant. In addition to promoting helpful relational and place-based context, this embedding of interview processes in the workplaces of the participants provided opportunities for collecting field notes and observational data. Nearly all participants agreed to audio or video recordings of interviews. Biographical and background information was also collected from participants to help build a profile of participants and to interpret experiences recounted in interviews. Interviews were transcribed in full, and open coded (Glaser 1978, 56) through line-by-line immersion (Walker and Myrick 2006). Codes were then reviewed and themed. The coding process began as a jurisdiction-specific exercise given that Canadian interviews were completed first in a group. Coding was initially undertaken by Fiona Main, a master’s student at the University of Victoria under the supervision of Catherine Althaus. After the Queensland interviews were conducted and all interview transcripts were complete, we performed coding and analysis on a comparative basis between the two jurisdictions. Within and across both jurisdictions we explored whether certain attributes such as gender, employee level, length of public service, and strength of connection to their ancestral culture and community made a difference to responses. Themes emerged from the interview questions based on a broad categorization. Participants expressed a range of conceptual and definitional understandings of Indigenous leadership, providing a first foundational theme for coding as to whether Indigenous leadership stands as a unique concept and practice. Second, it was easy from the data to see how important it was to elaborate on the application of Indigenous leadership with respect to barriers, facilitators, and impact as Indigenous leadership is put into practice in the public service context. This latter analysis emerged clearly from participant discussion of various policy- and practice-related experiences during their interviews. Participants articulated whether and how Indigenous leadership was being impeded or promoted, so allocation of topics

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to the category of barriers and facilitators was relatively easy. We defined impact as representing ways in which Indigenous public servants identified their particular contributions to policy processes and outcomes. Within this broad categorization, topics under the conceptual and application themes were identified. Similarities and differences were also noted between the interview data collected from participants across the two jurisdictions. The themes and topics were identified jointly by the researchers. Data saturation (Glaser and Strauss 1967) occurred and, along with practical difficulties in scheduling more participants, this helped end data collection and coding analysis. The results of the interviews are presented in chapters 5, 6, and 7. Chapter 5 focuses on understandings of leadership as a concept and in practice. Chapter 6 examines factors inhibiting exercise of Indigenous leadership in the public service context, and chapter 7 on factors facilitating its exercise, on what needs to change in public services to allow for its further development, and on the impact of Indigenous leaders on policy and administration. Themes that recurred across many interviews are identified and explored, while the words of individual interviewees are used to illustrate these themes, and to offer the reader direct insights into the experiences and perspectives of individual public servants.

S t r e n g t h s a n d Li mi tati ons Our research design provides a rigorous approach to beginning to understand the perspectives and contributions of Indigenous public servants in British Columbia and Queensland. However, we stress the exploratory nature of our study, and the need to widen the population on which research is based. We have sought to incorporate research principles and practices that are respectful of Indigenous values, and in so doing to ensure that our work avoids doing harm and, hopefully, creates some good. Our comparative methodology is intended to help support the explanatory power of our findings. Literature reviews are designed to ensure that we build on existing knowledge, while statistical analysis provides context and a historical dimension for our engagement with individual Indigenous public servants. Semistructured interviews with forty individuals allowed us to start giving voice to the experiences and perspectives of Indigenous public servants, especially on the issue of leadership in public services.

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We originally intended to include an ethnographic observation method as part of this study by having a researcher accompany and shadow Indigenous public servants for a number of days as they undertook their work. However this proved possible only with one Canadian participant. Other participants either found the time involved prohibitive or, more commonly, feared the implications of publicly exposing their work practices for their jobs, and for how their communities would view them. This response indicates that rather than being able to openly take pride in being First Nations, Métis, or Inuit public servants, working for public agencies involves tension and struggle for First Peoples. As we will see from the BC and Queensland interviews, the motivation of Indigenous public servants is strong and, privately, they do have pride in their roles. But apparently working for the state also often comes at a price. As ethnographic observation did not prove feasible in B C , it was not attempted in Queensland. However, we did ask a number of Queensland participants if they would have been willing to support “shadowing” and the response was strongly positive. We make observations about this contrast in chapter 8.

T he f u t u r e o f In d ig e n ous publi c servi ce This book is written in a time when Canada and Australia are struggling to move their societies to confront the reality of their histories, and the consequences and ramifications for justice that such history creates for Indigenous peoples in both countries. This is not an easy task. The legacy of residential schools and of the stolen generations, alone, continues to cast a horrible shadow on Canadian and Australian history. Racism continues in various forms, both implicit and explicit, while many people deny the intergenerational consequences of racism, arguing instead that the sins of previous generations should not be laid on today’s generation (see for instance Howard 1996). While positive steps have been taken, much remains to be done to engage Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in equitable, respectful, lasting relationships. In Canada, the Justin Trudeau government announced its intention to meet all the 94 Calls for Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Report (Trudeau 2015). How and whether this takes place remains to be seen. Still, the promise is important and remains a point of hope. Australia is in the midst of a debate regarding the constitutional and

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political status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Until 2016 discussion focused heavily on acknowledgment or recognition of Australia’s First Peoples in its constitution, and on possible amendment of the constitution to remove or amend clauses dealing with race and racial discrimination. A highly participative consultative process among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in 2016– 17 led to a complete reframing of the debate. After a series of Regional Dialogues and a National Constitutional Convention, in May 2017 First Peoples delegates released the Uluru Statement of the Heart (Referendum Council 2017, i). This sets a much broader reform agenda focused on recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sovereignty, a constitutionally entrenched First Peoples Voice in Federal Parliament, agreement-making leading to treaties, and a process of local and regional truth telling. The Australian Government’s initial response to the Uluru Statement has been negative, but a change of government might see a more positive engagement. More broadly, the debate in relation to Australia’s relationship with First Peoples has now been recast in fundamental ways (O’Faircheallaigh 2018a). Significantly, a number of state governments have already begun treaty negotiations with First Peoples, or have signalled their intention of doing so. At this critical juncture, it is vital that Canadian and Australian public services constitute positive forces for change, which requires the recognition within mainstream bureaucracies of Indigenous values and practices. We hope our book can help prompt discussion of how this can occur, and of its implications for the way in which public services are organized and operate. The public services of Canada and Australia stand at a crossroads. They can focus on filling quotas for Indigenous public servants, pretending that this meets the need for Indigenous “representation” and, worse, ignore the unique contributions of such public servants. Alternatively, public services can stand as important sites of reconciliation, healing, and Indigenous autonomy, identifying and pursuing policy goals in ways that are open to the contribution of Indigenous knowledge and, in particular, Indigenous understandings of leadership. Pursuit of this alternative must begin by listening to and valuing the experiences and perspectives of Indigenous public servants.

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2 History and Context Indigenous Marginalization and Survival

In t ro du cti on The dispossession and marginalization of Indigenous peoples provides a critical context for their participation and leadership in public service – but so, too, does their resilience and capacity for survival. These factors help shape both the opportunities and challenges faced by individual Indigenous people, and the cultural, social, and political context in which they operate as Indigenous public servants. This chapter provides summaries of what are complex and diverse histories, highlighting the common historical features shared by Australia and Canada but also the differences between them, which must be remembered in the discussion of Indigenous leadership throughout the book. It also examines the two case study jurisdictions, British Columbia and Queensland, focusing on features that distinguish them relative to their national contexts, including in some cases features they display in exaggerated form that are also evident at a national level.

A u s t r a l ia a n d Canada: a s h a r e d c o l o n i al hi story The histories of Indigenous peoples are characterized by diversity both within and between Australia and Canada, reflecting differences in the timing and nature of colonization and in the ways in which various Indigenous groups have responded to colonization and sought to shape its impact. However at the same time Indigenous histories across regions and countries share fundamental features that provide a critical common context for Indigenous experiences with and in public service.

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T h e im pac t o f c o loni zati on In both countries colonization was characterized by racism and by underlying beliefs regarding the inherent inferiority and lack of value of Indigenous societies and cultures. Such beliefs were used by settlers and colonial governments to justify a range of actions and policies that were destructive of Indigenous societies, including dispossession, removal of children, suppression of Indigenous cultures and languages and, in some cases, attempts to physically eradicate particular Indigenous groups. One feature of colonization in both countries that cannot be stressed enough, given its contemporary implications for Indigenous public servants, is the extent and depth of state intervention in Indigenous peoples’ lives, and the destructive effects of this intervention. Racism was also used to justify a refusal by state authorities to recognize Indigenous forms of governance and decision-making or to accept that Indigenous peoples had either the capacity or the right to influence decisions that affected them, including decisions regarding development of minerals on their ancestral lands. From a European perspective, given the marked inferiority of Indigenous societies it was obvious that decision-making should be in the hands of nonIndigenous government officials or settlers. Such beliefs were used in both countries to justify decisions that accorded neatly with nonIndigenous economic and political interests (Norris 2010; Pearson 2009, 2–9; Sawchuk 1998, chapter 5; Wilson 1998). This history explains why, in the contemporary context, the issue of control over decisions that affect their lives is of fundamental importance to Indigenous peoples. In their view only by determining their own futures can they ensure their survival (Coon Come 2004; Pearson 2000; Slowey 2008, 49–50; United Nations 2007, 2). However while Indigenous peoples are keenly aware of the importance of governing themselves, the policies of colonial governments over successive generations have in some cases undermined their ability to do so by weakening traditional authority structures and decisionmaking processes. Contemporary government policies designed to maintain control over Indigenous peoples and their resources and knowledge often reinforce colonial impacts (Lawrence and Gibson 2007; Nadasdy 2003). Indigenous peoples were not only denied the capacity to govern themselves, they were also denied the opportunity to participate in

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“mainstream” political processes, because one specific manifestation of racism was the denial of political and constitutional rights enjoyed by non-Indigenous citizens. In both countries Indigenous people were, for various lengths of time, excluded from the census, prohibited from voting, had their movements controlled, were denied access to part or all of personal wage income and were prohibited from establishing formal organizations (Abale 1999, 447; Chesterman and Galligan 1997; Kidd 1997; Sawchuk 1998, 7). This denial of fundamental human and political rights persisted in both countries at least until the 1960s. It prevented Indigenous peoples from using “normal” political channels to pursue their goals, and limited their opportunities to develop the skills required to operate effectively in a non-Indigenous political context. A specific impact of colonization is Indigenous dispossession or diminution of Indigenous rights to land, including ownership of mineral rights and control over their disposition. The degree and nature of impact in this area depended on the uses Europeans found for land in particular regions. In areas suitable for intensive agriculture or that held valuable resources such as minerals, timber, or fisheries, Indigenous peoples were usually dispossessed and either relocated elsewhere (often to government or mission reserves) or left to survive as urban fringe dwellers. Where extensive agriculture (ranching or pastoral production) left landscapes essentially intact and created a demand for their labour, Indigenous peoples might be able to remain on, and maintain spiritual and cultural ties with, ancestral lands even when their status as owners was denied under European law. Where no obvious commercial use existed for Indigenous land (desert and monsoonal areas in Australia, the Western Arctic North in Canada) Indigenous peoples might be left in effective possession of their lands over many decades. However that possession was always vulnerable to the realization of some commercial potential, in particular because national or state governments controlled the disposition of mineral rights. For example in the Cape York region of Queensland, lands that had been reserved for the exclusive use of their Aboriginal owners for a century were alienated to mining companies in the late 1950s as major bauxite discoveries were made. In summary, the rights in land of Indigenous peoples in Australia and Canada were severely impacted by colonialism. Dispossession was highly offensive and destructive not only from a Western rights and justice perspective, but also because of the

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cosmology and traditional relationship of Indigenous peoples to land and country. Ancestor spirits created the land, the people, and the animals, and so spirits, people, and animals are all linked to each other and to certain pieces of “country.” Indigenous people used the land to provide their livelihoods and modified the land in doing so. Thus the land bears the signs of the ancestor spirits and of successive generations, including the current one. Looking after the land is a combination of looking after a resource as well as looking after what the ancestors created. The Western Christian tradition of a hierarchy in nature interpreted as human dominion over land and nature is anathema to Indigenous peoples, and the concept of land as a commodity that can be confiscated, bought, or sold for commercial purposes offends Indigenous cosmologies and systems of authority and governance. Another shared experience of Indigenous peoples in both countries involves their low economic and social status and poor access to public services such as health and education, relative to non-­ Indigenous populations. On average, Indigenous incomes are substantially lower and unemployment substantially higher than national averages; levels of formal education are relatively low; and access to physical services such as housing, sewage, and clean water is poor. Health status also tends to be poor, as indicated for example by high infant mortality rates and low life expectancy. In both countries Indigenous people are hugely overrepresented in the criminal justice system (A B S 2012a; Government of Canada 2013; Health Council of Canada 2013; SC R GSP 2011). The reasons for this situation include the fact that government expenditure on service provision for Indigenous communities has historically been extremely low and in some cases is still grossly inadequate; the undermining or destruction of Indigenous law, society, and culture as a result of dispossession and policies such as the forced removal of children, creating what are known as the Stolen Generations; the effect of limited organizational skills and capacity on the ability of Indigenous groups to deal with the economic, cultural, and social issues they confront; and the continued unwillingness of governments to work with Indigenous peoples to develop and implement policies that reflect Indigenous values and priorities (Alfred 2009; Anderson and Lawrence 2006; Dillon and Westbury 2007; Pearson 2009; United Nations General Assembly 2014). In economic terms dispossession has often denied Indigenous peoples access to

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physical resources required to sustain life and health and, combined with government policy, has denied them the ability to benefit from European economic activity on their ancestral lands. Mining is a case in point. Most Indigenous peoples have until recently not been able to share in the revenues and the direct and indirect employment generated by the industry – both of which are critical drivers of wealth creation for non-Indigenous Australians and Canadians. Given the nature of their experiences with government over many generations, Indigenous peoples are often highly suspicious of, if not openly hostile towards, state authorities. Governments have alienated their lands, taken away their children, suppressed their culture, denied them access to rights and services available to other citizens, and denied them the opportunity to share in the economic benefits created by exploitation of their ancestral land. Government policies in Australia and Canada have of course changed significantly in the contemporary period (see below), but even in recent decades governments have been prepared to abandon policies favourable to Indigenous people in response to commercial pressures. In the mid-1980s Australia’s federal Labor government abandoned a proposal for limited national Aboriginal land rights legislation in the face of concerted pressure from commercial interests and their allies in state governments (Stokes 1987). In the late 1990s Canada’s federal government, having enshrined recognition of “Aboriginal rights” in Canada’s constitution, rejected First Nations’ requests to have land claims settled and so the nature of “Aboriginal rights” defined, before approving major mining projects (O’Faircheallaigh 2016, chapters 8 and 9). Indigenous suspicion of the state, its motives, and its actions is deeply entrenched. As noted in chapter 1, this has profound implications for the participation of Indigenous peoples in public services, which are explored in subsequent chapters.

“ W e a r e s t il l here”: S u rv iva l a n d c o n t in u ity i n contemporary In d ig e n o u s soci eti es Some Indigenous peoples have not survived the impact of colonialism. In both countries there are instances of Indigenous peoples who have disappeared as distinct entities. Nevertheless in virtually every region of each country Indigenous peoples have survived. The degree of continuity between contemporary and pre-contact languages, laws,

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culture, and social forms varies greatly from people to people and region to region, depending on the timing and nature of the colonial impact. However even in areas that were among the first to feel the impact of Europeans and where legal dispossession was complete, Indigenous peoples have survived as distinct and vibrant entities (Alfred 1995; Anderson and Lawrence 2006; South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council et al. 2009; Watson 2012). The diversity that characterizes colonial experience is just as evident both between and within contemporary Indigenous societies. For instance, not all members of any Indigenous society will share the same attitudes to land, to personal economic gain, to kinship obligations, or to Indigenous cultural and spiritual practice. However there are also commonalities, key characteristics that tend to distinguish Indigenous peoples from the wider non-Indigenous society. It is these commonalities we seek to highlight at this point. Central to the existence and survival of Indigenous peoples are the connections between land, kinship and social relations, and culture and spirituality. Connection to ancestral land or “country” (defined here to include fresh and sea waters and air) is fundamental. Land is traditionally the source of physical survival and since time immemorial has sustained life and health. However land is more than this. Land also creates identity. A person is a Wik Waya or a Tł cho˛ or an Innu because they have, usually through blood ancestors but sometimes through their place of birth or by adoption, a connection to Wik Waya or Tł cho˛ or Innu lands. To see one’s ancestral lands destroyed, to be forcefully separated from them or to lose the ability to influence what happens on and to them, is not just to lose the source of physical sustenance. It is to lose one’s identity or have it threatened. Thus even if Indigenous people have alternative sources of income with which they can purchase the physical necessities of life, damage to or separation from their ancestral lands still represents a profound threat. Kinship is central to social organization in Indigenous societies (McConvell, Kelly, and Lacrampe 2018). Extended families or groups consisting of a number of linked families tend to be the basic unit of social and cultural organization. The nature of interpersonal behaviour and social interaction will be heavily influenced by the precise nature of kin relationships. Primary loyalties tend to be felt and expressed towards one’s kin or “clan,” and in many contexts other loyalties will have to take second place. Kinship is of course intimately connected

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to land. It is kin relationships to ancestors that provide an Indigenous person with connections to land, and in turn the existence of that common connection and its expression (for example through economic production or cultural practice) reinforced ties of kinship. The persistence and importance of kinship and of ties to land as a basis for social relationships and for political action is difficult to overstate. This is not to suggest that there are rigid land-owning and kinship structures and social rules that are “fossilized” or that dictate contemporary behaviour in a mechanistic way. This is far from the case. Both connections to land and kinship systems are dynamic; they have adjusted extensively to the impact of colonization and continue to evolve, develop, and adapt. Nevertheless, kinship and connection to land are still fundamental. Culture and spirituality are also closely linked to land. Much of Indigenous cultural practice revolves around caring for and extracting resources from the land, while Indigenous spiritual beliefs are often related to the existence of a creator-being or beings who are believed to have shaped the landscape and created people and other living creatures. Sites of cultural and spiritual significance are often associated with landscape features linked to those creation processes and to the spiritual entities involved in them. For some Indigenous peoples those entities continue to reside in the land (Carmichael et al. 1994; O’Faircheallaigh 2008; Rose 1996, 2001; Watson 2012, 41). Fundamental to Indigenous welfare is the ability to care for the land and the cultural or spiritual sites that form a part of it (Angelbeck 2008). Such activity ensures that the land maintains its capacity to support people and at the same time protects the spiritual well-being of the individuals concerned because it allows them to fulfill their spiritual obligations. A final and critical point to stress is that in talking separately about the past and the present and separately about land, about people (kinship and social relations), and about cultural and spirituality, this discussion treats separately matters that Indigenous people see as inseparable and in a holistic manner. They not only place a different emphasis on these matters or understand them differently from nonIndigenous people, they also do not believe they can be separated in the way that often occurs in non-Indigenous society (Brody 2000; Randall 2001; Rose 1996). As we shall see, this has profound implications for understandings of leadership.

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A u s t r a l ia a n d Queensland In 2016 649,200 people or 2.8 per cent of Australia’s population identified as being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Of these 91 per cent were Aboriginal, 5 per cent were Torres Strait Islanders, a Melanesian people who occupy the islands between the Australian mainland and Papua New Guinea, and the remaining 4 per cent are of mixed Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander descent. Two thirds of Indigenous people live outside capital cities, compared to about a third for the population as a whole (A BS 2012a). Colonization and Settlement British settlement in Australia commenced in 1788, and over the following century much of the continent that was capable of supporting Western commercial agricultural activity was appropriated from its original owners. Away from high rainfall coastal areas, agriculture consisted primarily of land-intensive production of sheep and cattle on large farms (“pastoral properties” or “stations”) leased from government. Virtually no land remained under Aboriginal ownership in Victoria, New South Wales, or the southern portions of Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia. It is estimated that the Aboriginal population declined from between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 in 1788 to around 100,000 in 1900 (Butlin 1993, 139, 229), reflecting the impact of introduced diseases, settler violence (including statesanctioned massacres), competition from settlers for land and water, and the profound impact of dispossession on the social structures of Aboriginal peoples. In regions of Australia remote from major urban centres and unsuited to Western agriculture, Aboriginal people were generally left in possession of their traditional lands. However no legal recognition was accorded to their interests in land (see below). While such areas might be classified as “Aboriginal reserves,” their reserve status could be revoked at any time at the discretion of government and the land made available to miners or pastoralists. Political Structures Until federation in 1901, Australia consisted of six separate colonies that were responsible for most aspects of government other than foreign relations, where the imperial power in London played the

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major role. Australia’s constitution establishes two houses of parliament, the House of Representatives and the Senate, the latter a “states house” with equal representation from each state, regardless of population. The constitution creates a division of powers based on enumerating specific responsibilities that are the preserve of the Commonwealth or federal government, based in Canberra, with the remaining or “residual” powers vested in state governments. Matters related to mining and land management were generally the responsibility of the states. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs were also a state responsibility as a result of the fact that until changes brought about as a result of a national referendum in 1967 the constitution (s51 (xxvi)) prohibited the Commonwealth from making “special laws” in relation to “the aboriginal race in any state.” The Constitution also stated that “Aboriginal natives” should not be counted in the census (s127). The Commonwealth did have responsibility for Aboriginal peoples living in the Northern Territory, which was under federal jurisdiction until 1978 when it achieved self-­ government (a limited form of statehood). In the decades since the Second World War Australia’s party system has been dominated by the Australian Labor Party (ALP), established by trade unionists at the end of the nineteenth century, and by the more conservative Liberal Party, which usually governs at a federal level in coalition with the rural-based National Party (formerly the Country Party). Until the 1980s the AL P was generally regarded as a social democratic party that supported an extensive social welfare system and an active and at times interventionist role for government in the economy. However between 1983 and the 1990s the federal Labor government strongly espoused a policy agenda emphasizing trade liberalization, economic deregulation, and a “winding back” of the welfare state. All three major political parties have supported this policy agenda since the 1980s, with only the Australian Greens and a number of non-aligned or “independent” members of federal parliament adopting policy positions outside this consensus. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy As mentioned earlier in the chapter, successive governments in Australia adopted policies that were designed for or had the effect of removing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from their traditional lands, denying them their political rights, threatening their social and

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cultural identity, and leaving them economically marginalized. Until the Second World War, policies were generally based on the assumption that Aboriginal peoples were a “dying race” and that government should step aside and not seek to slow their demise or, at best, keep their last days “as free from misery as we can” (Chesterman and Galligan 1997, 19–20). By the 1950s it was clear that the Aboriginal peoples were not going to disappear, and the focus of policy shifted to their assimilation into the wider non-Indigenous society, though in reality government did little to provide Aboriginal peoples with the means to enter that society on anything like equal terms. By the mid-1960s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were demanding legal, political, and economic equality, and in 1967 referendum proposals to remove the constitutional prohibition on the Commonwealth enacting special laws and to include Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders in the census were carried by an overwhelming majority. In subsequent years, but particularly after 1972 with the election of Australia’s first federal Labor government in twenty-three years, the Commonwealth became much more extensively involved in provision of education, health, and other services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. In addition, during the late 1970s and the early 1980s there was bi-partisan support for the First Peoples of Australia to maintain their distinct identity and have greater control over their own affairs. However there were significant differences between the A L P ’s commitment to “self-­ determination” and the Liberal Party’s more restricted vision for “self-management.” The commitment to self-determination found its clearest expression in the establishment in 1990 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (A T S I C). AT S I C consisted of an elected national representative body, which played a key role in formulating overall policy and in resource allocation, and a bureaucracy responsible for key areas of service delivery and reporting to the federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. The election of a Liberal/National party coalition government in 1996 signalled a major shift in federal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy. Coalition leaders, and in particular the new prime minister, John Howard, and his deputy and leader of the National Party, Tim Fischer, had been highly critical of the establishment of A T S I C in 1990, and had also attacked the Labor government’s legislative recognition of inherent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights in land in the Native Title Act 1993 (see below). The Liberal

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government abolished A T SI C in 2004; reduced the autonomy exercised by federally funded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organizations; and wound back the rights enjoyed by Indigenous landowners under the Native Title Act (see next section). These initiatives were not reversed when Labor returned to government in 2007. Recognition of Land Rights For nearly 200 years after the arrival of Europeans, no recognition was afforded to the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in their traditional lands. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders sought to assert those rights on many occasions, in part through armed resistance. But resistance was in most cases futile. From the mid-1960s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples began to use their newly won political rights to push for legal recognition of their status as landowners. In 1976 this pressure had its first tangible result when the federal government introduced the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (the “Land Rights Act”). The Land Rights Act allows Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory to claim ownership of their traditional lands and, where they are successful, to determine whether or not mineral exploration and development should occur on their land. Major changes occurred in 1992 as a result of the Australian High Court’s decision in the Mabo case. The court found that the inherent rights in land of the inhabitants of Mer, an island in the Torres Strait, were not extinguished by the imposition of colonial rule. Those rights could survive, as long as they had not been extinguished by valid government grants of interests to third parties and as long as the people involved had maintained their connection with their traditional lands. The court’s decision did not threaten existing non-Indigenous interests in land, including mining interests. Nevertheless it did have far-reaching implications, because it set aside the fundamental assumption of land law in Australia, that inherent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander interests in land were extinguished as Britain established its colonial rule. The Australian government responded to the Mabo decision by introducing federal legislation, the Native Title Act 1993 (NTA ). This validated existing titles in land, but also created a process through which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples could claim land in which native title survived. In addition, it created what is called the “Right to Negotiate,” which provides groups that have

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registered native title claims with an opportunity to negotiate about the terms of any mineral development with the company involved and with the state government that proposes to issue the relevant mining interests. Unlike the Land Rights Act, the Native Title Act does not confer on landowners a veto over exploration or mining, but rather gives them a limited opportunity to sit down and negotiate with developers. If agreement is not reached, developers can apply to a government tribunal for permission to proceed in any case, which is usually granted (for a full discussion see O’Faircheallaigh 2016). In addition, the process required for Indigenous landowners to establish native title is demanding, expensive, and protracted, and in many parts of Australia, including Queensland, native title claimants have been unable to meet the heavy burden of proof involved in demonstrating, to the satisfaction of governments and the judicial system, their unbroken connection to their ancestral lands (Strelein 2009). Queensland Queensland is Australia’s third largest state by population, and is Australia’s most decentralized mainland state, with only 44 per cent of its population in its capital city, Brisbane. The equivalent figure for Western Australia, often seen as comparable to Queensland in terms of its economic structure, is nearly 80 per cent, while that for South Australia and Victoria are above 75 per cent (ABS 2014). Queensland’s economy has traditionally been dominated by primary production, and has had a reputation as a low-tax state that spends little, relative to other states, on public service and specifically on education. Today, its economy is more diversified with substantial contributions from, in particular, construction, tourism, and health and education services. In absolute terms Queensland has the second largest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population of the Australian states (after New South Wales) at 186,000, which is 4 per cent of its total population of 4.7 million (A B S 2016). Queensland governments have consistently been dominated by the Labor and National Parties, with the latter usually in coalition with the Liberal Party, and with the two combining as the Liberal National Party in 2008. However right-wing, populist parties that often espouse racist and anti-immigration policies have attracted a substantial share of the vote in recent decades, most notably Pauline Hanson’s One

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Nation Party, which won 23 per cent of the vote and eleven seats in the 1998 election. For a large portion of its history the state was under a gerrymander that favoured rural electorates and this combined with the decentralized nature of its population meant that regional interests tended to dominate politics. Combined with the fact that its legislature does not have an upper house or “house of review,” this may explain Queensland’s tradition of being dominated by strong-willed populist and conservative premiers with authoritarian tendencies, who have held office for long periods of time. Most notable in the post-war period was Johannes (Joh) Bjelke-Petersen, leader of the Country (later National) Party, who was premier from 1968 until 1987. In terms of its colonial history, Queensland displayed in heightened form the brutality towards and dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples characteristic of Australia as a whole. In a large and decentralized state where control from the state capital was often lax or non-existent, where access to land for agriculture or mining was the key to economic survival, and where a large Indigenous population existed, frontier wars were especially bloody and brutal. Particularly given the remoteness of the frontier as the nineteenth century progressed, and the fact that massacres by settlers were often deliberately concealed, it is impossible to gain an accurate picture of fatalities. However recent research suggests Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fatalities were in the tens of thousands, and that Queensland accounted for as much as three quarters of the (much smaller number) of fatalities incurred by settlers in Australia (Evans and Orsted-Jensen 2014; Reynolds 1982). Queensland was also unusual in the comprehensiveness of the system it established to control the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the frontier was settled. It constituted in effect a system of “total control.” Many people were removed from their ancestral lands and relocated to religious missions or government settlements. They could not work, travel, marry, spend their own money, or purchase property without the approval of a mission or government superintendent. The system also involved systemic exploitation and theft from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, for example as a result of failure to pay wages or under-payment of wages, appropriation of wages to help defray the costs of mission and government stations, and pilfering of money from savings accounts

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controlled by local police. Resistance to this oppression and exploitation was dealt with harshly, often by physical violence, separation of families, and exile to penal settlements such as Palm Island in north Queensland (see Kidd 1997 for a comprehensive account). Queensland is also unusual in the length over which discrimination against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens and resistance to recognition of their rights in land persisted. It continued well after the constitutional referendum of 1967 provided a role for the federal government in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs, a role Queensland bitterly opposed, and after formal discrimination had ended in the other states and territories. For example in 1978 Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen blocked the sale of a cattle station in Cape York to one of its Aboriginal Traditional Owners and, after his action was ruled discriminatory by the courts, declared the cattle station a national park so that it was no longer available for sale. Change did occur after the election of a Labor government in 1989, for the first time in many decades. This made way, for example, for policies designed to encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment in the public sector (see chapter 3). However the pace and extent of change was limited. For instance, legislation introduced in 1991 to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights in state-owned land in Queensland (the Aboriginal Land Act 1991 and Torres Strait Islander Land Act 1991) was so restrictive that, twentyfive years later, almost no land has actually been transferred. Turning to its public sector, the Queensland Public Service (Q P S ) employed some 219,000 people in December 2017. It is organized along lines similar to those for other Australian and Canadian jurisdictions, with functional departments covering areas such as health, education, housing, transport, and police, and with central agencies such as Premier and Cabinet and Treasury playing key policy and coordination roles. Health and Education are by far the two largest employers, accounting cumulatively for 70 per cent of the total. The agency with portfolio responsibility for Indigenous affairs – the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships – is small, employing just 300 people or 0.14 per cent of the total (Q P S C 2018, 5). As its size indicates, the department does not have a significant service delivery role, but rather engages in policy development and advocacy across government. Like its predecessors, the department is junior in terms of its cabinet ranking, and at times (as is currently the case) is held in combination with a more “senior” portfolio.

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C a n a da a n d B r it ish Columbi a Some 4.9 per cent of Canada’s population, or 1.7 million people, are First Nation, Inuit, or Métis. Of this number about 58 per cent are First Nations or “North American Indian,” 4 per cent are Inuit, and 35 per cent are Métis – i.e, the descendants of unions between Aboriginal women and (predominantly French and Scottish) trappers and traders. Three per cent indicate multiple responses in terms of their affiliation (Statistics Canada 2018). Nearly seven out of ten Aboriginal people live outside major metropolitan areas, the same proportion as in Australia. Colonization and Settlement European settlement of Canada commenced in the early seventeenth century, and during the next 200 years focused primarily on the extraction of natural resources, in particular furs, fish, and timber. Particularly in the fur industry, First Peoples undertook much of the required labour, and the extent and intensity of European settlement was therefore limited. From the early nineteenth century large-scale agricultural development increased, particularly in Ontario, Quebec, and the Prairie provinces of central Canada. The European population expanded greatly and as this occurred the First Peoples of Canada experienced patterns of colonial impact similar to those experienced in Australia – large-scale dispossession in regions suitable for Western agriculture; precipitous decline in populations; and the weakening and in some cases destruction of First Peoples’ social and governing structures (Alfred 2009). Nevertheless there were two fundamental differences between the colonial contexts in Australia and Canada. First, in the latter First Peoples played, at least initially, a key role in allowing economic exploitation to occur. Because of the economic importance of furbearing animals, a resource absent in Australia, the ability of First Peoples to travel into and hunt in remote and inhospitable regions secured for them an important place in the colonial economy. No such place was available in Australia’s colonial economy, and indeed the animals hunted by Aboriginal peoples competed directly with the sheep and cattle of the colonizers, leading the latter to push the Aboriginal peoples aside. Only in Australia’s far north, where the climate and the marginal nature of the land made it uneconomic to

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employ white labour, did Aboriginal people gain a significant foothold in the new economy, albeit under conditions that were at times little better than slavery (Norris 2010, 135–7). The second key difference was that while Australia had but one colonial power and no adjacent colonies of any significance, Canada had two colonial powers in Britain and France and had America as its neighbour. This situation resulted in a series of military conflicts between the two colonial powers and between the English and the American colonists that made First Peoples valuable allies, allowing them to gain political leverage by playing the colonial powers against each other (and also against their traditional enemies). In combination, these factors resulted in recognition of First Peoples’ political and economic rights in ways that have no precedent in Australia. Two specific aspects warrant mention. The first was the Royal Proclamation of 1763. This established a process for obtaining First Peoples’ lands by negotiation and treaty, and stated that until that process had occurred the “Nations or Tribes of Indians” were to remain unmolested in their use of land and under the protection of the Crown. Only the Crown, not private individuals, could acquire land from Indians. The second was that the British Crown, and subsequently Canada, signed treaties with numerous First Nations in eastern and central Canada, though treatymaking had come to an end by the time that Canada came to engage in a systematic way with First Peoples in much of British Columbia and the far north (Russell 2005, 40–2). During the nineteenth and much of the twentieth century Canadian governments may have ignored the spirit of the 1763 Proclamation and both the spirit and the letter of the treaties (Jull 2001, 14; Usher 1997). Yet their existence represented certain underlying legal and political realities that would have important implications for the First Peoples of Canada in the contemporary period. Political Structures Canada was created by the confederation of four colonies in 1867, with a further five colonies joining the union during the succeeding decades, and Newfoundland and Labrador finally joining in 1949. The federal government had jurisdiction over the Yukon and Northwest Territories, which covered much of Canada’s far north. The eastern portion of the Northwest Territories, where Inuit account

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for a majority of the population, gained self-government as the territory of Nunavut in 1999. In contrast to Australia, both the provinces and the federal government hold specific powers under Canada’s constitution, and residual powers adhere to the federal government. Provincial powers include responsibility for mining and other land management issues (Constitution Act, s92). Again in contrast to Australia, responsibility for First Peoples’ affairs lies at the federal level, with Ottawa given exclusive authority to legislate with respect to “Indians and land reserved for the Indians” (Constitution Act, s91 (24)). This reflects the influence of the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which had mandated that dealing in “Indian” lands was a Crown prerogative, and the Crown’s role in treatymaking. The shape of party politics in Canada is more complex than in Australia. The Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties formed Canada’s federal governments for much of the period between the Second World War and the turn of the century. However in recent years both parties have suffered serious electoral defeats. The Progressive Conservatives have been replaced by the Conservative Party of Canada (in government between 2006 and 2015). In 2011 the Liberal Party lost its status as the official opposition to the social democratic New Democratic Party (N D P ), though it recovered to form a majority government after the 2015 election. Major parties have not dominated Canadian politics to the same extent as the AL P and the Liberal/National parties have dominated in Australia. This reflects the powerful impact of regional factors in Canada. For instance resentment in Western Canada against what is seen as its political marginalization has generated support for the N D P and also the conservative Reform Party. The ND P has won office in a number of western provinces and has exerted significant influence in federal politics, for instance allowing a number of minority Liberal governments to retain office. For different reasons the Parti Québécois, formed in 1968, has also had a major impact on national politics, as well as winning government in Quebec. The existence of a substantial minority of francophone Canadians, accounting for 25 per cent of the population and a majority of voters in Quebec, has had a major influence on Canadian politics. It has resulted, it can be argued, in an acceptance of the need to accommodate ethnic differences, which has also affected Canada’s approach to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. The strong francophone

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presence has also led to a major focus on the role of constitutional arrangements in entrenching such an accommodation. This focus is evident, for example, in the repatriation and extensive amendment of Canada’s constitution in 1982. As part of this process, “Aboriginal rights” were entrenched in the constitution, a point discussed below. Indigenous Affairs Policy Canada’s Indigenous affairs policy, reflecting in particular the context of treatymaking, was from the start more highly formalized and based in legislation than was the case in Australia. Treaties were agreements between the Crown and members of “Indian” tribes or bands, under which the groups involved recognized the authority of the Crown and ceded parts of their territories for use by the Crown. In return they were allocated reserves (usually covering only a small part of their traditional lands) on which to live, and were paid annuities by the Crown. Numerous treaties were signed by the British Crown prior to confederation. During the decades between 1857 and the late 1920s, when treatymaking ceased, the federal government signed a series of additional numbered treaties with the result that treaties covered most of Canada apart from northern British Columbia, the Northwest and Yukon Territories, northern Quebec, and Labrador. It is now clear that while the federal government assumed that treaties involved a surrender of First Nations sovereignty and of their rights on non-reserve land, First Nations signatories saw them quite differently, regarding them as “treaties of peace and friendship” rather than as measures extinguishing their political autonomy or their rights in land (Russell 2005, 44–5; Usher 1997, 104). The Indian Act, originally passed in 1876 and regularly amended thereafter, distinguished between “status” and “non-status” Indians. “Status” Indians were people who were registered by the federal government as “Indians,” and included members of both groups who had signed treaties and groups who had not. They were entitled to benefits under the Indian Act, including the right to reside on reserves and where relevant to receive treaty payments. The Indian Act allowed the federal government to exercise control over almost every aspect of the lives of status Indians, in a manner that was at best paternalistic and at worst designed to destroy the distinct identities, cultures, and economies of First Nations (Alfred 1995, 56–8; Crane 1994, 408). First Peoples who were not treated as “status Indians” included First Nations and Inuit groups whose members had never been

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recognized as status Indians, as well as individuals who had lost their status – as occurred, for example, when First Nations women married non-Indigenous men or when First Nations members surrendered their status to enjoy rights they could otherwise not exercise (for instance to consume alcohol or to vote in elections). They also included the Métis, who lacked a land base, resided mostly in the prairies and in the NWT ’s Mackenzie Valley, and according to Canada were the responsibility of the provinces. During the period after the Second World War Canadian government policy was based on the assumption that First Peoples would gradually become assimilated into mainstream Canadian society. This approach was reflected, for instance, in the centralization of dispersed populations into settlements where they could access mainstream government services, and in the widespread removal of First Peoples children to residential schools where use of First Peoples’ languages and other traditional practices were forbidden. In 1969, the Liberal Government of Pierre Trudeau published a white paper on First Peoples policy that explicitly articulated an assimilationist agenda. The government proposed to terminate all special relationships – including treaty relationships – with First Nations, and encourage their rapid integration into the dominant society so that they would become “Canadians as all other Canadians” (Asch 1984, 63). The white paper resulted in a widespread backlash among First Peoples, further galvanizing a growing political movement for greater recognition of their political rights. In the early 1970s a number of national and regional First Nations and Inuit political organizations started to push hard for major changes in government policy. Their cause was assisted by a landmark Supreme Court decision recognizing inherent First Peoples’ rights in land in 1973 (see next section) and by political and constitutional debates surrounding the position of French Canadians. During the remainder of the 1970s and the early 1980s the federal government significantly modified its policies, abandoning the push for assimilation and accepting the legitimacy of First Peoples’ claims for self-government. This shift in policy is reflected in a number of areas. One is the entrenchment of “Aboriginal rights” in Canada’s constitution when it was repatriated in 1982. The Constitution Act 1982 states: 35(1) The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed.

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(2) In this Act, “aboriginal peoples of Canada” include the Indian, Inuit, and Métis peoples of Canada. The new policy orientation is also reflected in the increasing devolution of control over delivery of public services on reserves; in the creation of the Inuit-dominated territory of Nunavut; in the Canadian government’s negotiation of a series of comprehensive land claim settlements with groups in western and northern Canada; and in its increasing willingness to include in these settlements provisions relating to First Peoples’ management of government programs, and comanagement of natural resources (A A N D C 2014). Recognition of Land Rights First Nations that signed treaties continued to occupy and use (small) portions of their traditional territories. However reserves were held in trust on behalf of band members by Canada, which exercised substantial control over land use and over time allowed large areas of reserve land to be alienated and/or used for commercial purposes. The Canadian government’s view has been that native title is extinguished in areas subject to treaties, a view rejected by many affected First Nations people. As in Australia, Canada’s legal system did not recognize the existence of any inherent First Peoples rights in land. This changed in 1973 when Canada’s Supreme Court, in the Calder case, recognized that such rights did exist at the time of European settlement, and could continue to exist under certain circumstances. While the 1982 Constitution entrenches “existing Aboriginal and treaty rights,” it does not define those rights, and subsequent attempts to define them in negotiations involving Canada, the provinces, and First Peoples failed (Abale 1999, 449–50). In the area of land and native title, it has been left to the Supreme Court to do so. In a series of decisions including Delgamuuk, Sparrow, Haida Nation, and Mikisew Cree First Nation, it has both helped define the content of First Peoples’ rights, which importantly are deemed to confer the right to a share of mineral and other resources extracted from the land, and laid down substantial requirements for government to consult with First Peoples before granting any rights in their traditional lands to third parties (AANDC 2014; Christie 2007; Gibson and O’Faircheallaigh 2010, 29–31). As noted earlier, treatymaking ceased in the late 1920s and left large areas of northern Canada and British Columbia without treaties.

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After the Calder case the Canadian government began to negotiate a series of land claim settlements or “modern treaties,” designed in part to address issues of native title and resource development. While land claim settlements have evolved over time and differ significantly in their specific provisions, their basic structure is similar. First Peoples are granted surface and sub-surface rights to a portion of their traditional lands, typically around communities and in areas of critical importance for key food species, and resource development cannot occur in these areas without their consent. They also hold surface rights to somewhat larger areas, and potential developers of resources in these areas will have to negotiate access before developing them. Finally, native title rights will be extinguished over the remainder of the group’s traditional lands, though First Peoples typically retain rights to hunt and fish and to be involved with government in management of wildlife (Gibson and O’Faircheallaigh 2010, 31–3; Usher 1997). Negotiation of land claims is time consuming, in part because of the reluctance of many First Peoples to accept extinguishment of native title rights over large parts of their traditional lands. British Columbia British Columbia is the most western province in Canada. As with Queensland’s status in Australia, British Columbia (B C ) represents Canada’s third largest province by population: approximately 13 per cent of Canada’s entire population, after Ontario (at roughly 38 per cent) and Quebec (approximately 23 per cent). The population is dispersed across a landmass the size of France, Germany, and the Netherlands combined but most residents live in the Lower Mainland area. The majority reside in Vancouver, Canada’s third most populous city. Migrants constitute a significant component of BC’s population, with BC boasting the largest Chinese community in Canada and over one third of Vancouver’s population coming from abroad. The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, which is located on Vancouver Island. This small city gained capital status through its historical role in the dominant fur-trading economy of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the onset of gold rushes in the late 1800s. BC is Canada’s gateway to the Pacific and its economy evolved from farming and fishing to forestry and mining with the arrival of transcontinental railways. In modern times, economic diversification has come with construction, real estate, tourism, and technology services.

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In 2016 271,000 people or 6 per cent of the British Columbia’s population of 4.6 million identified as First Nations, Inuit, or Métis. Of these, 64 per cent were First Nations, 33 per cent Métis, and 0.6 per cent Inuit. In absolute terms, B C has the second largest First Nations population of the Canadian provinces and territories after Ontario (Statistics Canada 2018). There are 203 First Nations in BC (of 633 in Canada), representing thirty-four distinct languages. B C ’s Métis population of over 89,000 constitutes the fourth-largest Métis population in Canada. Pre-European settlement, B C was home to one of the densest and most linguistically diverse populations in Canada. It is estimated that one third of the pre-contact population of Canada resided in B C , constituting some 200,000 to 1 million people. This rich fabric of First Nations was often characterized by permanent villages with sophisticated social institutions. An abundance of salmon and cedar enabled coastal First Nations communities, in particular, to develop impressive trading societies that journeyed beyond Canada. With the arrival of European settlers, disease including smallpox, influenza, measles, and whooping cough decimated the First Nations population. Diet changes and harvest interruptions caused through disease further eroded health. During British settlement of BC in the early 1800s, assumptions of racial superiority dominated and under the ideology of Social Darwinism a number of restrictive laws were passed at the federal and provincial level. These included the Potlatch Ban (from 1885– 1951), which outlawed First Nations’ cultural and spiritual practices, and also the denial of voting rights to non-white people including First Nations, Chinese, and Japanese peoples. The legacy of residential schools and a deliberate government program of removal of children to foster care (referred to as the “1960s scoop”) continues to cause intergenerational trauma, with First Peoples children forcibly removed from their families and placed in Western boarding schools or foster homes in the name of Christianity and assimilation. It is estimated that some 30 per cent or approximately 150,000 First Peoples children were placed in residential schools nationally, of who some 6,000 died. Eighteen schools or 13 per cent of the total 139 recognized residential schools across Canada were located in BC. In 2009 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada began a multi-year process to listen to and document the experiences of survivors, communities, and other affected parties of

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the residential schools system. This process culminated in a report published in 2015 outlining ninety-four “Calls to Action” intended to rouse Canada to processes of restitution, education, and avoiding the repetition of atrocities. A National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation was established in Manitoba to carry on the work of truth telling, education, memory keeping, and healing. Forced removal of children remained particularly persistent in Canada. While the program of residential schools largely closed during the 1950s and ’60s (with the final school closing only in 1996), the government allowed the child protection system to take over the assimilation task. During the 1960s, thousands of children were placed in foster care in Western families. For example, in 1951 there were twenty-nine First Nations children in provincial care in BC, but by 1964 that number had risen to 1,466, representing 34 per cent of all children in care in B C at that time (Hanson n.d.). Two dominant forces shape B C practices with respect to the interaction between the government and First Nations: the Indian Act, discussed earlier, and treaty processes. Treaty history in BC is complex and different from the rest of Canada. It represents a case of “unfinished business” between First Nations and the Crown. Between 1860 and 1923 the process of treatymaking continued west to the Rockies in advance of European settlement. The West, however, remained uncolonized until the mid-1800s. First Nations petitioned governments throughout the 1800s and 1900s to negotiate treaties but the B C government of the day curtailed treatymaking due to its reluctance to recognize First Nations land title, preferring instead to keep its relationship with First Nations strictly contained to commercial matters pertaining to the fur trade and the interests of the Hudson’s Bay Company (H B C ). James Douglas, as chief factor of H B C and then governor of the colony of Vancouver Island from 1851 to 1864, was a key influence in maintaining this policy. Thus when BC joined Canada in 1871 the province, unlike all other British colonies at that time in Canada, did not recognize First Nations title, instead holding to the principle that all issues relating to “Indians” were the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government. A number of treaties were negotiated around this time between the Canadian government and First Nations that pertained to certain B C lands. Between 1850 and 1854 Douglas, of the Hudson’s Bay Company, purchased land on Vancouver Island at the request of the British Crown in return for lump sum payments to First Nations and rights

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to continue hunting and fishing. These are known as the Douglas Treaties. The federal government also negotiated treaties with eight First Nations in northeastern B C to assist with problems associated with the Klondike Gold Rush. Consolidated together, signed in 1899 and known as Treaty 8, this treaty released First Nations title in exchange for land and related benefits. Between 1923 and 1973, no new treaties were signed in Canada. Legal action launched by the Nisga’a Tribal Council in 1968 (the Calder case) prompted change. The Supreme Court of Canada’s 1973 decision in this case raised doubts about whether First Nations title to land in B C had been properly addressed, by recognizing for the first time that First Peoples title has a place in Canadian law based on occupation of traditional territories. It prompted the BC and federal governments to confront unsettled land claims across Canada. The federal government and Nisga’a nation signed a framework agreement in 1989 to help guide a modern treaty process and content for negotiations. The B C government joined these negotiations in 1990 and a new framework agreement was signed. Until a Nisga’a Final Agreement took effect in 2000, almost all of B C (except for the Douglas treaties and Treaty 8) remained subject to outstanding land claims. In October 1990 leaders of various First Nations met with the prime minister and the premier of BC urging them to appoint a tripartite task force, which then developed a blueprint six-stage treatymaking process for the province in 1991. Simultaneously those First Nations interested in pursuing treaties formed the First Nations Summit as an institution to assist First Nations in their individual negotiations with the B C and federal governments regarding treaties in BC. A modern treaty negotiations process was established in 1992– 93 by agreement among the governments of Canada and BC, and the First Nations Summit. The BC Treaty Commission (BCTC) was established to oversee the negotiation process to make sure that it is fair, impartial, effective, and understandable. According to the BCTC, there are currently sixty-five First Nations (representing 105 current and former Indian Act bands out of all 200 BC bands) currently participating in, or having completed treaties through, the treaty process. Controversy and division exist between First Peoples as to the desirability and efficacy of treaties under the Canadian system. Many First Nations people question the degree of sovereignty and the substantive benefits granted through the treaty system when coupled with the Indian Act. Furthermore, BC is still navigating the landmark

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implications of the unanimous 2014 Supreme Court of Canada judgment in the Tsilhqot’in case, which, for the first time in Canadian history, declared “Aboriginal title” to lands outside of a reserve. This decision also reinforced the reservations of many First Nations about pursuing self-determination through treaty processes, given that there may be opportunities to secure more substantive rights through the courts. Some positive change occurred in the relationship between the BC provincial government and First Peoples in BC with the striking of A New Relationship, a five-page document agreed in 2005 by then premier Gordon Campbell, the First Nations Summit, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (a political organization founded in response to the 1969 white paper), and the B C Assembly of First Nations. The latter represents the 203 First Nations of B C , and is one of ten regional associations affiliated with the National Assembly of First Nations, which represents 633 First Nations across Canada. A New Relationship commits the parties to “a review of existing Forest and Range Agreements, the creation of new structures to address shared decisionmaking regarding land use planning, management, tenuring and resource revenue and benefit sharing; and, a review of necessary institutional, legislative and policy changes to implement these actions items” (BC First Nations Forestry Council 2015). A New Relationship Trust has also been established as an independent non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening First Nations in BC through capacity building, concentrating support through five key development areas: (i) education; (ii) elders and youth; (iii) governance capacity; (iv) language and culture; and (v) economic development. As in Queensland, B C ’s public sector is organized into functional departments (termed ministries) coordinated by central agencies, in particular Finance and the Office of the Premier. Portfolio responsibility for First Peoples affairs lies with the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, whose major role is to lead the province’s reconciliation efforts with “First Nations and Aboriginal peoples,” especially through negotiation of agreements and partnerships and by fostering economic development. Most recently, with the 2017 election of the ND P (New Democratic Party) government following the historic no-confidence motion in the previous Christy Clark Liberal government, the Ministry has stipulated its responsibility for developing a reconciliation vision to guide implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP),

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the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 94 Calls to Action, and the Tsilhqot’in Supreme Court decision.

C o n c l u s ion Australia and Canada share important features in common but also display significant differences. In both countries Indigenous peoples have survived a colonial experience that subjected them to systemic racism and organized violence, including massacres, denied them the ability to govern themselves, largely dispossessed them of their lands, and sought to undermine their cultures. It has left them, relative to the non-Indigenous population, economically deprived and with poor access to public services and infrastructure and, in particular, poor access to the education and health services that are so fundamental to human well-being. Yet even where European impact has been most severe many Indigenous peoples in Australia and Canada have survived as distinct and vibrant societies, displaying beliefs, values, and social structures that are distinctive and that place a high value on maintaining, in a holistic way, a world based on interlocking connections between land, people, culture, and spirituality. Key differences involve political structures and the historical treatment of Indigenous land rights. While Australia and Canada are both federated liberal democracies that draw on Westminster traditions, there are differences in their party systems and in the allocation of powers between national and subnational governments. Indigenous affairs is primarily a federal responsibility in Canada, whereas it was entirely a state responsibility in Australia until the 1967 referendum and largely remains so today, despite the federal government’s substantial spending on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs. Canadian provinces enjoy greater autonomy than their Australian counterparts, though in both cases the two levels of government are now heavily involved in service delivery to Indigenous peoples, including in education, health, and housing. A key difference between the jurisdictions with respect to Indigenous affairs is the presence of treatymaking powers and of the Indian Act in the Canadian system. These elements both constrain and enable a range of options in the Canadian setting in a manner that does not have an equivalent in Australia. These similarities and differences must be remembered when considering the stories and experiences of Indigenous public servants recounted in this book.

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The historical and demographic contexts set out in this chapter for both Queensland and British Columbia evidences strong similarities. Both are large land masses that occupy a similar position in their nations’ demography, and are in the process of diversifying their economy from a base heavily dependent on natural resource extraction. Both display attitudes to the recognition of Indigenous rights in land and the treatment of Indigenous peoples that could be described as harsher and more persistent than those that occurred at the national level. On the other hand differences between the Australian and Canadian party systems and between the constitutions of the two countries help shape the environment in which public services operate in Queensland and British Columbia in particular ways. The existence of the Indian Act constitutes a particularly significant and differential influence in British Columbia.

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3 Indigenous Employment in the Queensland and British Columbia Public Services, 1991–2015 In t ro du c t i on The purpose of this chapter is to briefly outline the policies of Queensland and British Columbia towards employment of Indigenous people* in their public services and to describe, as far as the available statistics allow this, changes in the extent and nature of Indigenous employment in the two decades between the early 1990s and 2015 – the most recent year for which relevant data has been published. The available information both on policy development and on Indigenous employment is – as will become clear – patchy and often inconsistent over time, and it is not always possible to find comparable data for Queensland and for British Columbia. In particular, British Columbia has not produced consistent time-series data on Indigenous employment over the period since 1994 in the way Queensland has done, and this inevitably means that the level of detail it is possible to achieve in discussing the two jurisdictions is somewhat unbalanced. Despite these limitations the analysis does reveal a clear and consistent picture of trends in Indigenous employment in both cases, and provides critical contextual information for discussing the experiences of Indigenous public servants in the chapters that follow. In each case we provide whatever information is available on the Indigenous population and workforce, to provide context for the data on Indigenous public sector employment. We then summarize information * As noted in chapter 1, in presenting statistical data on employment in public services, for consistency and ease of interpretation we use the ­terminology employed by the government bodies that collect and publish the data. In Queensland the term generally used is “Indigenous”; in British Columbia and Canada it is “Aboriginal.”

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on Indigenous employment, providing more detail in appendix tables where this is available. We are particularly interested in changes over time in the overall representation of Indigenous people in the two public services, in the identity of government agencies in which they work, and the organizational or occupational level at which they are employed. The latter is especially relevant to a project on Indigenous bureaucratic leadership. Employment at higher organizational levels and/or in occupations that involve a managerial role are likely to allow exercise of formal authority; within hierarchical bureaucratic organizations this is important for creating access to leadership opportunities. Both Queensland and British Columbia only publish data for “Indigenous” or “Aboriginal” public sector employment, respectively, and do not provide a breakdown between different First Peoples. The same generally applies to official workforce statistics.

Q u e e n s land The first step towards presenting a statistical overview of Indigenous employment in the Queensland Public Service (Q P S ) is to establish background information on the Indigenous population and the Indigenous workforce and labour force in Queensland. Table 3.1 presents relevant data for each census year between 1991 and 2016. The population and workforce information is drawn from Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census data, where people are classified as Indigenous based on self-identification. The labour force data is based on ABS surveys (see below), which include a question asking whether the respondent “Is of Aboriginal origin, Torres Strait islander origin or both” (A B S 2012b). The Indigenous population grew from 2.4 per cent of Queensland’s total in 1991 to 4.0 per cent in 2016. The A B S (2009) estimates Queensland’s Indigenous population will grow at between 2.6 per cent and 2.7 per cent per annum, the fastest in Australia, during the period 1991–2021. Table 3.1 indicates that the Indigenous proportion of Queensland’s workforce (people aged fifteen to sixty-four) grew from 2.5 per cent in 1996 to 3.1 per cent in 2011. Indigenous people consistently account for a lower percentage of Queensland’s workforce than of its total population, by about 0.4 percentage points. This reflects the fact that the age profile of Indigenous Australians is younger than non-Indigenous Australians. For example in 2011 nearly 36 per cent of the Indigenous population was younger than fifteen years, compared

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Table 3.1 Indigenous proportion of population, workforce, and labour force in Queensland, 1991–2011 (%) Census years

1991

1996

2001

2006

2011

2016

Indigenous proportion of Queensland population

2.4

2.9

3.1

3.3

3.6

4.0

Indigenous proportion of Queensland workforce*

N/A

2.5

2.7

2.8 

3.1

 

 

 

 

2.8

2.7

 

Indigenous proportion of the Queensland Labour Force** Notes:

* Calculated by isolating Indigenous population aged 15–64 years from total Indigenous population, then dividing by Queensland population aged 15–64. ** Based on A B S estimates of Indigenous people employed and actively seeking employment. Sources: Derived from A B S 2007a; 2007b; 20012a; 2012b. 

to 19 per cent for the population as a whole (ABS 2011). Another distinctive feature of the Indigenous population is its geographical distribution. In 2010 25 per cent of Indigenous people aged over fifteen lived in remote areas, compared to less than 2 per cent of the non-Indigenous population (A B S 2011). The figures presented for the Queensland Indigenous labour force for 2006 and 2011 represent estimates derived from the monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS) conducted by the ABS. The ABS defines the labour force as “a measure of the total number of people in Australia who are willing and able to work. It includes everyone who is working or actively looking for work – that is, the number of employed and unemployed together as one group” (ABS 2012b). The LFS has a monthly sample ranging between 41,000 and 61,000 people aged fifteen and over in urban, rural, and remote areas across all states and territories of Australia. Because of limitations with the methodology employed, the labour force data should be regarded as a general guide only (ABS 2006). They show that the Indigenous proportion of the Queensland’s labour force was 2.8 per cent in 2006 and 2.7 per cent in 2011, identical to the Indigenous share of the workforce in the former year but somewhat lower than that share in 2011 (see Table 3.1). Indigenous Employment in the QPS 1992–2015 Histor ic a l c o nt e x t The election of the Goss Labor Government in 1989 represented a significant political change in Queensland. The previous conservative

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National Party government had held office for thirty-two years, nineteen years under the leadership of Joh Bjelke-Petersen. BjelkePetersen’s tenure was in large part enabled by distorted electoral boundaries, or gerrymander, which favoured the National Party’s rural powerbase. The lives of Indigenous Queenslanders were deeply affected by discriminatory laws and policies that had endured under the National Party decades after reforms had occurred at Commonwealth level and in other states, including payment of wages well below those paid to non-Indigenous workers in equivalent jobs (see chapter 2). The Queensland government finally enacted standard award wages for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in 1972 but excluded those who worked on its reserves. These employees were awarded a “training wage” at 58 per cent of the basic wage, although in practice workers were often paid at significantly lower rates. Such practices were illegal after the Commonwealth government enacted the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (R D A ), but the Queensland government simply ignored it. After a sustained political and legal campaign by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers, supported by trade unions and community legal organizations, the Queensland government finally agreed to pay award wages to its employees in March 1986. Kidd (2009, 143) estimates the total amount underpaid to Queensland Indigenous employees between the passage of the R D A in 1975 and 1986 at over $66 million, relative to award wages. The Fitzgerald Inquiry into Queensland Police Corruption (1987– 89) exposed institutionalized corruption within the fabric of the Bjelke-Petersen government, including senior police and cabinet ministers (Wanna 1991, 208). The inquiry provided the political momentum required for Labor to overcome the gerrymander and regain government after thirty-two years with a platform of reform based on the Inquiry’s Report (Fitzgerald 1989). Equa l O p p ort uni t y L e gi sl at i o n an d   I n d i g e n o u s Employme nt P ol i cy One of the new government’s first major initiatives was to establish the Public Sector Management Commission (P S M C ) whose three primary functions were to: •

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Review the purpose, structure, functions, and management of all Queensland public sector organizations;

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•

Establish and administer management and personnel standards and systems; and • Administer and protect merit and equity principles (PSMC 1993, 90). A significant plank of the Goss Government public sector reforms involved enactment of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (ADA ), and the Equal Opportunity in Public Employment Act 1992 (EOPEA ). The ADA sets out definitions of direct and indirect discrimination. The EOPEA requires that QPS employers are alerted to and apply the ADA when employing people. Its purpose is to promote equality of employment opportunity in the public sector, and “eliminate unlawful discrimination … against members of the target group with respect to employment matters” (Section 4). The Act states that this will be achieved through the development of Equal Employment Opportunity Management Plans (E E O M P s) and monitored through Equal Employment Opportunity (E E O) Annual Reports. In the early years of EEO reporting under the Act the Government’s target was “for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be represented in the public sector in proportion to their broader representation in the community” (P SMC 1994, 11). The “broader representation in the community” referred to the proportion of Indigenous people within the Queensland population (P S M C 1994, 19; O P S C 1997, 39). The inaugural E E O Report stated that the premier had announced an employment target of 2.4 per cent by 1996 based on the 1991 census data (P S M C 1994, 11). Subsequent E E O Reports drew attention to increases in employment levels from those documented in the previous year’s EEO report, implying that another target was to achieve annual employment increases, though the extent of desired increases was never specified (Q P S C 2001, 7). In 1995 EEO planning shifted to an outcomes-focused approach rather than one that focused on implementation of the EOPEA . This involved agencies focusing on achieving measurable outcomes for target group members, and required agencies to submit to more in-depth critical analysis of their EEO program and results (PSMC 1995, 11). The new focus also required that agencies nominate a “Senior Executive Responsible for EEO” whose responsibilities included integrating EEO into corporate planning and management (PSMC 1995, 14). The Queensland Government revised employment targets for Indigenous employees in 1997. The existing target of achieving employment rates equalling Indigenous representation in the overall

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Queensland population, taken to be 2.4 per cent, was pushed out from 1996 to 2000. It should be noted that discussion of this target failed to mention either the Indigenous proportion of the workforce, or consideration of any increase in the Queensland Indigenous population, which was growing at a faster rate than the non-Indigenous population. Also significant is the fact that the EEO performance target for Indigenous employees was that they be “represented at 2.4 per cent at all salary levels” by 2005 (OPSC 1998, 15 emphasis in original). The 2000–01 Queensland Public Sector Commission (Q P S C ) Annual Report highlighted the co-ordination and monitoring of “sector-wide employment targets for both women in management and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people” (Q P S C 2001, 7, 23). This statement is typical of a general approach in the Annual EEO Reports that tends to combine leadership initiatives in relation to Indigenous people with those of other “E E O Target Groups,” but fails to identify specific measures that focus on Indigenous public servants. The E E O Report from the subsequent year states “Achievements were made in the employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the service with representation of 2.5 per cent exceeding the 2002 target of 2.4 per cent” (Q P S C 2002, 3). No mention was made of the goal of achieving 2.4 per cent representation at all salary levels set in 1998. The QPSC did commence Indigenous leadership initiatives in 2009 under the Queensland Reconciliation Management Plan 2009–12. These initiatives targeted “employment retention and career advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees, in particular to middle and senior levels in the public sector” (Q P S C 2010, 37). We were unable to establish whether or not these initiatives were maintained or whether their success was evaluated. In 2011 the Queensland Labor premier Anna Bligh signed the Australian Employment Covenant “committing to provide 2800 Indigenous employment opportunities across the public sector by June 2013” (“Project 2800”). The premier also signed the Council of Australian Governments (C O A G) National Partnership Agreement committing to a target of 2.6 per cent Indigenous representation across the Q P S workforce by June 2013. In addition, the Q P S C facilitated the development of agency-specific Indigenous employment targets for thirteen major or core agencies, and announced it had included these targets in C E O performance agreements (Q P S C 2011, 24, 41–2, 112). Examples of agency-specific targets are 4.4 per cent for the Department

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of Communities, which includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy, and 2.6 per cent for Department of Justice and Attorney General (Q P SC 2011, 112). The Newman Liberal – Country Party conservative government elected in a landslide in March 2012 quickly signalled a change in priorities in relation to the public service and its equity programs. It established a Queensland Commission of Audit under former Liberal federal treasurer Peter Costello, whose terms of reference emphasized seeking improvements to the state’s fiscal position and economy and efficiencies in service delivery and government-owned enterprises (Tiernan 2013). The commission’s final report recommended a number of changes to the public sector and the QPSC. The report emphasized modernizing and streamlining of a public service it believed was outdated and unresponsive to change. Recommendations included simplifying or rationalizing regulations, as well as industrial awards and agreements. It also called for contestability in service delivery, greater workplace flexibility, and lower overhead administrative and corporate costs (Barton Deakin 2013). Employment diversity objectives were not discussed in the Commission of Audit Report. Included in its 155 recommendations was the following in regard to the role of the Q P S C: “The role of the P S C be focused on setting and coordinating service-wide human resource and industrial relations strategies, and providing support, guidance and capability development to agencies in the implementation of those strategies, rather than seeking to direct and control agency practices” (Queensland Commission of Audit 2013, 3–389). Specific measure canvassed by the Commission of Audit report had potential implications for existing mechanisms to meet Indigenous employment targets, including the possibility that they might be removed from chief executives’ performance frameworks or agreements. The report stated “It is important that the number of objectives [included in a new performance framework for chief executives] does not become excessive, as this would tend to reduce clarity and accountability for the achievement of those objectives” (Queensland Commission of Audit 2013, 3–450). The Newman government, as part of its commitment to implementing the Commission of Audit report, amended the Public Service Act 2008, via the Public Service and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012. One of the objectives of the bill was to “refocus the [PSC] away from a regulatory function towards a public sector efficiency agenda” (State of Queensland 2012).

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Chief executive Ian Maynard’s statement in the Q P S C’s 2011–12 Annual Report outlined a new emphasis on “fiscal repair” (Q P S C 2012, 6). He also announced the merger of the Q P S C with Public Sector Industrial and Employee Relations, providing “a stronger platform to work with agencies to deliver the government’s vision for renewal across the sector,” and the establishment of a Public Sector Renewal Program within the Department of Premier and Cabinet. The statement was the first by a PSC chief executive in a PSC Annual Report that did not mention Indigenous employment representation, nor EEO performance or data. The Annual Report also, for the first time, did not include E E O data, which was published in a separate report, and also noted that Machinery of Government changes resulted in the relocation of Project 2800 (see above) from the Q P S C to the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Multicultural Affairs (QP SC 2012, 27). The 2011–12 Annual Report also neglected to mention the government’s target of reducing the numbers of public service employees by 14,000. It was reported in September 2012 that job losses stood at approximately 10,500, resulting mostly from redundancies, with the remainder of the target to be made up by discontinuing temporary positions and not renewing vacant positions (Helbig and Ironside 2012). It is not surprising that the Q P S C ceased its focus on employment diversity and meeting employment targets for the E E O groups given what Maynard described as the “unprecedented level of change the PSC has experienced over the last 12 months” (Q P S C 2012, 6), including a dramatic reduction in employment in the Queensland public sector. The Palaszczuk Labor government, elected in January 2015, refocused the QPSC, returning to earlier priorities including equal employment opportunity. The government aims to create “an inclusive, diverse and fair public sector that reflects the community it serves” (Q P S C 2015, 5), and is committed to “increasing diversity, inclusiveness and gender equity” through “interlinked projects … at both whole-ofgovernment and agency levels” (QP SC 2015, 6, see also Queensland Government 2015, 99). All Queensland Government departments are required to “improve their existing practices in attracting, recruiting, retaining and developing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff,” and to contribute to an aggregate 3 per cent employment target (DA TSIP 2016, 8). While the Q P SC ’s chairperson has identified the goal of “fostering leadership excellence and encouraging high

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performance” and the “associated focus of diversity” (Q P S C 2015, 5), the Q P S C Annual Report outlines the “Leadership Talent Management Strategy” (L T M S ) and the “Inclusion and Diversity Strategy” (IDS) separately. While representation of women and gender issues are discussed and linked to both strategies, the representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees is not discussed as part of the LTMS or, surprisingly, the IDS. The historical tendency not to include Indigenous leadership when discussing either public sector leadership programs or Indigenous employment programs, evident since the commencement of EE O objectives, reporting, and programs in the 1990s, continues today. In summary, for the last two decades the Queensland Government has espoused a policy of enhancing Indigenous employment in the QPS. However there has been little consistency, other than a general commitment to achieving an overall level of employment comparable to the Indigenous proportion of the Queensland population, in the basis on which the state government has defined its objectives in relation to Indigenous employment, or in the way these objectives have been pursued or progress towards them measured. There has also been a failure to link initiatives aimed at enhancing Indigenous employment with those aimed at developing leadership capabilities and, except very briefly in 1997–98, no mention of achieving Indigenous representation at all levels of the Q P S . In dig eno us E mp l oy me nt Data Queensland public sector Indigenous employment data presented in Table 3.2 and in the Appendix Tables was sourced from Equal Employment Opportunity Annual Reports prepared by the Q P S C under sections 6 and 7 of the EOPEA . The Act requires QPS agencies to develop EEOMPs and in doing so an agency must “collect and record statistics and related information about the number of employees who are members of the target groups and the salary stream and level of these employees.” The “target groups” identified under the Act are: a People of the Aboriginal race of Australia or people who are descendants of the Indigenous inhabitants of the Torres Strait Islands; and/or b People who have migrated to Australia and whose first language is a language other than English, and the children of those people; and/or

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c People with a physical, sensory, intellectual, or psychiatric disability (whether the disability presently exists or previously existed but no longer exists); and/or d Women. The data for the E E O M P reports are collected via an annual Queensland public service employee census, which commenced in June 1993. The individual agency E E O M P s are then consolidated in the E E O annual report prepared by the Queensland public service commissioner. Since the QPS census and the EEO reports commenced in the year 1993–94, the employee census response rate has averaged 74 per cent. The lowest response rate during the eighteen-year period was 65 per cent in 2000 and the highest was 83 per cent in 1995. Appendix Table 3.1 sets out information on aggregate Indigenous employment in the QPS for each year between 1994 and 2015, except for 2011–12 when comparable data was not produced (see below). Table 3.2 provides summary information for selected years between 1993–94 and 2014–2015. The two sets of figures for Indigenous employment result from the inclusion and exclusion of the “NonResponse” data in the QP S Census in calculating the proportion of Indigenous employees within the QPS. The EEO reports have included both figures in all eighteen annual reports from 1993–94 to 2010–11 and for 2012–13, but since then only the “Non-response” figure has been provided. Including the “Non-response” data is likely to underestimate the percentage of Indigenous employment as the non-­ respondents are likely to include some Indigenous employees. As a result the “Non-response included” figures in Table 3.2 and Appendix Table 3.1 should be regarded as indicating the minimum level of Indigenous employment. However any such underestimation is likely to be reduced by the fact that “anecdotal evidence from Census Collection Officers in July 1993 suggested that the group of persons who choose to avoid responding have a lower target group representation than the average” (P SMC 1996, 19). At the start of E E O reporting in 1993–94 the proportion of Indigenous employees (non-response included) in the Q P S was 1.1 per cent. This was significantly below the Indigenous representation in the population and the workforce (2.9 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively in 1996). After 1994 the proportion of Indigenous employees trended steadily upwards (see Appendix Table 3.1), ­peaking at 2.2 per cent (non-response included) and 3.1 per cent

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Table 3.2 Proportion of Indigenous employees in the Queensland Public Service and Indigenous percentage of Queensland population, selected years, 1993/94–2012/13 Year

1993–94

2007–08

2012–13

Indigenous % of population

2.4 [1991] 2.9 [1996]

3.3 [2006]

3.6 [2011]

4.0 [2016]

Indigenous employee % Non-response included

1.1

2.2

1.8

2.0

Indigenous employee % Non-response not included

1.4*

3.1

2.5

QPS Census response rate

77

69

2014–15

74

Note: * The first QPS Census was conducted in July 1993, and the first two census reports were not published (PSMC 1995: 9). The employment figure of 1.4 per cent for 1993–94 is from an unpublished EEO report (cited in PSMC 1995: 5). Source: Appendix Table 3.1

(non-response excluded) in 2008, and falling slightly in subsequent years. The “non-response” rate, at about 2 per cent, is still significantly lower than the Indigenous representation in the population, workforce, and labour force (see Tables 3.1 and 3.2). Appendix Tables 3.2 and 3.3 provide information on Indigenous and non-Indigenous QPS employees holding positions at nine different salary levels from AO1 (Administrative Officer Level 1) to “above AO8” (Administrative Officer Level 8). The figures in Appendix Table 3.2 represent the percentage of the total number of Indigenous and nonIndigenous employees that hold positions at each salary level, while absolute numbers at each level are provided in Appendix Table 3.3 up until 2012–13, after which they were no longer published. Appendix Table 3.2 shows that throughout the period Indigenous QPS employees are represented at significantly lower proportions at the higher salary levels, and at higher proportions in the lower salary levels, compared to non-Indigenous employees. However at the higher salary levels the extent of this discrepancy has been narrowing over time. In 1993–94 the proportion of Indigenous QPS employees in the top two salary bands was only 0.4 per cent, while the equivalent percentage for non-Indigenous employees was six times larger at 2.4 per cent. By 2014–15 this discrepancy had declined substantially, with the proportion of non-Indigenous staff in the top two bands 2.5 times that of Indigenous staff. However relativities at the bottom end of the scale have not changed greatly. In 1993–94 63.4 per cent

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of Indigenous employees were in the two lowest salary bands, 1.6 times the proportion of non-Indigenous employees (38.9 per cent). By 2014–15 employment in the lowest band AO 1 had virtually disappeared and was no longer counted separately, presumably reflecting the computerization of routine clerical tasks. The percentage of Indigenous staff located in the AO1/AO2 and AO3 levels was just over 50 per cent, compared to 28 per cent of non-Indigenous staff, close to the ratio that existed in 1993–94. Thus while the situation for Indigenous employees at the upper salary levels has improved to some extent, the overall relativity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous employees shows little sign of improvement. In absolute terms, the numbers of Indigenous employees in the top two salary bands increased significantly, in a context where both the absolute numbers of non-Indigenous employees and the proportion of all employees in the two top salary bands also expanded substantially. In 1993–94 just eight Indigenous employees occupied positions at this level, compared to 3,229 non-Indigenous employees, with Indigenous people therefore accounting for just 0.12 per cent of the total. By 2012–13, the last year for which absolute numbers are available, 269 or 1.05 per cent of the 25,502 employees at A08 and “above A08” were Indigenous. Another important factor to note and one not reflected in Appendix Tables 3.2 and 3.3. is that Indigenous people tended to be disproportionately represented in temporary employment positions. For example, the 1995/1996 data “indicated the continuing trend of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees to be represented in less secure forms of employment … [They are] still more than twice as likely to be in temporary employment … 12.6 per cent of Indigenous employees, 6 per cent for other employees” (O P S C 1997, 27–8). This discrepancy had narrowed somewhat by 2015, but was still significant, with 21.3 per cent of Indigenous employees in temporary employment or casual employment compared to 15.8 per cent for non-Indigenous employees (Q P SC 2016, 10). The QP S has published information on the occupational status of Q P S Indigenous and non-Indigenous employees, but changes over time in the occupational categories used makes it impossible to produce a consistent time series in the manner that is possible using salary levels. The available data does reinforce the picture provided by the salary levels information. In 2014–15, for example, a much lower proportion of Indigenous employees were employed in the categories

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of “Managers” and “Professionals” (31 per cent compared to 52 per cent for non-Indigenous employees), and a much higher proportion in the categories of “Labourers” (8 per cent versus 4.4 per cent) and “Community and Personal Service Workers” (37.5 per cent versus 20.5 per cent). Turning to the organizational location of Indigenous employees, they are concentrated in departments that are heavily involved in delivery or services to, or regulation of, Indigenous families and communities. By far the largest employer is the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Relationships, with 27 per cent of the total in 2015, with the Queensland Family and Child Commission accounting for a further 7 per cent. On the other hand economic and central policy agencies account for few Indigenous employees. For example the Department of Premier and Cabinet accounts for only 1.3 per cent of employment, Trade and Investment Queensland for 1 per cent, and Queensland Treasury for 0.8 per cent (Q P S C 2016, 9). Queensland Summary Indigenous Queenslanders have faced formidable obstacles in pursuing employment opportunities in the Queensland Public Service. Until the mid-1980s they faced systematic exclusion and discrimination in employment and in remuneration, and denial of their human rights and access to basic services including those critical to their capacity to pursue employment opportunities – for example education, health, and housing. This background is reflected in the fact that in the early 1990s they were substantially under-represented in the Q P S relative to their representation in the population and in Queensland’s workforce. To the extent that they did gain public sector employment, they were concentrated in lower paid and lower skilled positions, and almost entirely excluded from more highly paid positions. Changes in Queensland’s wider social and political context and the introduction of EEO legislation and of measures designed to monitor and encourage Indigenous employment have resulted in greater Indigenous employment in the QP S. Indigenous participation is now at a level close to the Indigenous proportion of Queensland’s labour force. However Indigenous employment in the public service is still heavily concentrated at lower salary and occupational levels, and while absolute numbers of Indigenous people in the two highest salary bands has increased substantially, as a proportion of total Indigenous

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public service employment it is still only half the equivalent percentage for non-Indigenous employees. This must serve to limit the opportunity for Indigenous people to achieve formal leadership positions. In addition, relatively few Indigenous people are employed in the central and economic agencies where much of the critical policy­making work of state government occurs.

B r it is h C o l umbi a In 1996 the total First Nations, Métis, and Inuit population of B C was some 140,000, increasing to just over 170,000 in 2001, 196,000 in 2006, 232,000 in 2011, and 271,000 in 2016. This represents a 94 per cent increase in the total First Peoples population over the twenty years from 1996 to 2016. The percentage of the total population of BC who self-identified as Aboriginal was 3.8 per cent in 1996, increasing to 4.3 per cent in 2001, 4.7 per cent in 2006, 5.4 per cent in 2011, and 6.0 per cent in 2016. This population growth can be attributed to two main factors: the higher birth rate of First Peoples compared to non-Indigenous British Columbians, as well as increases in the number of people self-identifying as First Peoples. Consistent historical data on First Peoples workforce and labour force participation is not as readily available as for Queensland. In 2002 3.3 per cent of the B C workforce was Aboriginal, rising to 4.2 per cent in 2011 (Statistics Canada 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2018). Aboriginal Employment in the British Columbia Public Service 1992–2015 In 1992, British Columbia established the Commission of Inquiry into the Public Service and the Public Sector, commonly referred to as the Korbin Commission after its principal investigator, Judy Korbin. The commission was established in a time of fiscal constraint and reviewed all aspects of human resources management with the aim of making the British Columbia Public Service (BCP S ) more efficient and effective in delivering policies and programs. One of its main tasks was to review the recruitment, hiring, and promotion of employees in the B C P S , and a major part of its work in this area was to suggest ways of promoting employment equity in order to ensure that the public service was representative of the B C population. The ­commission’s report noted: “The public service work force is not

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Leading from Between

representative of the public it serves. The unions and G P S D [Government Personnel Services Division] advised the commission that certain groups, such as women, visible minorities, physically challenged and aboriginal people are either under-represented in the public service generally or they are proportionally over-represented in the lower paying jobs. Data is available that shows the representation of women in the public service, but there is no appropriate data available for the other groups” (Korbin 1993, 25). The commission recommended that the BC government track the number of minorities in the B C P S, and put in place employment equity policies to attract visible minority members. Acting on these recommendations, the B C government established the Public Service Employee Relations Commission (P S E R C ), which served as the central agency responsible for all human resource management aspects. Among its many functions, P S E R C established a branch devoted to employment equity and diversity. Further, the B C government amended the Public Service Act 1996 making one of its purposes to “provide for the recruitment and development of a well-qualified and efficient public service that represents the diversity of the people of British Columbia” (P S E R C 2002, 9). The P S E R C began to create a workforce profile with the Count Yourself In campaign. All public service employees were asked to respond to a self-administered questionnaire that elicited employees’ status in the four minority group areas (women, visible minorities, Aboriginals, and peoples with disabilities). P S E R C began to publish data on Aboriginal employment in the B C P S in 1994. The P S E R C ’s annual reports provided general data on the percentage of Aboriginal people employed in the B C P S , as well as on the hiring rate of Aboriginal people. The reports did not publish more specific information such as the ministries that Aboriginal people were employed in or on their occupational categories. PSERC reported that in 1994 Aboriginal people comprised 1.6 per cent of the public service, while their share of the labour force was nearly double this figure (P S E R C 2002, 35). In the first couple of years after the B C P S implemented employment equity strategies, few gains were made in employing underrepresented groups, including Aboriginal people. Between January 1994 and July 1995 there was no net increase in the percentage of any of the four minority groups (LeSage 2000, 450). This lack of progress was attributed to the time it takes for

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equity strategies to take effect, low rates of staff turnover and the large number of internal job competitions (P S E R C 2002, 10). In 2002, 10 years after the Korbin Commission, Aboriginal people comprised 2.1 per cent of the B C P S , compared to 1.6 per cent in 1994. Aboriginal people were still, therefore, substantially underrepresented relative to their share of the labour force, which stood at 3.3 per cent. There were however some signs of progress. Between January 2001 and January 2002, Aboriginal people made up 3.5 per cent of new hires, slightly higher than their share of the labour force (P S E R C , 2002, 35). In relation to occupational categories, LeSage (2000) noted that Aboriginal people were under-represented in every occupational category, and that much of the increase in their employment occurred in the “semi-skilled manual labour” and “semi-­ professional and technician” categories. By 2010, the B C provincial government began publishing more detailed statistics on the B C P S ’s workforce in a report entitled the Workforce Profile Report: BC Public Service. These provide data on the number of Aboriginal people employed, the percentage of Aboriginal employment in each ministry, and the occupational level of Aboriginal employees in the B C P S compared to the equivalent share of that category in the available Aboriginal workforce. Each of these areas is discussed below. At the time of writing the 2017 Workforce Profile Report had yet to be published. Table 3.3 provides information on the proportion of regular, fulltime B C P S employees across all occupations who identified as Aboriginal in 2011, 2013, and 2015. In each year 3.1 per cent identified as Aboriginal, which compares with the equivalent proportion of the B C population of 4.8 per cent in 2011 and 2013 and 5.4 per cent in 2015. Aboriginal employment has thus almost doubled since 1994 when it stood at 1.6 per cent. In 2011, the available workforce was 4.2 per cent Aboriginal, while Aboriginal people as a whole comprised 4.8 per cent of the BC population (BC Stats 2011, 3). These numbers show that there is progress in employing more Aboriginal people since strategies were first implemented in 1994, although Aboriginal people are still under-represented compared to their share of the population and the available labour force. There seems little immediate sign that this situation will change as Aboriginal people accounted for only 3 per cent of new hires between 2011 and 2015 (B C Stats 2013, 1, 2016, 1).

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Table 3.3 Aboriginal employment in the BCP S , 2011–15 Year

2011

2013

% of respondents who identified as Aboriginal

3.1

3.1

2015 3.1

% of population

4.8

4.8

5.4

Source: BC Stats 2011, 2013, 2016.

Aboriginal people are more seriously underrepresented in the BCPS at more senior occupational levels. For example, while comprising 3.1 per cent of the BCPS, they account for only 2.1 per cent of senior managers and of middle and other managers. It should also be noted that these figures are substantially lower than the Aboriginal share of the available workforce for these occupational categories, which stood at 5.3 per cent (senior managers) and 4.4 per cent (middle and other managers) in 2015 (BC Stats 2016, 13). Similarly, in the semi-­ professional/technician category, Aboriginal people comprise 3.9 per cent of the BCPS, whereas 9.7 per cent of the available workforce in these categories is Aboriginal (BC Stats 2016, 13). Only in the “clerical” category is the Aboriginal share of BCPS employment higher than the Aboriginal share of the available workforce (BC Stats 2016, 13). Turning to the specific ministries in which Aboriginal people are employed, the two largest employers are heavily involved in service delivery to Aboriginal families and communities (the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation with 9.1 per cent of employees in 2015, and the Ministry of Children and Family Development with 5.1 per cent of employees) (BC Stats 2016, 7). Few Aboriginal people are employed in central agencies and economic ministries, and indeed their numbers are so small that confidentiality provisions prohibit their publication. In 2015 this applied for example to the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of International Trade, both of which had fewer than three Aboriginal employees (BC Stats 2016, 7). In terms of their geographical location, Aboriginal employees are more substantially represented outside BC’s capital, Victoria, and its major city, Vancouver. In Vancouver 2.1 per cent of BCP S employees are Aboriginal, compared to 5.5 per cent of the available workforce; in Victoria the equivalent figures are 2.5 per cent and 3.8 per cent. In areas outside B C ’s two largest cities, 4.7 per cent of the BCP S workforce is Aboriginal compared with 5.4 per cent of the available workforce (B C Stats 2016, 13).

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In light of the continued underrepresentation of Aboriginal people, especially in more senior occupational categories, in 2007 the British Columbia Public Service Agency (B C P S A) established the Aboriginal Youth Internship Program. This is a paid, twelve-month internship designed to develop the leadership skills of up to twenty-five Aboriginal youth annually and to promote the BCP S and Aboriginal organizations as rewarding careers and organizations. Successful applicants are provided with a nine-month internship in a BC government ministry, while the last three months are spent with an Aboriginal organization. Aboriginal organizations apply to the B C P S A to have an intern placed in their organization and are paid by the agency, allowing Aboriginal organizations to participate in the program regardless of financial capacity. The program is regarded by the BCP S A as being very successful in incorporating more Aboriginal peoples into the service (B C P SA 2018a). However as noted above any success in this regard has yet to be reflected in Aboriginal representation in more senior occupational levels. In 2012, the B C P SA developed Aboriginal Relations Behavioural Competencies to guide how public servants, individually and collectively, interacted and worked with Indigenous peoples in the province. The competencies apply in performance development, training, hiring, and service delivery dimensions of public service work. The BCPSA indicates on its webpage that because the province of BC and Indigenous leaders “are now working in a government-to-government relationship, four of the 17 behavioural competencies apply to all BC Public Service Employees, no matter where you work.” These four competencies are (a) self-discovery and awareness; (b) sustained learning and development; (c) cultural agility; and (d) change leadership (B SPC A 2018b).  British Columbia Summary The presence of Aboriginal people in the B C P S has changed significantly in the last couple of decades, rising from 1.6 per cent when employment equity measures commenced, following the Korbin Commission, to 3.1 per cent in 2015. However Aboriginal people are still underrepresented relative to their share of the population and workforce, particularly at senior levels and in Victoria and Vancouver. Their employment is concentrated in the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and the Ministry of Children

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and Family Development, with very few employed in central and economic agencies.

C o n c l u s ion Queensland and British Columbia have, despite difference in detail and emphasis, followed similar trajectories in relation to Indigenous employment in their public services. They introduced equal employment opportunity policies and legislation for Aboriginal people in the early 1990s, as part of a wider push to increase representation of women and minority groups. These initiatives were driven by the goal of achieving statistical equality for the target groups across the public service as a whole. While there have been occasional policy statements or initiatives designed to achieve greater Indigenous representation at higher salary levels and occupational roles, there has been no consistent pursuit of this goal in either jurisdiction. The outcomes of these E E O initiatives with respect to Indigenous employment have been very similar in the two jurisdictions. Indigenous employment as a share of total public service employment grew substantially during the decade after 1995, but since then has plateaued. Given that the Indigenous population has grown more rapidly than the population as a whole, in neither case has Indigenous public service employment reached a level equivalent to the Indigenous share of the population, and the gap between the two is now widening. In both Queensland and British Columbia Indigenous employment is concentrated at lower salary and occupational levels, and Indigenous underrepresentation is greatest at senior management levels. Most Indigenous public servants work in agencies that service Indigenous families and communities, and few work in the central agencies and economic ministries where much of the important policy making work of state and provincial governments occur.

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Appendix Table 3.1 Proportion of Indigenous employees in the Queensland Public Service (%) 1993/ 1994/ 1995/ 1996/ 1997/ 1998/ 1999/ 2000/ 2001/ 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Non-response included

1.1

1.4

1.1

1

1.1

1.1

1.3

1.7

Non-response not included

1.4*

1.7

1.3

1.2** 1.6

1.7

2.1

2.3

Census response rate

77

83

80

69

67

67

65

72

1.8 2.5 74

2002/ 2003/ 2004/ 2005/ 2006/ 2007/ 2008/ 2009/ 2010/ 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Non-response included

2

2

2

2

2.1

2.2

2

2

Non-response not included

2.6

2.6

2.6

2.8

2.9

3.1

3

2.7

Census response rate

77

77

77

74

73

69

81

74

2.1 2.8 75

2011/ 2012/ 2013/ 2014/ 2012 2013 2014 2015 Non-response included

2.2

2.1

2.0

2.0

Non-response not included

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

Census response rate

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

Notes: * The first QPS Census was conducted in July 1993, and the first two census reports were not published (PSMC 1995: 9). The employment figure of 1.4 per cent for 1993–94 is from an unpublished EEO report (cited in PSMC 1995: 5). ** 1996–97 figure was later revised from 1.2 per cent to 1.5 per cent (OPSC 1999: 15–16). Source: Queensland Public Service Commission, EEO Annual Reports and Annual Reports, 1993/94–2010/11.

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18.2

26.8

12.1

48.3

15

AO 3

AO 2

AO 1

16.6

14.8

21.3

1.6

14.4

20.4

38.6

3.8

AO 4

A O3

AO 2

AO 1

19.7

13.2

8.4

8.9

AO 6

AO 5

2.9

5.7

1.1

3.3

1.3

Above A O8

AO 8

4.1

Indig

A O7

NonIndig

2000–01

13.4

 8.1

17.4

AO 4

 5.8

17.8

 0.9

A O7

 2.3

 2.4

 0.2

A O8

 4.5

 1.1

 0.2

Above A O8

AO 6

 1.3

Indig

A O5

NonIndig

1993–1994

 8.7

24.7

18.5

13.4

17.4

 7.1

 3.3

1

 1.6

4.5

39.5

22.4

13

7.6

7.4

2.7

1.5

1.4

Indig

0.9

24.9

14.8

16.7

11.9

17.6

5.5

3.9

3.8

NonIndig

2001–02

29.8

37.5

15.9

 6.1

 5.8

 1.9

 0.8

 0.3

 0.3

Indig

NonIndig

1994–1995

7.4

3.4

0.8

1.4

Indig

3.4

44.4

17.7

13.5

8

 3.8

25.8

18.7

14.2

13.2

15

 4.2

 1.7

 2.8

0.7

25.7

13.5

17.1

12.9

17.8

5.9

2.3

4

NonIndig

2002–03

 9.2

44.9

22.9

 8.4

 7.4

 4.2

 1.5

 0.6

 0.6

Indig

NonIndig

1995–1996

 1.2

26.8

16.6

16.9

20.7

7

 3.9

 1.5

 2.4

3.7

42.2

20.6

11.2

9.9

7.5

2.7

0.9

1.3

Indig

0.6

23.1

16.6

13.2

16.4

18.1

5.2

2.9

4

NonIndig

2003–04

 2.5

48.8

18.4

12.3

 9.4

 4.2

 2.4

 0.8

 0.5

Indig

NonIndig

1996–1997

 1.3

24.3

15.9

16.3

19.3

12.7

5

 1.6

 2.7

3.5

45.7

16.7

13.2

7.3

8.4

2.6

1.2

1.4

Indig

0.7

28

13.6

16.1

10.3

18.6

5.3

3

4.3

NonIndig

2004–05

 2.2

47.3

18.7

12.2

 8.5

 7.2

 2.2

 1.1

 0.4

Indig

NonIndig

1997–1998

2

17.8

20.4

16.6

14

18.4

 5.6

 2.0

 3.3

8.5

42.2

16.1

10.2

9.3

8

2.5

1.5

1.6

Indig

6.5

24.7

11.3

11.9

13.8

17.9

5.3

3.6

4.9

NonIndig

2005–06

 3.6

36.9

25.7

14.2

 8.4

 6.3

 2.7

 0.9

 1.3

Indig

NonIndig

1998–1999

Appendix Table 3.2 Percentage Indigenous and non-Indigenous employment by salary level, Queensland Public Service, 1993/94–2014/15

 1.7

22.3

14.8

16.4

14.2

19

 5.8

 1.9

 3.9

NonIndig

2.7

44.9

16.4

13.9

8.3

9.1

2.4

1.4

1.7

Indig

0.5

23.7

14.2

16.4

10.5

19.7

6.3

3.7

5.1

NonIndig

2006–07

 4.2

39.9

19.6

16.9

 8.3

 6.5

 3.1

 0.7

1

Indig

1999–2000

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14.8

22.6

18.4

42

AO 3

AO 2

37.9

19.5

14.6

10.4

9.7

3.3

1.2

1.9

Indig

20.7

16.3

13.7

14.6

18.8

6.5

3.4

5.3

NonIndig

2008–09

35.9

20.3

13.5

11.3

10.1

3.9

1.5

2.2

Indig

19.6

15.7

13.3

14.7

19

7.5

3.5

5.9

NonIndig

2009–10

33.9

20.4

13.6

11.3

11.3

3.6

2.5

2.2

Indig

18.2

15.2

13.5

14.8

19.8

7

5.2

5.7

NonIndig

2010–11

2011–12

30.4

21.1

14.5

11.1

13.1

3.2

2.5

2.6

Indig

16

14.0

13.2

16.2

21.4

5.5

6.2

7.2

NonIndig

2012–13

28.72

22.05

14.97

10.04

15.26

3.82

2.56

2.58

Indig

AO 1

14.06

15.07

12.97

12.83

26.02

5.62

6.06

7.36

NonIndig

2013–14

1.4 0.6 1.2 0.6 1 0.5 1.3 0.5 1.3 0.3 Source: QPSC, EEO Annual Reports and Annual Reports, 1993–94 to 2014–15. Comparable data for 2011–12 was not published.

15.8

8.9

A O6

12.6

18.4

2.8

AO 7

9.4

6.2

1.5

A O8

13.6

3.8

1.9

Above AO 8

AO 4

5.1

Indig

A O5

NonIndig

2007–08

27.45

22.94

14.79

9.38

15.96

4.45

2.46

2.57

Indig

13.93

14.90

13.04

11.53

26.98

7.14

5.74

6.74

NonIndig

2014–15

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7619

23350

17522

23754

35126

15875

42

99

147

314

874

272

AO6

AO5

AO4

AO3

AO2

AO1

4158

8147

28068

18787

23600

21142

30392

2311

36

111

283

300

484

686

1300

127

A O7

A O6

A O5

A O4

A O3

A O2

A O1

5895

43

Above A O8

A O8

NonIndig

Indig

2000–01

1512

3214

4

16

4

Above A O8

A O7

1717

Indig

A O8

NonIndig

1993–94

12827

36529

27313

19758

25663

10498

4849

1567

2337

169

1470

834

484

283

274

100

56

51

Indig

1296

36586

21685

24516

17454

25881

8045

5770

5606

NonIndig

2001–02

752

947

403

154

147

49

21

7

7

Indig

NonIndig

1994–95

5437

37148

26868

20369

19003

21642

6096

2411

3979

139

1810

721

551

326

301

139

32

57

Indig

1072

39957

20990

26611

20079

27670

9212

3559

6259

NonIndig

2002–03

179

871

444

164

143

81

30

12

12

Indig

NonIndig

1995–96

1869

41072

25440

25870

31668

10820

6016

2304

3740

159

1800

876

476

423

318

115

40

54

Indig

986

36907

26472

21163

26200

28875

8350

4570

6418

NonIndig

2003–04

47

921

348

232

177

79

45

16

9

Indig

NonIndig

1996–97

1604

30317

19943

20365

24079

15885

6304

2603

3432

151

1988

725

575

319

364

113

52

63

Indig

1246

46094

22420

26562

16902

30631

8661

4906

7019

NonIndig

2004–05

47

989

391

255

178

151

47

24

9

Indig

NonIndig

1997–98

2506

22684

25939

21106

17890

23419

7110

2495

4152

398

1963

747

477

434

372

118

69

73

Indig

10703

40393

18453

19509

22679

29279

8757

5873

8022

NonIndig

2005–06

79

805

560

309

183

138

58

20

29

Indig

NonIndig

1998–99

2241

28731

19107

21093

18253

24477

7430

2381

4959

NonIndig

138

2255

843

715

426

467

124

74

86

Indig

898

40206

23989

27715

17779

33293

10627

6277

8608

NonIndig

2006–07

112

1075

528

455

224

175

83

18

26

Indig

1999–00

Appendix Table 3.3 Numbers of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Queensland Public Service employees at nine salary levels, Queensland Public Service, 1993/94–2012/13

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30682

21155

26436

24741

37757

956

476

503

730

989

2258

78

A O6

A O5

A O4

A O3

A O2

A O1

68

2066

1063

794

568

530

179

69

108

Indig

1253

40723

31956

26904

28603

36888

12698

6645

10341

NonIndig

2008–09

57

1915

1083

723

601

541

209

84

117

Indig

957

37526

30000

25483

28210

36414

14423

6763

11374

NonIndig

2009–10

72

1894

1138

762

632

632

200

140

121

Indig

913

35289

29441

26215

28752

38478

13599

10139

11107

NonIndig

2010–11 Indig

NonIndig

2011–12

71

1588

1107

758

582

684

167

133

136

Indig

578

29211

25690

24262

29742

39214

10051

11378

13124

NonIndig

2012–13

Source: QPSC, EEO Annual Reports and Annual Reports, 1993–94 to 2012–13. Comparable data for 2011–12 was not published. Absolute numbers of employees were not published after 2012–13.

6449

10405

82

153

100

Above A O8

A O7

8512

Indig

A O8

NonIndig

2007–08

4 Research on Public Sector and Indigenous Leadership

In t ro du c t i on Our purpose in this chapter is to set the research context within which our analysis of Indigenous public service leadership is conducted. We begin by discussing the phenomenon of public sector leadership as a modern concept in the academic literature, distinct from the common focus of leadership studies on political or military figures from history, or the more modern preoccupation with leadership narratives emanating from corporate success stories, self-help gurus, or entertainment superstars. We note the dynamic nature of concepts of leadership in recent writing and the increasing acceptance of the need for multiple leadership styles. We then review literature on Indigenous leadership in Australia and North America, noting the concentration of research on concepts of “traditional” Indigenous leadership and on Indigenous political leadership in the contemporary context. This work shows that there can be no assumptions that Indigenous people accept Western ways of thinking about leadership, or that Western models of leadership offer appropriate or useful analytical tools. To the extent that features of traditional leadership forms and practices continue to be evident in Indigenous society today, the historical analysis provides an important contextual factor in approaching a study of contemporary Indigenous public service leadership. However, there has been little consideration of the ways in which, or the degree to which, traditional forms may continue to exercise an influence on how leadership is conceptualized or practised in bureaucracies. This is a major focus of the book. We then review the small amount of existing literature directly relating to Indigenous public servants. We note the tendency, for

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example, in the work of Stewart and Warn (2015), to draw a strong distinction between traditional and Western forms of leadership. There is also an emphasis on the experiences of Indigenous public servants as they relate to representative bureaucracy (Ganter 2016; Rousseau 2014), and on racism as a fundamental factor in structuring Indigenous experiences of bureaucracies (Larkin 2013). The emerging literature on Indigenous public servants suggests shortcomings with commonly accepted Western assumptions embedded in bureaucratic structures that promote individualism, authority through role and hierarchy, and treating representation as a quota-filling exercise. However, while offering important insights into the experiences of Indigenous public servants, little of this literature is focused on Indigenous leadership per se. It is also limited in being focused on single jurisdictions, making it difficult to draw wider, and particularly conceptual, conclusions. The literature surveyed in this chapter also suggests, while recognizing the diversity of Indigenous societies, that certain broad principles appear to guide Indigenous leadership more generally (Julien et al. 2010; Warner and Grint 2006). These principles include: (i) holistic “balance” between a range of qualities and practices associated with leadership; (ii) spirituality and connection to land, stories, and past generations; (iii) personal integrity; (iv) lifelong learning and transferral of knowledge to others, including potential future leaders; and (v) pursuit of community rather than individual interests. Any of these principles, individually, can clearly be attributed to other concepts of leadership, including mainstream concepts (Ospina and Foldy 2009, 882–4; Prendeville 2003). A key question is if, taken together, they provide a unique Indigenous perspective and contribution to public sector leadership practices and understandings.

P u b l ic s e c to r leadershi p In this section our primary focus is on scholarship on leadership in a public sector context. However there is an ongoing interplay between research and writing specific to this area and a broader analysis of leadership in general, and inevitably the discussion on occasion moves between the two. Public leadership has been recognized and written about in a sustained manner since the Babylonian and Greco-Roman periods. The focus through history has typically been on the characteristics, writings, and teachings of famous – and infamous – figures from the public

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realm, especially of the political and military variety. Deployment of myths and legends has also figured prominently to illustrate leadership in its presence and absence (Van Wort 2017, 7–8). The advent of the scientific managerial revolution resurrected and redirected interest in public sector leadership in new ways. Today, the focus of leadership studies is on entrepreneurial activity and the ability to navigate complexity and change in positive ways, often in the pursuit of managerial and especially economic ends. Montgomery Van Wart (2003, 2013, 2017) has written extensively about leadership as a modern concept applied to the public sector. The term is relevant across a wide range of activities and practices from the leadership exhibited by the top echelons of officials exercising policy advice and political interaction, through to the leadership practised by frontline workers at the coalface of public service delivery. Van Wart (2003) argues that the huge literature on leadership more broadly can be summarized into a progression of theoretical ideas across the twentieth century. Over this period, academics have shifted from preoccupation with leader characteristics (for example the big man thesis and trait theory); to recognizing the role of tasks and subordinates, for instance contingency theory and theories of “followership” from the 1950s to the 1970s; towards organizational and other characteristics that influence the environment in which leadership is exercised, including integrative leadership theories, since the 1980s. Another way to present the progression of leadership ideas involves a shift over time from managerial transactional theories of leadership, to transformational charismatic leadership, to distributed shared leadership, to integrated theories of leadership that attempt to map all the various factors that are now recognized as contributing to effective leadership outcomes (Van Wart 2017). In contemporary times, one reading of public sector leadership theory is that it is dominated by Western philosophical and cultural ideals and practice, heavily influenced by corporate underpinnings, and fundamentally aimed at maximizing political, personal, and economic success. Countless leadership texts can be located on airport bookshop shelves and in online self-help centres to help wannabe leaders progress their careers, maximize entrepreneurial success, and exploit power and authority to achieve political or personal ends. In some of the academic research the Machiavellian dimension to this popular analysis is tempered by awareness of cultural and ethical dimensions to the pursuit of power, and an increasing focus on

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moderating individualistic tendencies towards recognition of the relevance of communities and diversity to leadership tasks and goals (Crosby and Bryson 2017; House et al. 2002; Julien et al. 2010). Another view is that academic literature on public sector leadership has expanded over time but has only very recently begun to scrutinize the dominance of modern Western-centric approaches, and to question whether other frameworks and perspectives might be pertinent. For example, work on gender and leadership (Appelbaum et al. 2003; Sinclair 2004; Sinclair and Evans 2015) and on Western versus Eastern and Islamic leadership (Drechsler 2013) both offer critiques of existing paradigms and offer alternatives with which to reflect on leadership as concept and practice. Meanwhile Susan Cain’s 2012 bestseller book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking argued that the modern Western ideal of successful leadership is a snapshot in time that ought to be unbundled to recognize the contribution of other paradigms to the leadership panacea. Within the Western paradigm, considerable effort has been devoted to establishing empirical evidence to demonstrate the significance of public sector leadership, especially to organizational performance (Van Wart 2013). Important questions remain, however, regarding when and how leadership matters, and in identifying what type of leadership is needed, to what end(s) and in what ways. The literature also concludes that public sector leadership has moved beyond simple concepts of hierarchy or public choice or “market” approaches towards collaborative and community-based approaches (“distributed leadership”). The latter are based on networks and call for a more ethical awareness of what leadership can contribute and how it can be envisioned and practised. Distributed leadership is viewed as a desirable and often realistic goal (Van Wart 2013, 2017). Ospina and Foldy (2010) identify a similar development in relation to leadership more broadly, arguing that “boundary-spanning collaboration” is now critical to organizational success, and that this requires a particular type of leadership that focuses on fostering collective action across boundaries to promote the common good. They suggest (Ospina and Foldy 2009) that, given this development, it is important to understand the experience of groups and communities that are already enacting more collaborative, relational, and collective forms of leadership. In their view such an understanding can also contribute significantly to development of leadership theory, a potential contribution that cannot be realized as long as mainstream theory

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continues to “use Western views and ‘whiteness’ as the referent from which to study and theorize leadership as a universal phenomenon” (Ospina and Foldy 2009, 884, 887, 892; see also Muller 1998). Van Wart argues that a range of public sector leadership styles can now be identified, and concludes that there are at least ten styles, including a laissez-faire or “hands off” style, and a directive style where the leader gives followers direction and guidance and asks them to follow rules (Van Wart 2017, 39–40). In discussing leadership more broadly, Quinn et al. (2015) argue that leaders need to draw on the talents of others, as no single leader will be able to deploy the variety of styles needed to match different situations. The presence of varying styles opens up possibilities in bureaucratic practice beyond a standardized version of what a good public leader looks like and how they ought to act. Related to this presence of diverse styles is another conclusion that leadership involves innate traits as well as learned competencies and skills. This has implications for public sector training and its capacity to influence leadership and so the future of public administration work and outcomes. Finally, the literature has not yet come to a conclusion as to whether public sector leadership is similar to, different from, or subject to convergence with other sectoral leadership forms. Empirical work has yet to be conducted that would support a firm conclusion, and so debates tend to be normative. One’s perspective on this issue shapes the way public sector leaders are expected to act. A public sector leader who believes that their leadership should be similar to the private sector is likely to evaluate themselves against criteria of efficiency and entrepreneurial effectiveness, whereas a “public sector leadership is different” advocate will be more likely to consider process, equity, and social dimensions to leadership performance. A “convergence thesis” protagonist is likely to stress the valuable coalescing force of community-based leadership for both the public and private sectors. There is agreement that leadership is multifaceted and nuanced. Distinctions are made between formal and informal leadership, leadership and management, leaders and followers, descriptive and prescriptive analysis, and between leaders and leadership, and so on. This has led Van Wart (2017, 27) to propose the following working definition of public sector leadership as a complex process involving the acts of: • Assessing one’s environment and one’s leadership constraints;

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• • •

Developing the numerous necessary leadership traits and skills (such as integrity, self-confidence, a drive for excellence, and skills in communications and influencing people); Refining and modifying one’s style for different situations; Achieving predetermined goals; and Continually evaluating one’s performance and developing one’s potential.

Van Wart (2013) is optimistic about the progress and future of the public sector leadership field. He argues that much has been achieved in the decade between his 2003 and 2013 reviews. He suggests that while more remains to be done, there is a richness to the theoretical and empirical studies performed that provides a sound basis for future investigation. He concludes that public sector leadership is important theoretically and practically and that it has a significant role to contribute to the current and future trajectory of public administration and policy work.

P u b l ic S e rv ic e , D iv e rs ity, Repres entati on, a n d   E q ui ty It is important to address literature on diversity, representation, and equity in the public sector given the role that these concepts have played in driving Indigenous employment strategies in public service around the globe. Furthermore, the experiences of Indigenous public servants pose significant questions and challenges in relation to the way in which diversity, representation, and equity are addressed in Canadian and Australian liberal democracies. In discussing these matters, we recognize that many of the issues and debates in the field also apply, sometimes in similar and sometimes in different ways, to other groups in society including women, people with disabilities, and people of diverse sexual orientation. We place diversity before representation and equity in the section title because the overarching driver for attempts to change the composition of public service employment has been the desire to have public services reflect the population or societies they serve. Diversity, in other words, is seen as the primary goal. What is the logic behind this goal? Drawing on our reading of policy documents and a limited academic literature, we have identified four major rationales: (i) inclusiveness and legitimacy; (ii) equity and economic

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opportunity; (iii) merit or talent; and (iv) giving a voice to certain strata of society. J. Donald Kingsley, in his 1944 book Representative Bureaucracy: An Interpretation of the British Civil Service, argued that bureaucracies can only be held responsible to the extent that public servant employees reflect the social classes – inclusive of backgrounds and social views – of those they represent. Over time, as social and cultural values shifted, the social class argument extended to include diversity based on race, ethnicity, culture, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and age (Bailey 2004). This approach contrasted with earlier, elitist views that promoted the idea that technically specialized, meritorious individuals selected by competitive examination would comprise the ranks and senior echelons of the public service, providing expert, frank, and fearless advice and faithful but neutral service to the government of the day. The Northcote Trevelyan report of 1854 entrenched this view when it conveyed the need for public servants to be of a “high quality” and constantly placed under merit review to ensure the quality and professionalism of public service work, considered essential for policymaking and societal development and progress. This view remains consistent to this day in public service legislation and codes of conduct. Since the 1960s, however, this Weberian ideal has been increasingly challenged as public services have become persuaded as to the efficacy of having public sector employees mirror the societies they serve. The dominance of an elitist approach to public service employment was undermined by a recognition of the potential contributions of all parts of society to public service work, and as community engagement became increasingly recognized by institutions of government, including the public service, as important in reflecting the tenets of democracy and ensuring the legitimacy of the state. Inclusiveness, in other words, began to feature as a significant rationale for moving away from public services dominated by Caucasian males to allow inclusion of women and people of different religious beliefs, ethnic origins, and cultures and languages. This latter issue was particularly pertinent in the Canadian context where the francophone community argued for representation in a manner that Ottawa could not deny. In Australia, pressures to promote inclusiveness stem from the Australian cultural value of egalitarianism and growing acceptance of multiculturalism. A second rationale spurring the normalization of diversity was the use of public service employment as a way to advance social and

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economic equity by furnishing economic opportunities to otherwise disadvantaged groups (see chapter 3). A third driver acknowledged that diversity in public service employment provided access to an enhanced talent pool. Indeed if merit was to be seriously pursued as a principle, there was no logic to denying people from across the whole community the opportunity to demonstrate their ability and so provide a wider pool from which to draw meritorious workers. Finally, another rationale was that diversity allows for the voice of different strata of society to be heard in policymaking and resource allocation. Public servants from diverse backgrounds, it was argued, could directly advocate on behalf of their group interests. This version of representation, according to its critics, diminishes the Westminster principle of representative government by allowing public servants to potentially bypass elected representatives. At first the response of public service commissions to calls for diversity was to pursue what Mosher (1968) termed “passive” representation. Passive representation refers to an implicit belief that the diversity origin of employees will automatically provide representation of the groups they belong to. It suggests a “bums-on-seats” or “quota” approach to representation. This is opposed to “active” representation, which promotes the idea of public servants effectively advocating in favour of particular group interests. According to Rousseau (2014, 46–9), in this latter context Mosher saw a need to investigate how much the socialization effects on recruits prior to entering the public service led to change, and how much public servants become socialized in the homogenizing ways of the public service and its values. From the 1970s, academic research started to consider the impact of diversity and debates regarding passive and active representation. A number of studies primarily set within the Afro-American context suggest that socialization prior to public service employment can be strong enough to resist public service homogenization and allow for active representation to take place (Bradbury and Kellough 2008; Dolan 2000; Krislov 1974; Krislov and Rosenbloom 1981; Meier and Nigro 1976; Selden 1997; Sowa and Selden 2003; Thompson 1976). Literature is developing on the links between diversity and performance. Studies in the private sector suggest diversity can promote innovation and economic success, hence there are economic reasons to pursue employment diversity. Some public sector studies suggest diversity has a positive impact on performance productivity and commitment of employees while other studies indicate that

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diversity lowers performance or has no significant impact (Sabharwal 2014, 201–2). Pitts (2005) suggests that there is a link between diversity, representation, and performance but that diversity and representation affect public sector organizational performance differently. Part of this difference relates to the level at which diversity and representation is present both for the client group and within the organization. Agencies where there is heterogeneity in client or citizen group are more likely to experience productivity improvement as a result of diversity. Another factor is that the impact depends on which performance criteria are under scrutiny. Studies that use only one performance measure to assess diversity can over- or understate impacts of diversity. A comprehensive, holistic approach is needed (Pitts 2005). One point that is clear from the literature is that passive representation does not automatically lead to advocacy on behalf of the groups or social strata from which public servants are drawn. Active intervention by the organization through supervisors, leadership, and changed processes to encourage empowerment is needed to allow representatives the discretion and organizational support they need to pursue active advocacy (Sabharwal 2014). According to Juillet and Rasmussen (2008) Canadian public service commissions, at least, have not entertained a role for active representation. They state: “The P S C has, in fact, never conceived of public servants from minority groups of being representatives of the social groups from which they emerge, nor have those public servants been encouraged to think that representing their respective groups is or should be part of their role in the public service. Such a concept would be inconsistent with responsible government and would mean conceding the notion of the public service as an independent player in public administration.” The concept of active representation can easily be framed as a violation of responsible government by undermining ministerial control of decision making on the basis of the “public interest.” However, a more nuanced approach might suggest that the reality of policymaking in liberal democracies always involves the articulation of a wide variety of specific interests, from within the bureaucracy as well as from the wider community. Ministers may make the final decision, but those decisions inevitably reflect the interests of some groups more than others. Indigenous peoples constitute one group whose interests have systematically been excluded in the past. The critical question is whether the presence of Indigenous public servants constitutes a mechanism through which this exclusion can at least be mitigated. We examine this issue in detail in later chapters.

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In summary, over time research on public sector leadership has increasingly seen leadership as multi-dimensional, flexible, and capable of adapting to a range of different circumstances. At the same time public policy has favoured cultural and social diversity in the composition of public services, although there is debate regarding whether such diversity results in a wider range of perspectives and interests being brought to bear on public policymaking and implementation. Focusing on Indigenous leadership in public services offers an excellent opportunity to examine issues around the nature of public sector leadership concepts and styles, and around the impact of growing diversity in the public sector.

L i t e rat u r e o n t r a d it io n al and contemporary In d ig e n o u s L e aders hi p There is a significant, though not extensive or systematic, literature on traditional Indigenous leadership in Australia and North America. Analysis of traditional leadership faces a number of fundamental problems. These include the diversity of pre-contact Indigenous society in Australia and Canada, reflecting the wider range of ecologies and of cultural, economic, and social formations found in both countries. The degree of social stratification, for instance, varied between more sedentary societies based on rich coastal ecologies and more mobile societies based on, for example, the Canadian prairies and the Australian deserts. An added difficulty is that virtually all written observation on traditional society originates with early settlers whose views of Indigenous society were shaped by very specific (often racist) cultural lenses and economic interests. Despite these difficulties, it is possible to come to some broad conclusions regarding the nature of Indigenous leadership. In Australia, Indigenous leadership was contextual and contingent. Different individuals might play a leading role in different spheres of activity, and specific roles shifted from one person to another depending on their relationship to the individual or individuals around whom, for instance, initiation or mortuary ceremonies were organized. Many aspects of social and religious life were gendered, creating another restriction on the exercise of influence or decision-making by particular individuals. Thus while there were certainly powerful individuals who played leadership roles in key areas of life, their roles essentially reflected personal characteristics such as their age and wisdom; their knowledge of the land, its resources, and of the law and ritual; and

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their ability as fighters and defenders of their people. In general, each land-owning group made its own decisions about use of resources and conduct of its social and political affairs independently of other groups. Thus, there was no supra-local (for instance regional) bodies with the authority to take and enforce decisions in relation, for instance, to allocation or management of resources, and thus there were no “leaders” who operated at these supra-local levels (Edwards 1998; Hiatt 1998; Ivory 2005a, 2005b, 2008; Megitt 1966; Stewart and Warn 2016, 4–5; Sutton and Rigsby 1982). Traditional Indigenous leadership in Canada displayed some of the same qualities. For example, based on a wide review of the literature, Johnston and Althaus conclude (2013, 16–17) that: “Leadership was not often vested in one individual. Rather, it was common for multiple leaders to share decision making based on their different skills and strengths … different kinds of leaders [were] afforded recognition by group consensus as circumstances warrant[ed].” They note that leadership had male and female aspects; that the religious and spiritual aspects of leadership were important; and that recognition of individuals as leaders was based on the qualities they displayed and on their actions and demonstrated capacities, rather than on election or mandated succession. They also note the emphasis placed on engagement and consensus building, though this did not detract from the decisiveness of leaders or their ability to provide direction (Johnston and Althaus 2013). To the extent that features of traditional leadership forms and practices continue to be evident in Indigenous society today, this historical analysis provides an important contextual factor in approaching a study of contemporary Indigenous leadership, for instance in recognizing the essentially contingent and contextual nature of leadership in Indigenous communities (Anderson 2006). It also indicates that there can be no assumptions that Indigenous people accept Western ways of thinking about leadership, or that Western models of leadership offer appropriate or useful analytical tools. Julien et al. (2010) suggest that traditional Indigenous leadership does remain relevant today. They argue that Aboriginal leadership is practised in modern society and that it differs from mainstream Western leadership in profound ways. Their findings align with those of Johnston and Althaus (see below) and of Kenny and Ngaroimata Fraser (2013) who explore embodied Indigenous leadership practices across Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. Julien et al.

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(2010, 119–23) suggest that North American Aboriginal leadership is characterized by eight important ingredients, all of which are intertwined, and which together shape a distinctive mode of leadership: (1) Conception of leadership is more than servant leadership and tied to holistic and communal understandings and ways of being and knowing that are essentially different from Western ways; (2) Centrality of spirituality; (3) Communicating through stories/symbols; (4) Long-term view; (5) The circle approach where everyone is connected and non-­ hierarchical; (6) Holistic; (7) Gender roles that are culturally steeped and focused on serving community and not on achieving equality akin to Western feminist views on gender; (8) Confronted with challenges emerging from tall poppy syndromes and the struggle to balance authentically one’s cultural values and beliefs simultaneously while working in the colonialized mainstream. Julien et al. argue (2010, 123) that there are distinct differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous approaches to, and practices of, leadership. A summary of these differences is presented in Figure 4.1. However, it should be noted that Julien et al. (2010) not only stress the features of Indigenous leadership that distinguish it from Western mainstream approaches, but also highlight what they see as the contemporary evolution of Western leadership forms towards long-­standing and resilient Indigenous principles (see Figure 4.1). Certain aspects of Indigenous leadership, in other words, are (re)gaining standing and currency as desired features of contemporary Western leadership. Johnston and Althaus (2013) have set out a generic model of Indigenous leadership that draws on both the literature on traditional Indigenous leadership and on contemporary understandings of leadership and contemporary leadership practices. This is expressed in diagrammatic form in Figure 4.2. Johnston and Althaus do not claim that Indigenous leaders always display behaviour consistent with this model of leadership, but neither is it an “ideal type” divorced from everyday reality. Rather it reflects a distillation of general understandings by Indigenous peoples of what constitutes “Indigenous

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Non-Aboriginal leaders

Aboriginal leaders

Concept of leader individualistic

Concept of leader community-oriented

Concept of leadership effectiveness narrow (e.g., unit performing tasks successfully and meeting goals; focus on action benefiting organization); focus on short-term results (quarterly results)

Concept of leadership effectiveness broad (connection to the creator, focus on action benefiting whole community); focus on long-term results (impact of decisions on future seven generations)

Spirituality slowly evolving into the workplace

Spirituality as the key driver of action and central to leaders’ social identity

Story-telling becoming a more important communication method

Story-telling central to leaders’ communication style

Relationships: hierarchical historically, but slowly evolving

Relationships: egalitarian

Focus on person as employee: what can I get from this person; work-family seen as separate domains historically; slowly evolving to recognize importance of supporting employees with work and family responsibilities

Focus on whole person: mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being; recognition of importance of family

Figure 4.1  Key differences and similarities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal leaders

leadership” and of the values and behaviours that should drive Indigenous leaders and in many cases actually do so. The idea of “Balance” is at the centre of the circle because balancing oneself among the various attributes associated with each of the four dimensions of the “wheel” is central to Indigenous leadership. The “Eastern” quadrant of the circle refers to the fact that leaders gain internal strength through spiritual beliefs and spiritual expression and that traditional teachings allow for the discussion and interpretation of symbols, stories, and dreams to be integral to the process of making important decisions. The southern segment refers to the individual traits displayed by leaders and which include generosity, personal integrity humour, loyalty, honesty, and the ability to physically and morally defend Indigenous rights in ancestral lands and waters. The western quadrant refers to the ability of leaders both to engage in a lifelong process of learning and development, but also to engage in the process of transferring knowledge to others, including potential future leaders. The final northern quadrant refers to the fact that leaders are driven primarily not be the desire to accumulate wealth and power for themselves, but to better the lives of their community members (Johnston and Althaus 2013, 12–20).

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Figure 4.2  Graphic representation of components of ­traditional Indigenous leadership

One important focus of our research is to establish the extent to which understandings of leadership and leadership practices among Indigenous public servants reflect this wheel of leadership, or particular components of it. Another model of leadership is presented by Warner and Grint (2006) – who stress that their approach constitutes a model of Indigenous leadership, not the model. Warner and Grint highlight four primary leadership skills, all of which involve the use of language and the mobilization of knowledge, especially through application of “persuasion.” These are characterized as being exercised by the Social Scientist, who focuses on observation, discussion, and the written word; the Elder, who relies less on the written and more on the spoken word and on traditions of the culture; the Role Model, who uses experience and relies more on actions than the spoken or written word; and the Author, who employs dialogue, humour, and familiar characters in both oral and written forms to “connect the past and future and portray a range of truths” (Warner and Grint 2006, 237–9). The core of this model involves application of knowledge through “persuasive techniques,” and it constitutes a radical departure from conventional Western models of leadership based on power, position, and hierarchy. There has been some writing on the extent to which distinctive Indigenous leadership practices and understandings of leadership

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were or are evident in relations between Indigenous societies and settlers and colonial governments (Alfred 2009; Blake 2001; Brock 1993), on an individual community or regional level (see in particular Ivory 2005a, 2005b, 2008; and also Rose 2001), and in specific political arenas or policy areas (Anderson 2008; Kamara 2007; Lickers 2006; Weaver 1981). The latter has yielded, in the Australian context, a number of insights that may prove useful in analyzing leadership in public services. One is Michael Limerick’s work on Indigenous community councils and governance in Cape York in far north Queensland (Limerick 2009). Limerick’s interest is in the factors that contribute to the performance of councils as judged both by standard accounting and audit measures and by their constituents. His work focuses on council officials as well as elected councillors, and especially on relations between the two groups. Indeed he regards the latter as a critical factor in council performance, with an ability to maintain an appropriate “separation of powers” between the administrative and political spheres contributing substantially to good council performance. He also finds that a “whole of community” orientation, as opposed to a narrower family orientation, and exposure of council members and employees to wider administrative forums and networks are both linked to improved performance. Thus while Limerick’s focus is not on leadership per se, his findings do offer insights into the conditions that, at the local level, are conducive to effective exercise of leadership by both elected officials and community council “bureaucrats.” Also relevant is Kamara’s work on the role of Indigenous women principals in remote schools in north Australia (Kamara 2007). Many of the issues she raises appear likely to have resonance in other contexts, including for Indigenous leaders in state and federal government bureaucracies. These include the tensions between Western worldviews that usually see leadership as authoritarian, individualistic, privileged, and future-oriented, whereas leadership in Indigenous culture “is viewed as collective, interdependent, deeply connected to present, and of deep spirituality” (2007, 5). As a result, school principals often find themselves “caught between quite antithetical values, and sometimes find themselves having to inhabit a persona that is neither wholly recognizable to westerners nor well accepted at the local community level” (2007, 5). Kamara (2007, 5) quotes one Yolngu woman on this theme: “One of the difficulties in being a Yolngu principal in a balanda [white] education system is the different way we look at being a leader. In

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Yolngu society, leaders are not placed up above everyone else … it is important that I am not a ‘bungawa,’ a boss. This is not the way leaders are in Yolngu culture. But I work in a balanda system which has a hierarchical structure. In this structure I am seen as the boss of the school. I am supposed to be able to make decisions about the school.” Other issues raised by Kamara that have wider relevance include: •

•

•

How the performance of leaders is evaluated given different cultural understandings of “leadership”; The linguistic and conceptual barriers faced by Indigenous people in seeking to operate effectively within white bureaucracies, especially given the prevalence of jargon in discussions of organizational structure, planning and performance; The particular problems faced by Indigenous women leaders in dealing with Indigenous communities that may still be predominantly patriarchal, including the assumption by senior Indigenous men that an area (such as schooling) where women occupy positions of leadership must by definition constitute “women’s business” and so neither deserve nor require the participation and support of men (2007, 5–7).

Also of wider interest is Kamara’s application of ideas from Hofstede’s research on cultural dimensions and work-related values (Hofstede 1991). In Kumara’s view two of five basic dimensions that Hofstede identifies as illustrating cultural differences are particularly relevant to Indigenous leaders in schools. These are Power Distance (“the extent to which members of a particular culture or society accept the uneven distribution of power”), and Individualism and Collectivism (“the degree to which members of a community or school culture see themselves as separate” (2007, 9). Kamara shows (2007, 9–13) how differences between Indigenous and mainstream cultures in north Australia along these two dimensions help to understand the experiences of Indigenous school principals and also “have serious implications for imparting knowledge and [for] leadership practices in Indigenous schools” (2007, 11). Kamara identifies strategies used by school principals in dealing with the challenges they place, including building partnerships with the communities they serve; developing shared leadership models within their schools that are less hierarchical and more inclusive than “mainstream” organizational models; and delegating bureaucratic

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matters to non-Indigenous people, allowing principals to focus on “educational leadership” (see also Fitzgerald 2006 on similar strategies employed by Indigenous women school principals in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada). Kamara’s work provides a number of starting points that are likely to prove useful in a study of Indigenous leadership in bureaucracies in Australia and Canada.

L it e r at u r e c o n c e r n ing I ndi genous p u b l ic   s e rvants The emergence of a plethora of recruitment, development, and retention strategies for Indigenous public servants in both Canada and Australia have been prompted by concerns to achieve “representative” bureaucracies as well as to improve employment participation and prospects for Indigenous peoples in both countries (see for example Northern Territory Government 2015; West Australian Public Sector Commission 2016). However, despite the growing presence of Indigenous people in the public sectors of Australia and Canada, including at senior levels in more recent years, there is only a small academic literature on the experiences and perspectives of Indigenous public servants. Here, we focus in particular on the groundbreaking work of Jane Rousseau (2014) from Canada and Elizabeth Ganter (2016) and Steven Larkin (2013) from Australia. All deal with the experiences of Indigenous public servants from a single agency or jurisdiction. All contribute significantly to charting the experiences of Indigenous public servants, but with different emphases. Rousseau’s concern is to chart the motives of Indigenous public servants in the Ministry of Children and Family Development (M C F D ) in British Columbia and their success in achieving good outcomes for children in care. Elizabeth Ganter’s work is conducted within the prism of representation. She charts the experiences of Northern Territory Indigenous public servants across a wide range of agencies and maps some of the complexities and tensions they face in acting as representatives for their communities. Finally, Steven Larkin focuses on the experiences of Indigenous public servants in the Australian Public Service in Canberra, documenting a range of structural barriers generated by racism that continue to prevent them from advancing their careers and from achieving the benefits that minority representation is meant to provide.

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Rousseau, a non-Aboriginal former public servant, documents the experiences of Aboriginal officials in the British Columbia M C F D where she worked, as well as in the corresponding ministry in Alberta, for twenty years. Rousseau’s assumption was that government agencies aim to recruit ethnically and culturally diverse employees to improve services to a similarly diverse public and that structural and organizational support for such employees would be present to sustain their contribution to such public service. She was curious to investigate the unique challenge faced by Aboriginal public officials working in a provincial government child welfare system that had historically and systematically pursued assimilation and oppression policies that harmed Aboriginal children, families, and communities. How could these officials exercise transformational leadership for the rising number of Aboriginal children in the care of MCFD – Aboriginal children in British Columbia are seventeen times more likely to be in the care of MCFD than non-Aboriginal counterparts (Sherlock 2017) – within the parameters of the public service system that had been part of the colonization of Aboriginal peoples? How would the concept of representative bureaucracy play out within this context? If Aboriginal employees were seen to be better placed to relate to the needs of Aboriginal children in care and their families, what supports were in place to allow them to exercise their leadership skills to positive effect? In fact, Rousseau found that a deficit model exists in the concept of representative bureaucracy as it played out in M C F D . Instead of allowing authentic representation to take place to support Aboriginal people served by MCFD, Aboriginal employees were subject to the same structures and parameters applying to all public service employees. Organizational support for Aboriginal employees to exercise transformational service to clients was simply not present. Despite strong rhetorical support by MCFD, as well as high motivation from Aboriginal employees themselves, they grew frustrated by systemic restrictions and regulations that curtailed and hampered their efforts to make positive change, and many simply left. Indeed Rousseau’s findings were scathing. She found that the organizational environment of MCFD featured: “low cultural competence, covert and sometimes overt discrimination and racism, mainstream risk-averse practice norms that are inconsistent with Aboriginal practice or a change agenda, sterile and institutional physical environments, a frontline Ministry staff fatigued with relentless and poorly implemented practice change

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initiatives directed from regional and provincial leadership, and a perception that the Aboriginal change agenda within the Ministry is largely rhetorical and politically based” (Rousseau 2014, 20). There were some isolated success stories. Particularly important here were “allies,” Aboriginal or culturally competent non-Aboriginal colleagues who: (i) shared Aboriginal values; (ii) knew and acknowledged colonization history; and (iii) held the respect of Aboriginal communities and peoples. They helped pursue collaborative and community-engaged approaches to work, including modifying practice and physical environments to support employees as well as M C F D clients (Rousseau 2014, 22–3). Rousseau’s account of the experiences of MCFD Aboriginal employees resonates strongly with the work of Elizabeth Ganter (2016), who concentrated on the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander public servants working in Australia’s Northern Territory. Ganter, too, was a former public servant who had worked for twenty years in the Northern Territory public sector across a range of portfolios. Unlike Rousseau, Ganter’s study was wider than a single ministry and instead focused on experiences of Indigenous public servants across a sub-national jurisdiction. Consistent with Rousseau, Ganter’s research suggests that concepts of representative bureaucracy are often over-simplistic in viewing public service representation as involving either advocacy or tokenism. In fact, matters are far more nuanced and complex. Ganter illustrates these intricacies in exploring the lived reality of Indigenous public servants in the Northern Territory. Through the prism of representative bureaucracy, Ganter concluded that Indigenous public servants in the Northern Territory are confronted with difficult choices as to whether or not to work in public service and whether or not to identify as Indigenous. If choosing to work within the bureaucratic system, they – like their Canadian counterparts in MC F D – are not always organizationally supported to exercise authentic Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander leadership, and they often encounter stark racism. One result is high turnover and a failure to meet Indigenous employment targets. Moreover, Indigenous public servants often face challenges from their home communities. They can be ostracized if they were not raised within a community and treated as “not really a blackfella,” or they can be seen negatively as the face of government and not doing enough to achieve positive change and outcomes for their peoples. The burden is high and the constancy of expectation from both

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government (to present the “Aboriginal view”) and community (to translate government requirements or provide practical community assistance to navigate the government system) is ever present. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authenticity is questioned one minute by non-Indigenous colleagues and by clients, and prized the next (2016, 99). Exhaustion, disillusionment, identity trauma, and turnover often occur. The world of the Indigenous public servant in the Northern Territory can be satisfying and many interview participants conveyed the importance of being a role model for future generations. Indeed Ganter (2016, 164–77) emphasizes the significance of Indigenous public servants as role models and records how her participants articulated important on-the-ground, symbolic, and disruptive contributions that can be made by presence, voice, and grounded action. Nevertheless, there is also an overwhelming sense that being an Indigenous public servant is a fraught exercise. Indigenous public servants are often misunderstood and the tensions they face in their day-to-day work lives is complicated by the challenge of bridging representation backwards into government as an employee, forwards with their communities as their representatives within government, and as a bridge between governments and communities through a constituency relationship. The notion of relationship is key. Ganter’s study (2016, 183) suggests that Indigenous public service employment strategies could work in positive ways to recognize these three relationships. First, there is a need to be clear and transparent about the employee relationship so that Indigenous public servants know what is expected of them and what government should expect by hiring them. There may also be merit in considering new ways to allow Indigenous employees to work on country, especially close to their place of origin, as this can alleviate some of the tensions and inspires improved value alignment and retention. Second, public services could allow the Indigenous public servants’ representative relationship with their communities to be honoured and respected and for them to navigate its demands. Third, public services should pay attention and attempt authentic and new ways to work better on government’s constituency relationship with Indigenous communities. This relationship needs prioritization and healing. Ganter (2016, 158) concludes that the least helpful theory of representative bureaucracy is the one that sits behind existing Indigenous employment strategies because it embodies a simplistic approach to

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representation that is embedded in employment strategies, assuming that hiring employees from certain strata of society will somehow translate, automatically and magically, into representation of these strata. This focus on the “representatives” themselves avoids important questions about who and what they are representing. There are relationships between representative and public service, as well as representative and community, not to mention assumptions made about the content of representation in both cases. Here Ganter distinguishes between representations as trusteeship and as substitution. Trusteeship gives the representative a role in upholding community links and in allowing otherwise unheard voices to speak. Substitution sees representatives as speaking for the minority group, which promotes continuation of the government lacking an authentic relationship with the community. Instead of engaging with the community with the assistance of the representative, the representative is viewed as the substitute for engagement. The representative becomes the token Indigenous person at the government table. Steven Larkin’s doctoral research (Larkin 2013) focuses on the way in which race affects the experience and career prospects of Indigenous public servants in the Senior Executive Service (S E S ) of Australia’s federal public service, the Australian Public Service (APS). He sets out to answer two key questions: “Does race matter in the way in which Aboriginal people engage in the Australian Public Service, and is the APS racially structured in ways that privilege white Australians while disadvantaging Indigenous Australians?” (2013, 41). Larkin employs critical race theory as his analytical framework and critical discourse analysis as his methodology. His empirical work includes an analysis of employment data and federal government reports and policy documents dealing with Indigenous public sector employment over a number of decades, and interviews with eleven Indigenous officers who have served in the SES and twelve non-Indigenous SES officers whose career included work in areas related to Indigenous policy. While Larkin’s research is not conducted in a leadership framework, it is of particular relevance to our study as he is focusing on the experience of Indigenous people in executive positions where, in a bureaucratic context, there is substantial potential to exercise leadership. Larkin concludes that race has a fundamental impact on the experiences and career prospects of Indigenous people serving in the AP S . The impact of race occurs across a number of levels. At its most profound, there is an assumption that the values, knowledge, and

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experience of non-Indigenous public servants are inherently superior to those of their Indigenous counterparts. Indigenous knowledge is assumed to be relevant only to policy areas and services that have a specifically Indigenous focus, and this knowledge is seen as being accessible to informed, non-Indigenous officers. Indigenous officers are seen as susceptible to “capture” by their communities, and as a result control of Indigenous policy must be retained in non-Indigenous hands. These assumptions frame attitudes towards Indigenous officers, who are seen as lacking the skills to operate outside Indigenous policy fields or to undertake complex and highly valued administrative tasks such as preparation of cabinet submissions. “Therefore whiteness is seen to embody professionalism while Indigeneity is embodied as deficient” (2013, 199). According to Larkin’s Indigenous interviewees, the racist tendency of non-Indigenous staff to dismiss or devalue the capabilities of Indigenous people has negative implications for Indigenous staff in performance appraisal and competitive selection processes (2013, 250). According to one interviewee, Indigenous staff also “get left out of promotion and they get left out … being asked to go to courses … you keep getting overlooked for acting or higher duties” (2013, 262). What makes the situation even more problematic for Indigenous officers is the denial in the A P S that racism exists. Non-Indigenous officers regard racism as a thing of the past. They attribute high attrition rates among Indigenous officers and the failure to achieve substantial Indigenous representation at senior levels of the AP S not to racism but to a skills deficit on the part of Indigenous officers or to “cultural factors,” for instance the tensions created by a supposed inability on the part of Indigenous officers to separate personal and community relationships from their professional roles. Larkin concludes: “The preferencing of explanations provided by the racially dominant do not implicate the A P S as a white institution that systematically privileges white staff, nor does it constitute any form of challenge to the hegemonic white bureaucracy” (2013, 134). Blatant racism is often absent, which makes it difficult for Indigenous officers to challenge the attitudes and behaviour of their non-­ Indigenous colleagues and the operation of selection and promotion processes. Racism is more usually expressed in forms that are subtle, indirect, and oblique (“everyday racism”), and is often performed by well-meaning and well-intentioned non-Indigenous officers (2013, 245; see Ospina and Foley 2009, 880, for a discussion of literature

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documenting this phenomenon as experienced by Afro-Americans in the United States). This means that if Indigenous officers do challenge the status quo they are “perceived as trouble-makers and positioned as the ‘always angry’ other” (2013, 274), threatening their career prospects. Indigenous officers have no option other than the exercise of “strategic tolerance” (2013, 244). Institutionalized racism, the lack of value attributed to Indigenous knowledge, and negative assumptions regarding the skills of Indigenous officers result from a desire “to protect existing systems of power and privilege by working to ensure racially exclusive spaces for white people” (Larkin 2013, 99). The end result of this situation is a consistent downward trend in Indigenous employment in the AP S over recent decades, resulting in particular from high rates of attrition as Indigenous officers become frustrated with a lack of career advancement and the constant need to deal with institutionalized racism. Efforts to reverse this downward trend and to increase Indigenous representation at senior levels in the APS are, in Larkin’s view, doomed to failure because of an inability on the part of AP S and government leaders to acknowledge that the A P S is a racialized institution and that racism must be seriously addressed if such efforts are to succeed. If Larkin’s analysis is also relevant to the public services of British Columbia and Queensland, this has profound implications for the exercise of Indigenous leadership in those jurisdictions. Stewart and Warn (2016) offer one of few studies that focus explicitly on contemporary Indigenous leadership in the public sector. They interviewed a small number of younger Indigenous leaders (ten in a first round of interviews, eight in a second round), operating mainly in government and in non-government organizations (N G O s). Interviewees were identified through their participation in a leadership course offered by the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre. Interview questions focused on respondents’ conception of leadership, leadership tasks, and sources of personal strength. Qualities or practices associated with leadership included patience, listening, and “not going in too strongly,” leading by example, helping people, communicating simply and effectively, and relying for authority not on official position but on community validation. Acting as a conduit between “two worlds” was seen as a critical leadership task by many respondents, and doing so in a way that both reflected cultural identify and involved communicating about culture to nonIndigenous people and institutions. Articulating the concerns and

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priorities of their communities in a context where community members were often disillusioned and bureaucracies were resistant to change was seen as a key challenge. Sources of personal strength included spirituality, the support of family, mentors, and peers, and knowledge, confidence, and contacts gained through participation in the leadership course (Stewart and Warn 2016, 9–11). More broadly, “Leadership was seen as emerging from a sense of connectedness in that, at a deep level, one’s self identity was defined in relation to a collective Aboriginal identity … The leader was not someone ‘out there’ – their acceptance as a leader was community related” (Stewart and Warn 2016, 11). Stewart and Warn conclude that Aboriginal leadership as conceptualized and practised by their informants differs in key respects from conventional “management” perspectives that emphasize individualism and competition and in which legitimacy is derived from organizational power and authority or the personality of the leader (Stewart and Warn 2016, 13). This conclusion mirrors, as we have seen, the wider literature on Indigenous leadership.

C o n c l u s i on Existing literature has begun to document distinctive aspects of Indigenous leadership, to chart the experiences of Indigenous public servants, and to offer some insights into their potential roles and contributions. However, there is much more to be learned and said about the leadership role of Indigenous public servants, about comparative practice in Indigenous leadership between and across countries, and about implications of Indigenous public service leadership for government policymaking and for the shape and form of public services. These implications, we will argue, go far beyond shifts in human resource management practice or public sector employment strategies as these relate to Indigenous public servants. In the following chapters we explore Indigenous understandings of leadership, the practice of Indigenous leadership, and the wider implications of their practice and understanding, drawing on our interviews in British Columbia and Queensland.

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5 Indigenous Understandings of Leadership Personal, Community, and Bureaucracy

In t ro du c t i on This chapter documents our interview research with Indigenous public servants as it relates to understandings of leadership. We map their views and stories regarding personal qualities pertaining to leadership, the links between leadership and social forms and ways of knowing and of governing in Indigenous societies, and how Indigenous concepts of leadership compare with non-Indigenous leadership in bureaucracies. Chapters 6 and 7 consider how these conceptual understandings play out in public service contexts, outlining a range of institutional influences that act as barriers to, or which facilitate, Indigenous participation and leadership. These chapters also discuss the impact of Indigenous public servants and their leadership practices on policy formulation and service delivery. Our approach reflects our goal of giving voice to the Indigenous public servants who participated in our study. Our narrative is thus designed only to provide a frame for their experience and understanding. Other than highlighting links between interconnected issues addressed at different points in the chapter and, where they occur, differences in perspective between Australian and Canadian public servants, we delay our analysis until the concluding chapter. Quotes from interviews are verbatim, except when words are added (in square brackets) to provide essential context, or omitted to enhance the flow of the text. Our approach is qualitative but we do indicate whether or not particular issues or perspectives were widely shared. Participants across both countries commented on their struggles with leadership terminology and its problematic nature given that

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many did not have terms in their languages, or roles in their social structures, that equate with the Western terms “leader” or “leadership.” A Queensland participant stated: “leadership is not one of our terms. It is a term now, but it never used to be and it is a term that has really been thrust on us and because it has been thrust on us, we have adapted to include those kind of leadership positions.” A BC interviewee said: “I don’t know if in Indigenous languages there is a word for leadership … there may not be anything because it does not translate across. In each language they would have something that would be the person that was the head, the person that was the representative, it wasn’t the person that was [leading] because ‘LEADership’ makes it sound like you’re L E A D ing people, but most people (it was men in tribal communities) they were being informed by women so there’s no power behind the person that’s the head of your family. That’s the voice, it’s the person that you’ve given that job to speak for you, not to have power over you.” These comments are consistent with recent studies that suggest there is no current or past concept of “leadership” that fits unilaterally across the hundreds of sovereign Aboriginal nations in North America and Australia (Johnston 2012; Lickers 2006; Morphy 2007; Warner and Grint 2006). However, as will become evident Indigenous peoples can certainly speak to personal qualities, behaviours, and contexts that are central to what is expressed by the Western concept of “leadership.”

P e rs o n a l q ua l it ie s i n a leader Interviewees expressly identified a number of qualities as well as implying others in discussing attitudes and behaviours that exemplify Indigenous leaders. In general the views expressed were strongly consistent both within and across the two jurisdictions. One difference was that Canadian interviewees were more inclined to link their given names in their First Nations language, or traditional community teachings, spirit animals, totems, or roles, with leadership concepts. For example, some participants noted the eagle, the bear, a feather, or a talking stick as embodying notions of leadership. Others identified the roles of medicine keepers, or weavers and carvers, as particularly emblematic of leadership. In the case of medicine keepers they need to be disciplined, self-aware, and balanced in order to help others – for participants who noted it, this is a task considered as one of the highest forms of leadership. One participant talked about the

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particular relevance of weavers and carvers to leadership. Women weavers are pertinent to leadership because weaving is about connecting and relationships, while male carvers perform a role that is about history and memory keeping. Many interviewees in both jurisdictions spoke of the role of elders when discussing leadership. One Queensland person said: “[Leadership] … it is that respect for elders. I suppose it is ‘Uncle’ and ‘Aunty,’ you know. When that title starts to be bestowed … there is a genuine respect coming from the person and it is normally a younger person towards you, so it is a recognition that ‘Uncle you have been around a long time and some of the things you are saying must be wise for them,’ so you feel you are seeing that respect … We continue to use the term and it [identifies] the connection between how the young people will be advised and brought up … it is a wonderful piece of our culture that has withstood the test of time.” A B C participant stated: “I was raised by elders. This was extremely influential. They were well respected. I want to emulate them. They are survivors and helpers of lots of people.” Personal qualities of leaders and leadership that were expressly identified by interviewees involved being: • • •

• • •

Holistic, balanced, and “walking the talk”; Respectful and relational; Attentive to the “seven generations” principle and traditional teachings; Resilient and persistent; Authentic and humble; Community focused and diplomatic.

Hol i s t ic , ba l a n c e d , a n d “walki ng the talk” All participants framed their understandings of leadership not as a title or role but as an integrated, holistic, balanced, and characterdriven phenomenon. Leaders are people, not positions, and the entire person comes into the leadership equation. It is not just something you do at work. You need to embody and be continuously authentic to leadership, “walking the talk” and demonstrating leadership across who you are, as much as what you say and what you do. As one BC participant put it “Leadership is not limited to the role you are in, it

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is in and through a holistic person.” Another said: “If you say something you have to follow through. You have to get things done. Life is short, you will be gone in a little while and how do you want to leave your life? Some people might be a different person at work and a different one outside of work. When people speak to two different worlds, it really is two different worlds.” A Queensland interviewee also emphasized that leadership is something that is more a vocation and a life choice rather than being associated with a particular position: “my leadership responsibilities will not finish until I die, so I may hand some of it over to those who succeed me, but still you know in some way, shape or form, it actually then becomes an inherent part of your DNA almost, that – especially culturally – that it never stops, because you become an Elder then … it is always a privilege, it is never a burden… it is something you take with you for the rest of your life and I gladly accept it and I gladly live it out every day.” “Whole-person” and holistic approaches describe a vision of a leader that is about who you are as a person, what your heritage and history are like, and who you are involved with. According to B C participants: You don’t need to come in and tell me your credentials or prove this, or set yourself up as all knowing … it’s a more holistic kind of view and I think that that’s also where government and Aboriginal communities also have a communication gap … people who are non-Aboriginal are not realizing that it’s the relationship that’s important. It’s not just your binder or your facts or that you’ve been to school for twenty-five years, it’s who are you as a person, how do you treat me, can I trust you, are you going to stand up if something goes sideways. I think one of the big differences is just in authenticity, wholeness and authenticity. That within Aboriginal communities, and these are of course some very large generalizations, you do want to know the person. That’s part of our culture, our protocols, who are you from, who are your mother and father? Your grandfather, who are your aunties, uncles, where are you from? … it’s a more impersonal role-oriented nature in leadership within Western organizations. I mean so many people will just introduce themselves by their title and it tells you nothing about the person.

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A holistic view of leadership was linked to wider Indigenous world views. As one BC participant expressed it, “That’s actually one of the big differences with Indigenous ways of thinking and leading is that there’s this holistic approach, whereas within government, it’s incredibly linear.” Because the focus is on leaders as people and because leadership is viewed holistically, it is assumed that people will inevitably make mistakes. What is important it how the person responds to these mistakes. This was seen to be different from a Western approach where people are expected to do things right, and where blame is allocated when errors occur, or leaders are not encouraged to regain support by demonstrating their character through their response to failure. One Canadian participant stated: I mean the things that we value in our leaders including humanity, you know allowing leaders to learn and fail, figure it out and start again and ask for advice … that’s all part of it as well. Expecting these paragons of virtue, not very realistic. We can’t expect that of our leaders and they can’t expect it of themselves. From an Indigenous perspective, we do see leaders as whole human beings and people make mistakes … you need to be accountable for that. You also have to own up and you know if something hasn’t occurred the right way. If you’ve been a leader that’s instilled trust and confidence, then they are going to trust you that decisions were made for the right reasons, and then they are going to have confidence that we are going to make this through or we’re going to adjust to that. Participants shared many experiences of how they had grown into leadership through being given the opportunity to make mistakes and still move forward. The ability to be given responsibility and have the chance to learn from within that responsibility was valued, even if it meant that your fallibility became obvious along the way. Holistic approaches to leadership also saw participants describe leadership as fundamentally connected to character, which in turn is tied to consistency and credibility with respect to traditional teachings and practices. Leaders must demonstrate a commitment to not only understanding key values and teachings, but also that these values and teachings are acted out in their daily lives. Words and actions matter and as a leader your words and actions must match. As one

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Canadian participant noted: “What are people’s actions besides what they are saying? … How are you actually living your life? As a leader, to be a leader, it’s not just what you say but it’s what you do.” This notion of “walking the talk” was stressed by many interviewees. According to Canadian participants: Leadership to me as an individual means having some character, some principles, and basically living by those principles and demonstrating them as best as you can … With a Chief name, in an oral culture a lot of it is about how you put [your teachings] into practice in your daily life. How do you model these different teachings? You really have to live the stuff. It’s not about practising coming to an office, turning it on and then turning it off when you go home. Leadership is also action oriented. It has to be – leaders should be the first to act, rather than the last to act. Leaders do not exist just at the top of organizations. They exist at all levels and in diverse roles and places. Participants linked this perspective strongly with leadership in traditional and contemporary Indigenous communities. As one B C interviewee noted, “These were the hunters, these were the fisher people, and out of each one of that group [was] a spokesperson … Then all roles were seen as important … if one role was not fulfilled, the rest of the community would suffer from it.” Many participants placed high value on the importance of all people contributing, which was often expressed in stories of the different roles that people played and the strengths that they brought. According to another B C interviewee: Everybody would have had a role in the community. Each of them would have had a role which would have meant that they were the person that was the knowledge keeper of how to teach the other people how to do it, and they would come along[side]… so everybody is a leader, not just one person. It’s a communal effort to be a leader because everybody can be a leader in their own way, we all have gifts that we bring to something. A Queensland interviewee expressed a similar view, but in a bureaucratic context:

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I don’t think leadership is to do with where you sit in the organisation … we have a responsibility to lead everywhere, from everywhere and I think that it is about being able to challenge, be courageous and brave where you need to be, but be respectful in that as well. I don’t think a leader is necessarily because you are the director general or you are a manager or whatever. There are also various styles of leadership and ways of seeking change: different ways to go and make change and some people are really good at being the ones that have the signs, they do the blockades, they are loud and vehement, they’re going to make change from the outside and they want radical and they want lots. And then I’m more of the person on the inside going hey, they’ve got a point we can do something let’s make some changes and doing that kind of internal changing people’s attitudes one person at a time. An important point expressed by a number of participants is that being a “leader” is just one of a number of equally important roles. The other thing I think that is important about leadership is recognizing that it’s just one talent amongst many. That if you don’t have the other talents to create your team, then your talent as a leader can’t even be applied … there’s different roles, but I personally don’t put those roles on a hierarchy. There’s maybe more responsibility attached in terms of what I have to ensure, but it doesn’t mean that my skill set is greater than someone’s skill who is a subject matter expert. So I very much try to value every role for the importance of it and what it brings. Everyone can and should contribute. It is often for this reason that participants stressed the importance of listening. As one BC participant expressed it: “There’s too much talking and not enough listening. What works for everybody is what is important.” A Queensland participant made a similar point: “To me, the qualities that I think would make for good leadership is listening. Listening to others, consulting and engaging in its truest forms.” Because everyone is valued and encouraged to contribute, leadership is seen not as status-giving but instead as spreading the load and

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demonstrating humility. A Queensland interviewee discussed this perspective in the following way: You don’t want to set yourself up as a know-it-all in the Aboriginal world. Yes, you come unstuck very, very quickly if you set yourself or try and set yourself up as the Chief of the Gunggari people. It just doesn’t work. It is just not our way, never will be our way and it is the same reason why government struggles so much to engage effectively with Aboriginal people … because they have never understood this land of equal leadership that Aboriginal people … the only way they could [try and] overcome that was to issue Aboriginal people with a king plate and say, ‘Okay, you are King and you are going to be the only person that we talk to when we talk to the [Aboriginal] people’ … and we still see government do it today. Overall, then, interviewees saw leadership as a holistic, balanced, character-driven, and non-status related activity that requires leadership to be lived across one’s whole life, including by “walking the talk.”

R e s p e c t f u l , R e l ati onal, and “ B r in g in g P e o p le Along” Closely in line with a holistic approach built on character is the importance of gaining the respect of those you represent and serve. Respect from others comes from people seeing your character and you living out values that they also hold in high regard. Respect was seen by participants to be earned through honest and genuine relationships and connection with those around you. Relationships are absolutely central to Indigenous culture and practice (see chapter 2), and Indigenous public servants frame their notions of leadership as relational in form and function. As one Queensland interviewee put it: I feel I have an impact. I don’t know whether it would be directly but really it is about how you make things happen through relationships. So, I think that is the key part that the Indigenous leaders bring to the public service … being able to make an impact through the way we work and through our relationships.

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A B C participant said “Well, because leadership is in lots of ways about relationship, whether in government, whether we recognize it or not, and certainly in Indigenous communities. That’s forefront.” Participants provided examples of how to earn respect through these relationships. Some of these were associated with a leader that stood the test of time and respect was earned through their consistent application of shared values. Specific examples involved taking responsibility for your mistakes, or showing care for your staff. As an example of the latter, one B C participant stated: I think good leadership comes from taking the time to get to know those that you are working with. I think once you gain respect, I think that’s a trait of good leadership … So here within this branch the director will come through, and [at one point] we were in an extreme situation, there were lots of people coming through and the director came through and stopped at my desk, took ten minutes, asked the questions and carried on. That’s how you gain respect. A Queensland participant made it clear that respectful, relational leadership involves the quiet leadership of those behind the scenes who make things happen and support the louder “mouthpieces” who lead with a different and more outgoing style. She expressed the need for leaders bringing everyone along: in the rest of the world, you view your leaders as the … ones who stand up and have the ideas and ‘let’s go forward people’ type stuff. But in my view, it is the leaders who make sure everyone else is okay to take us forward, because you can only go as fast as your slowest person … their form of leadership is going to be different to what the rest of the world thinks is leadership. And they will be the quiet leaders and we need to be respectful of those quiet leaders. I think in the bureaucratic world, if you are in leadership, you are out there, you are yelling, you are ­making your voice known, while in the community sense, you don’t have that. You are the quiet leader, you are the one who has respect. I am getting goose bumps thinking about it, but these are the people who we put our good energies towards, but they are not recognised in a non-Indigenous world as being a leader, because they don’t fit the mould.

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A B C interviewee expressed a similar view, saying that leadership is “presenting the ‘what if’ possibilities to people and to have that dialogue in a safe way and you have to create that safety for people in order to have that dialogue … you have to build that relationship in order to have leadership to move forward with those things.” Participants also spoke specifically about the need to be able to trust leaders. When you take the time to build respect and trust it creates an environment of unity and strength even in tough times or times of change, a circumstance that very frequently affects government departments. As one Canadian participant indicated: They will trust you that the decision was made for the right reasons, and then they are going to have confidence that ‘we are going to make this through’ or ‘we’re going to adjust to that’ because it’s a very changeable world and things occur … I like to be able to trust my leaders, that they are making the right decisions in the right way and that we are going to adjust if ­anything happens. Another indicated that integrity does not assume an absence of disagreement, but rather is about having trust in people’s motivation: “I don’t have to respect every aspect of them, but I have to think they come from a good place, that they have good intentions, are honest, that’s a big thing I think. I have to be able to believe what someone is telling me, I don’t have to agree with it.” A Queensland participant referred to the need to put yourself on the line in order to establish and maintain trust and respect: But I think for me the other part of leadership is being ethical, authentic, and honest about what you are trying to do and giving people the information they need, and options that they can actually make their own decisions … [this can be] challenging sometimes in relation to your own moral compass … there have been one, two jobs where I have said: ‘No I am not going to work here anymore, because it is not congruent with my values.’ Respect and trust are not earned simply by espousing a set of morals or values. The importance of “walking the talk” emerged in many interviews as central to integrity, as demonstrating your character – rooted in values and teachings – through your actions. One dimension

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of “walking the talk” was in treatment of people, particularly in efforts to mentor and empower people around you. Consistency was seen as demonstrating that leaders were acting in line with their values. Those around the leader would know what to expect and would be confident that the actions taken by this leader were trustworthy, regardless of the situation. BC participants explained: I’m authentic … I have a consistent vision and … I provide people with the resources that they need to have to be successful; and then I walk my talk and … good leadership is also recognizing the leaders around you and leveraging the talent that you have and always giving credit where it’s due, not taking that for yourself. … I just live as [me], this is me as a person, this is my style and this is how I approach things. I don’t try to pull any surprises and it has served me well. I just see leadership as being a good example of what you want portrayed from your coworkers … For me that’s what leadership is. Set the example, do things and have people respect you. Leadership involves earning respect by consistency and walking the talk, and showing respect by listening and being inclusive and encouraging the participation of others. A B C participant stated: Leadership isn’t always necessarily being at the front of something and being the spokesperson for something. It’s about people need to feel like they are listened to and when people feel like they are listened to then that’s who they come to, to share their issues with and ask for help. A Queensland interviewee added: I think patience and listening are probably two of the biggest things and committing to memory information. I have seen a ­couple of our people who are going to make great leaders in the Gunggari people. There is a certain way of having to do things and it involves compromise, it involves discussion, it involves listening and these young leaders who are going to be good, [but they] want to go too quickly and it is not at the pace that is being set by our elders and so they have come unstuck and of course they become frustrated because they can’t go there. They know where they

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want to go, probably it looks good on paper and it is a good idea, but you have got to have this oversight from your, from the elders, before you can go there and so you have got to take your time.

At t e n t iv e to t h e “ s e v en generati ons” p r in c ip l e a n d t r a d iti onal teachi ngs Participants spoke about those that came before them, recognizing the value of learning from them, and also spoke about the long-term nature of their decision-making and leadership. One BC participant said: “It’s not really about your own leadership, it’s about the leadership of all those people who have gone before you. You can’t think that you’ve got this yourself.” BC interviewees talked specifically about “seven generations ahead of them,” and how the impacts of decisions made today on these future generations need to be considered. Both the past and future dimensions of the collective “all” were raised as important in considering both the intentions of leaders and the decisions they would make. Canadian participants stated: [leadership is] … never forgetting where you’re from and the struggles and trials and tribulations people [that] have come before you [have faced] and that you’re there because of your ancestors and your history and that they’re a key part of it … drawing on that strength of your ancestors or your other people to say this is expected for change to happen. There’s a whole lot more depth and breadth to the things you have to think about. Being respectful about the impacts that ­history has had on people. a good leader considers how a decision will impact future generations, seven generations is always what comes to mind when I listen to our leaders talk. And I think a good leader would take all the time they need and get all the information they can before they would make any decisions. A Queensland participant added: “the past, the most important thing of our culture, the past tells us where we are today and it will tell us where we are in the future.” This overarching long-term approach to leadership and decision-making was seen as fundamental to Indigenous values.

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R e s il ie n t a n d Pers i s tent Key qualities that were mentioned in many interviews involve resilience and persistence. Leadership involves a consistent chipping away at structures and processes that need change and never giving up. According to a B C interviewee: “Nothing in the Aboriginal world has been an instant win. You have to be leaders over time.” This point was similarly made in the Queensland context where one participant commented: “what I do most admire in leaders in my own community … is persistence. Nat Lewis, she is the C E O of the Aboriginal Child Protection peak. I reckon she would have said the same thing like 90,000 times at different tables, at different days, until she gets the slightest bit of traction. She has never picked up her bat and ball and said ‘I am sick of saying the same things over and over again.’ She just keeps going, keeps coming back.” The participant then went on to recount a piece of advice she had received from one of her chief executives after indicating she would like to wave a magic wand and work on a project involving something she was passionate about. The supervisor said: “Can I give you a tip? … what you are talking about is a significant shift and passion won’t do that [alone] … The only way you can get conversation to change is to change it over and over and over again.” The importance of patience, resilience, and persistence was often illustrated by stories about the lives of ancestors or community members. A Canadian participant shared a story about her grandmother and the many struggles she had encountered in her life, but how she still led her family and put them first. These stories also illustrate how leadership is often about unseen action taken in the background: during the war the boys all left and the girls all came home with their babies and she had this crazy household full of people. And then later while she was in her eighties, my brother and I were there, and she took care of us, and two bachelor uncles who had never left home. I have images of her where her arthritis was so bad she couldn’t walk up the stairs to go to her own husband’s funeral, but doing laundry on a ringer washer in the basement and hanging it out to dry in Winnipeg winters and cooking and cleaning and ironing and sewing and doing all these things. And she always did it with A B SOL UT E patience, that you know she had lost four of her children and she kept on walking. She had

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lived through the depression with a house full of kids and kept on walking. So every time I think ‘Oh my God I can’t do this anymore … I’m B UR NE D out,’ I think of her and I have an image of her sitting in the kitchen knitting at the end of an evening while my brother and I sat at the table and did homework and stuff, and sitting there and rocking and knitting in absolute serenity. And she is my go to person in my head for ‘Okay, I can find that it’s in there somewhere.’ But that was never, stand up scream and shout leadership, that was just watching her walk through her life and keep walking no matter what. Persistence often takes a toll and so leadership involves developing and implementing mechanisms of self-preservation and care, in having expectations and aspirations dashed but picking oneself up, dusting oneself off and continuing to fight for what you know and believe is right. A Queensland participant stated: You know the other thing too is you actually acquire the skills to overcome the hurt that that produces. You need to be resilient to deep disappointment. You need to take the knocks in life. You need to just cop it and get up and then go again. I mean that is what you have got to do, that’s just life. So if you are sitting there and you are thinking about all the hurt that has been inflicted upon you, should you take that other step, you are forgetting about the opportunities, you are forgetting about the privilege, you are forgetting about all the good you can do. Yes, and you don’t trust yourself … I will be scared, I will be nervous, but I will also be excited and this doesn’t mean that I am doing it blindly. What it means is that I actually come from a perspective that I will always see value and opportunity … for our people … but also I take account of the history where things have gone nowhere for a long time you know. Part of the “resilient and persistent” aspect of Indigenous leadership is the requirement that leadership involves reliability. One Queensland participant noted the significant role that Indigenous elders play in delivering reliability. They keep and pass along knowledge and wisdom. In her eyes, personal leadership meant mirroring this reliability. Leaders have to carry, keep, and pass along in meaningful ways the knowledge, wisdom, expectations, and perceptions of their

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communities, while simultaneously linking in with Western systems and processes. This task requires leaders to consistently and continuously follow through on their words with actions: “the Murri grapevine is extensive and people will know if you have followed through and if you said that you were going to find out some information and you get back to people with that because then they know you are not gammon [i.e., you are telling the truth].” While this notion of reliability, or follow through, is linked to “walking the talk,” it also speaks to resilience and persistence to the extent that Indigenous leadership is seen to demand high levels of constancy or faithfulness to working for community, and positive outcomes to advance community well-being. Indigenous leadership exists when people exhibit this level of persistence and resilience against a backdrop of injustice and dashed expectations, and continue to fight against the odds because it is right for the community and it is a long-term game. As one Queensland participant expressed it: You have got to just keep plugging. I mean it is time proven, I suppose, that the more plugging you do, the more leaks you fill. It is as simple as that, but you know you are not going to have an airtight ship in a moment. A couple of hundred years ago, we were being shot as vermin so at least we are not getting shot and you start progressing up from that. The best case scenario is yet to come.

A u t h e n t ic a n d Humble Various participants spoke of humility and authenticity as key attributes to leadership. We are conscious that the term authenticity can potentially have negative associations for Indigenous peoples. Here, we might think of the often unjust demands for Aboriginal peoples in Australia to provide “proof” of their “Aboriginality” or continuing connections to the land in seeking to win legal recognition of their land rights, or of the concept of the “authentic Indian,” which Raibmon (2005) explains was used as a tool of colonial domination in North America. Our interviewees use the term in a positive sense, to relate to the integrity with which Indigenous leaders can be “real” to themselves and in their interactions with those with whom they come in contact. A B C participant said in relation to humility:

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This goes back to traditional teachings, the concept of humility and respect, that in a leadership role people have entrusted to you, because of gifts that you’ve been given, a certain role. But every time you walk in that role you are representing the people that put you there and respecting that and respecting everybody that you meet is really important and the humility piece, for me, is ‘don’t get too full of yourself.’ Another spoke of humility in the context of the leadership role of elders: I was raised by elders. This was extremely influential. They were well respected. I want to emulate them. They are survivors and helpers of lots of people. Their strength came from knowing who they were. They were proud but humble. Quiet nobility. Courage and nobility is what you want for leadership. Other interviewees emphasized the importance of authenticity to leadership: No matter what, I think being able to be authentic and own it, present yourself that way, to just be real and build credibility. It’s important for me when I hear that whitefella way of leadership, they talk about importance and I’m a big believer in trying to find opportunity in being your authentic self, and it is hard to be your authentic self. Authenticity is linked to culture, traditions, and personal connections to history and country, and it is clear that challenges can arise in being authentic in a public service context, an issue we return to in chapter 6. This exchange occurred with a Queensland participant: In terv i e we r : Have you ever found that your role as a public servant has ever come into conflict with your role as an Indigenous person or community member? In terv i e we e : Yes, it does, certainly. Yes, I feel it has limited my ability to help in some situations. Because we are in child protection situations. Look it could with difficulty become a kinship case, all those sorts of things but it just sort of felt like too

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much of a conflict to even go there. Yes, look I struggle with it. There are certain things I can’t do … I bring my pretty genuine self to work and I have managed to always be genuine to my values. Another Queensland participant responded, when asked if it was possible to be authentically Indigenous in a mainstream public service: “You would have to be very brave and when you did that, you are probably not going to survive that long.” In the Merriam-Webster dictionary online, humility is defined as “the quality or state of not thinking you are better than other people.” Humility can be seen in some other concepts associated with leadership, but the extent to which it was raised by participants made it important to discuss it in its own right. Different dimensions of “humility” discussed included listening and hearing people, not seeing your approach as always right, willingness to learn from others, and actively seeking advice. In the area of listening, leading “alongside” or “from behind,” not “from the front,” were emphasized. A Queensland participant stated: “[Leadership involves] a lot of listening, a lot of negotiating, a lot of explaining things to people to ensure that it meets the needs of everybody in the community.” A BC participant expressed the same idea in this way: I think good leadership is really about listening and learning, and … doing what you think is right based on your learnings and what you’ve listened to, but I think that that’s tough. And leadership isn’t always necessarily being at the front of something and being the spokesperson for something, but it’s about people need to feel like they are listened to and when people feel like they are listened to then that’s who they come to, to share their issues with and ask for help. Also stressed was the importance of listening in a way that people feel heard, and of listening and hearing so that people’s views were not seen as less significant than the leader’s opinion and so were able to contribute to decision-making. Listening in a non-judgmental way is also important. I’m a really good listener, so I think that when they come and talk to me they want to come and talk to somebody who is not going to judge them. They come and I listen to them, and I don’t give them advice I’ll ask them different questions. A lot of people

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don’t know how to truthfully listen. They are ready to make their point, their counter. They’ve already got it in their mind, you can see they aren’t hearing. The one-up, the smarter-than, instead of what works for everybody. I don’t mind as long as they listen, as long as they collect information and then make the decision. And once they have made the decision, as long as they have listened and heard, I don’t really care what somebody thinks, this is how I’ve decided to go. But it’s really important for me that you hear, and if you hear and then make a decision then I can still respect you. Another aspect of “humility” was the ability to see yourself as being on the same level with others. As one Queensland participant put it: [Leaders] are very approachable people. They can change their approach to meet whatever outcome they need to. So if they need to speak to an Elder they can do that appropriately and not fumble … to get to that point you would have had to go through your experiences and the person would be humble. “Humility” is also encountering another perspective and not only wanting to hear it, but expecting that you might be able to learn from it and adjust your focus because of this encounter. It is a bit of different style and I think the other cultural piece is that you should understand before you speak. If you don’t understand, that just shows bad form as a Chief. So you need to sit and listen, understand and then speak when you fully understand. That’s another reason why I may not be talking as loud as other people. In cultivating and including others, learning from them, and drawing on the knowledge and resilience of the community, leaders exhibit an awareness of their place in the community, and how they can leverage the qualities and views of others to the benefit of all. A willingness to learn was defined by participants as looking for opportunities instead of seeing barriers, recognizing other ways of knowing and actively seeking advice: I think that a great leader is one who is always growing and challenging themselves and stretching themselves … you should

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never get to the point where you think you know everything you need to know. You know I am always asking myself what else do I need to know, who knows it, who can help me with that, who would want to help me with that? I don’t push too hard if I see a boundary, I think I’ll maybe try to understand and get some information there. I’m not going to push anything that doesn’t want to be pushed. I’ll find somewhere else where I can work and that’s fine. At the same time, humility is not a pushover characteristic. A Queensland participant stated when speaking of the humility and approachability of leaders that “they would also be, I say, fierce. They would model the behaviour that they would like people to show.” Harking back to the earlier discussion about the human and therefore fallible nature of leaders, participants also recognized that authenticity opens leaders up to make mistakes or to being challenged on their beliefs or understandings. The response of a leader to these challenges or stumbles is an important demonstration of character or integrity.

Co m m u n it y- f o c u s e d and di plomati c When speaking of individual qualities associated with leadership, all participants in Canada and Australia referenced their comments to a focus on community. For example, two Queensland interviewees stated: I think it is still about the person and what they can do on behalf of and for the community. So I think that’s, you know, at the heart of any sort of leadership or Indigenous leadership. There is a part that is inherent to Indigenous culture where you give back to your community, you are actually part of a community. All you are thinking is actually being part of a group and not being someone special within that group and you actually have some kind of obligation or responsibility to that group, where you actually enact, if you like, leadership qualities. I feel that when I am within an Indigenous context, I am a servant of that community. It just so happens if you look at it within another context, it is looked upon as leadership.

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B C participants said: I think of leadership as something or somebody who is doing something for the greater good of people, not for the individuals. I see a lot of people who … bring a personal agenda into leadership and to me that’s not a true leader. A true leader is somebody who is actually doing something on behalf of something that is much bigger than himself or herself, however that may be, and so that’s how I view somebody as a leader. I think the people who consider themselves Indigenous public servants rather than public servants who happen to be Indigenous, do so because we see an affinity with the Indigenous public above and beyond our job title and our work location. I hold myself accountable to Indigenous people and not just to my employers. Another B C participant shared a story about his community, and its experience of regular flooding, that demonstrated leading by example but also having the community’s best interest in the forefront. He lifted and reinforced his own home so that it would not be impacted by flooding, but when flood season came he was still the one charged with organizing sandbagging for the community. The protection he organized would not benefit his own house, but that was not even a consideration. The focus on community does not mean that this constitutes the only motive for participants to join the public service. Many cited practical and personal considerations, including the need to secure employment, the desire to respond to the aspirations of parents or other close relatives, and happenstance. Two of these factors came together for one interviewee who used all his money to travel to Sydney to follow a girlfriend, but arrived there to discover the romance was over. In urgent need of funds, he took the first job he could find, which happened to be in the public service. But over the longer term, a desire to improve the situation of Indigenous communities and of Indigenous people generally was a key driving force. This is reflected in the fact that the concept of leadership as service emerged frequently. This included service to your community or to the people you are leading, and not seeing either of these groups as intended to serve you. A Canadian participant stated:

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When I think of leadership in terms of the values that I want to bring and embody, it’s definitely service oriented, in service to community. It has a lot to do with responsibility and accountability and it has a lot to do with … the leadership and development of others … it’s not about imposing your way it’s actually about creating an environment of safety, structure, support that’s going to enable others to succeed. Some participants noted that within this community-oriented framework responsibility is not a one-way street. Community also has a responsibility to leaders to play a role in achieving positive outcomes. One Queensland interviewee said, in discussing return of land to its traditional owners under land rights legislation: At that time people just got up saying, ‘oh we’ll transfer this piece of land,’ and you say, ‘Why?’ ‘Because I want it.’ You’re going, ‘well what are you going to do with it?’ You don’t want to tell them what to do with it, but you want to actually make sure that they are capable or have the skills to look after [the] land. A number of personal qualities attached to this “service” orientation. First, leadership was seen to involve being well known, accepted, and in communication with your community or communities. For one Queensland participant this included knowledge of community and the role of community in selecting you to perform particular leadership tasks: Leadership is about knowing your own background. It is about knowing your family, you have got to know your traditions, you have got to know the breakdown of how everything works, the whole lot. It is not something that you just get, because you spend a lot of time working for [a group or task] … Real leadership is conferred on you, it’s tested. It is something that people will look at you for a long time and say, this is the person that we need to do this job … when it comes to working for Aboriginal people and with Aboriginal people, then it becomes something that you have got to have: knowledge of your own community, knowledge of your language, knowledge of everything around you, your customary law and all that sort of stuff before you actually can lead forward.

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Another Queensland participant conveyed how the link to community, and community’s acceptance of a leader, are essential if true leadership is to be undertaken: I think there are a lot of leaders around here, but nobody knows them. You can ask community people, ‘who is such and such’ and they wouldn’t know. People in leadership positions probably feel that they are leaders, but to the people on the ground, they don’t know who they are … Leaders are accepted by community. They are known to community. Second, the link to community means that leadership demands actively seeking out community perspectives and taking them into account in decision-making. It is not enough for a community to confer a leadership role on you, as the following exchange illustrates: In terv i e we r : Are there qualities or behaviours that are associated with leaders and leadership that are regarded as appropriate or inappropriate? In terv i e we e : Oh, you know those sorts of qualities where people will just go and end up making a decision on your own. You know you can’t do that. Sometimes in the [public] service you could be used for that where they would just [say] … ‘Because you happen to be Aboriginal … can you give us an answer to this or that?’ … you still got to go back and talk to people you know. Part of the community focus was finding ways to secure the input and voices of all people in the community, including the less powerful, and also finding space for the land to be given voice. Comments from Canadian participants that reflect this included: There are other ones out there that are good leaders that are just very family oriented … everything is done from a lens that is inclusive of people that often get forgotten, like children or seniors or persons with disabilities. Some of those leaders are really amazing that they can do those kinds of things … they’re sort of altruistic, the ones who just do a lot of good stuff.

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Not to just focus on the loud, but to also look at the other ones that have no voice because they have the same needs, maybe even more so, because like Chief Sitting Bull, it’s to look after all the elders and the children and the land. Some participants noted that a personal quality of leadership was being able to navigate the community in the right way and with the right people to achieve positive community outcomes. For instance, one Queensland participant spoke of the significance of relationship with elders and building them into processes to support reform that was needed to ensure communities received better service delivery. He stated “it is about knowing who within the community are the right people that actually can help or assist in that sort of a [reform] process.” Another Queensland participant elaborated on how important it is for leaders to bring elders into decision-making, and in doing so to continually re-establish connection with the land: I have always got to … defer a decision until I am certain that I have got the elders’ responsibilities and understanding of where they want to go, because sometimes you can take things out of context and so you have got to go back, double check and then come forward again at that leadership level. But it is their knowledge and their past experiences because we don’t want to make those errors that were made in the past … you will get a story, it is always told to you in a story, and you have got to take that story and the pieces out of it and take it into negotiations. You don’t get a clear piece of instruction … you have to decipher what is in that story … which is wonderful because what it does and what is proven to me over time is that you continually reaffirm your connection to the land, through them. They are bringing you back and getting you closer and closer to the land all the time … It is like the philosophers who sit around and talk and they consider all the options and therefore you build up a far more robust knowledge of what you are doing and that’s what I see from our elders, that consideration that they have given, the time they have spent together and the experiences with their own parents and uncles and aunties and that slowly is being fed down to us.

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Others cited personal qualities of diplomacy as essential in navigating community demands and providing service to community in a meaningful way. A Queensland participant said: I have acquired diplomatic skills … diplomacy and tact is something that I find to be very, very helpful, but at the same time, a sense of a sort of charity to those around me, you know, and a sense of support but at the same time I have also found that there are times which have called for me to be very firm and unequivocal and I have done that, but in a charitable way … [and] making sure that the message gets across clearly but it is more through me sort of navigating, negotiating through a whole range of circumstances.

L i n k to In d ig e n o u s ways of unders tandi ng a n d g ov e r ni ng All participants linked their views on personal qualities associated with leadership to Indigenous ways of knowing, of relating to the world, and of governing communities. Participants could not, or did not want to, separate descriptions of individual leadership qualities from Indigenous ways of leading, decision-making, and governance. This applied equally to the substantial number of Canadian participants who lacked prolonged exposure to, or upbringing in, Indigenous communities or cultures, because they were raised in foster-care families or disconnected from their ancestral cultures and communities. (A much smaller and less noticeably equivalent cohort occurred in Queensland.) This Canadian group, at various points during their interviews, conveyed how their particular experiences growing up meant they were not as directly connected with their Indigenous heritage in the same way as Indigenous Canadians who had been raised on reserves or directly in First Nations, Métis, and Inuit families. For example, they could not draw on the same family stories or community mentoring from early ages. Instead, this group sought out information and connection with their heritage and communities later in life, often during the time of university studies or when they started having children of their own. At points in the interview some would note or question whether their different experience may or may not have meant their answers were different from their contemporaries.

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From our reading of the interviews, we noticed remarkable similarity in the views they expressed regarding their definitional and practice-­ related application of Indigenous leadership concepts. While the language or stories they used to explain their understandings sometimes could be classified as more “Western” or sometimes were more overtly theoretical, the underlying message and concepts were the same. This suggests that Indigenous public service leadership can, at least in part, be learned. What is critical to such learning, however, is contextual knowledge, appreciation, and respect for the lived reality of Indigenous society, history, culture, and politics. These participants were equally proud of their Indigenous heritage and had actively sought it out, even if they lamented the disruption they experienced in their connection to it. Thus open, authentic, active, and ongoing connection to what Indigenous communities teach – through modelling as well as oral transmission – is fundamental to Indigenous leadership understanding and practice. This link between individual understandings of leadership qualities and the broader Indigenous cultural and social framework within which leadership is exercised does not figure prominently in the literature, yet may be (both theoretically and practically) important in terms of how to “do leadership differently.” It also provides critical context when considering leadership opportunities and challenges confronting Indigenous people in public services, and suggests that understanding of Indigenous social, cultural, and political contexts is essential to appreciating the actual and potential leadership of Indigenous public servants.

S oc ia l o r g a n iz at io n and relati onshi ps As noted in chapter 2, kinship is a central organizing concept in Indigenous societies in Australia and Canada. A Queensland ­interviewee expressed the link between kinship and leadership as follows: And service back to your own community means the execution and the discharge of your kinship responsibilities and your obligations, all those types of things. You actually have a specified role that is taught to you when you are very young, within an Indigenous context.

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Another Queensland participant explained the connection between the idea that leadership exists at all levels and in diverse roles and places, and traditional modes of social organization: People are not referred to as leaders. There are a lot of different words and it depends more on traditional approaches or otherwise but you always have different people inside the family, so traditionally you always had a knowledge man, there was a person who understood the songs, there was a lawman, there were people who understood what the difference was and this was different between different clans and why our culture is so ­complex; it is not the same everywhere. For some it was taught. Others they were actually then chosen. Others were groomed for titles. This quote also highlights the fact that the nature of leadership practices may vary significantly, reflecting the diversity evident across Indigenous societies. BC participants related the community orientation of contemporary leadership to traditional practices of sharing and to the need to maintain harmony, though at the same time indicating that these values are under pressure: If someone had success hunting they shared that with the community. It didn’t matter if you just got a taste, you know the whole community would benefit from your success and from other successes so wealth was shared. I mean yes there was still hierarchy, but I guess as the nation that was the best way to ensure your nation was going to survive, was to ensure that all its members were healthy and educated and now I see that we’re losing that because it’s becoming more about individual. It’s the value of that we are all connected so why would I want to disrupt the harmony in my community for my own personal gain. Other participants emphasized that open listening and bringing a range of perspectives and interests into decision-making are embedded in Indigenous governance systems. B C interviewees offered illustrations of this point:

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decisions are made in our system, where a Chief doesn’t really have to say very much. He has wing Chiefs that do all of the talking for him, do all of the information gathering, do all of that stuff; they feed all of the information to the Chief. The Chief thinks about all of that and thinks okay what are the interests here, this is where I need to go from here for my house group. I’m married to a lady from that house group, maybe I need to keep them happy too. Those are all of the things that you might want to consider and in the end you make a decision that you think balances all of those interests while advancing or maintaining the integrity of your house group. Five hundred years ago communities were not run as a dictatorship, and it was very much a conversational style. So where I’m from in my community there was a hereditary chief, but that chief was responsible for listening to everyone’s concerns and then saying ‘This is my proposed way forward. Will you follow me?’… then talking with the family heads … and then so each of those other family people are playing that function of listening to what the family is saying and then being able to say, okay well I can summarize that in my mind, and … then dealing with all the other family heads and saying okay, well, what does that person have to say versus what does my family think. When I talk to elders about how things used to run I mean it was considerably different than how it’s run today … The men who were the leaders would get direction from the women and from the matriarchs and listen to what they had to say about it because they would have a different view on things. Maybe it’s because they had kids, they bear children, they seemed to look for the longer term versus whereas the males traditionally focused on the right now sort of in a cultural way. Leaders also paid heed to the voices of the land, as well as those of the heavens and ancestors, and there was an obligation to ensure harmony between the stewardship of the community with that of country and ancestors and nature. This implies not just an inclusive approach, but a different cosmology, one in which not just contemporary human forces, but human voices from the past and voices

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from what in Western science would be considered as inanimate or non-human elements are also taken into account. The strength and unity of this community voice – linked to land and spirits and often expressed through story – is where the authority of leaders come from, not from formal positions or titles. One expression of this concept occurs through ceremony and, as this quote from a BC interview illustrates, it can operate concurrently with contemporary Western forms such as election of leaders: through our cultural approach, we have a ceremony in my community when you are elected in as a leader, and through that ceremony trust is given to you to be able to do what you need to do to be able to lead your community, whereas here [in the public service] you are [often] a leader [by position].

C u lt u r e , c e r e m o n y, and spi ri tuali ty Many interviewees spoke of ceremonial and spiritual dimensions to their leadership practices. Prayer, cultural protocols around meetings, and drawing on the strength of ancestors were mentioned as important aspects of exercising leadership roles. For instance, one Queensland interviewee discussed her decision to move away from her childrearing activities to take a public service position in this way: “And then I saw the job ad for this and I just really felt the old people spirits and it just spoke to me … for me it was never a job, it was an opportunity to serve community.” Another illustrated the difference between Indigenous and public service understandings of time and space: The past determines the present and it dictates how the future will go as well. So, we are always referring back to the past about what our elders did, how they were brought up, their experiences and they guide how you take forward, particularly the Native Title area, it is solely reliant on those stories that come from the past, as to how you take that whole agenda forward through its complexities as well. So yes, it is a completely different environment, totally. B C participants spoke of incorporating cultural practices, including ways of communicating, into public service practice:

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I grew into the culture. I grew into the stories. It demonstrates the ability of the human species to be bicultural. I lean more in tradition and right brain than anything. I’m more likely when you get together with people to be the person to tell a story and deconstruct a story before I do anything. It guides me. What’s interesting is that the deputy minister and assistant deputy minister, if we have a meeting, often times I open with prayer. Which is really different for the ministry. The other piece is setting up the protocols and contextualizing things and wrapping things up. I definitely play a big role in that now with the other directors of Aboriginal service change. Three of us are really into traditions and two aren’t. That’s ok. We all bring different strengths. I do a lot of storywork with my work. The deputy minister said to me one time ‘I don’t like you sitting on this certain side of me. Because after you finish talking I can’t say anything.’ I was too hard to follow. Because in the room I know the relationships and I’ll talk about my connection to them and their families. It’s all part of building community. And that part is important. Because we’re not alone. And if we really believe in traditions, that ancestors’ work is now. By doing that we can shine as leaders. But it takes courage. When I enter a room when everyone in the room is really in left brain, it’s like you hit a brick wall. As someone who senses things very clearly, I have to figure out how I’m going to bring myself to that meeting. So I usually say ‘For me, what I need right now is to call my ancestors. I don’t know if that’s what you need but it’s what I need and this is how I do it.’ I take that responsibility onto myself. They’re welcome to step into that with me and also they don’t have to feel they have to either. You have to have the strength to do that. I love my culture. And that’s what I need to do to be an active leader in that space … It brings all of me to that time and place and the work you need to do. A Queensland participant spoke specifically about the role of ceremony:

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ceremony is not just about … the welcome to country or the smoking ceremonies for openings or closings or tomb stone opening, or whatever it might be, but I think ceremony is also about the small things. So, for me, when someone new comes in, it’s [asking] where are you from? Taking people around and saying who this person is and how they are connected … Yes, I think those sort of things are very meaningful. Our interviewees sought to incorporate ceremony and spiritual elements into their work, not only to help ground themselves, but also to provide identity and connection for other co-workers, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, as well as clients and community members. In this way, Indigenous public servants could be authentic as well as reach out to others to encourage them to be authentic in their own ways and to their own cultures, identities, and traditions.

On e ne s s w it h u n iv e rs e , n ature, and the land One B C participant drew on traditional teachings in discussing the “oneness” of being across the universe: across the heavens and spirits, the sea, the land, humans, nature, and animals. He indicated that this oneness can teach Indigenous and non-Indigenous public servants how to think and how best to work. Oneness, paradoxically, is consistent with uniqueness and connection between different elements, and is a measure of harmony. He said: When I give a talk around leadership, I say to my colleagues it’s incumbent upon us as leaders to aim for [a First Nations concept] – to be of one kind. I don’t want you to be like me, but of one kind. So how do we harness the uniqueness that every one of us carries and aim it in the direction of how it will be better for our community? So that’s the idea that if we are all in a canoe, we have the whale, the otter, the grizzly bear, the thunderbird. Everyone communicates differently. But if we are all paddling together, we bring uniqueness to that experience. What do each of us bring? What does the bear bring? The thunderbird? And so on. The significance of these types of traditional teachings and lived community practice with respect to connection to land, nature, and ancestors marks out Indigenous public service leadership as unique.

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Ada p ta b il it y o f In d igenous soci ety A concept often built into the perspectives and stories of participants across both countries was the adaptability of Indigenous culture over time, including in response to colonization. One BC participant illustrated this adaptability in noting how each person walks on their own journey and either actively or subconsciously chooses to be more “modern” or more “traditional” over their lives and to blend the two. He explained: You see the metaphors in their language or behavior … for example, my cousin says his car is his canoe. Which is really powerful. He is living the metaphor. In this way they collapse time. They will talk about their origins as if it is right now. That’s really important. They look at people and say ‘He’s the thunderbird’ or ‘He’s the bear’ because that’s the clans they come from and they are living the personification of that … When you see life bigger like that, it is magical. “Tradition,” in other words, develops and changes over time. It is not static. For example, women are more active in certain ceremonies or other clan activities than in the past, which in turn has implications for leadership.

L e ade rs h ip o b s e rvat io n s from the perspecti ve o f wo r k in g in a bureaucracy We spoke with interviewees both about how they saw leadership in bureaucracy and how this related to Indigenous leadership. Participants were unanimous in noting differences between their own understanding of what leadership demands, compared to what is generally demanded in a Western bureaucratic setting. As one Queensland participant put it: It is completely different I suppose from life as a public servant, to life as a Gunggari person. Because in our culture there is no Chiefdom and so everybody has a role in leading in some shape or form, you are the keeper of certain parts of knowledge … It’s more negotiating, it’s more to and fro. I remember my time in the army where everything was black and white. There was no grey.

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Where if you go into today’s leadership role, there is very little black and white and if I go into the community, there is no black and white. This idea was reinforced by a BC participant: “The biggest difference between bureaucracy and aboriginal leadership is the hierarchy system. It’s a hindrance. I guess they need it because it’s so big, but it’s a hindrance.” Many participants noted the contrast between an approach to leadership that is personal, holistic, pervades all aspects of a person’s life, and is linked to history, community, and land, and the nonIndigenous world where: leadership is someone who has power and authority and control to make decisions. Or people who have resources. You have leadership if you have a title. You have respect because you are this leader and we designate you to be this leader. We then put our Aboriginal piece into this … There is a big difference. At the same time some participants saw a need to adjust their leadership styles so as to operate effectively in a bureaucratic setting. A BC participant talked about their experience in this way: I’ve had to shift my own leadership style to be less confrontational. There’s so much injustice, so much inequality … you want to try to do it all … and you realize you can’t … you have to be more strategic and more focused … challenging is one style but it has its limitations … there’s different timing and how you deliver the message … most people don’t want to be hit on the head with the message. You have to think about how you do it, what the opportunities are … you can’t keep criticizing people all the time for what they don’t do … you have to walk with your colleagues sometimes. A number of participants spoke of how hierarchy militates against or precludes the sort of inclusive decision-making central to Indigenous societies and the key role of leaders, discussed earlier, in “bringing people along,” both of which are in their view essential in achieving positive outcomes. A Queensland participant commented: “traditionally … decisions are never made in isolation of one person … It is

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always done with heavy discussion with people or others … versus obviously with a bureaucratic system where the delegation lies with a person.” In the Canadian context, many BC interviewees mentioned the dual system imposed by the Indian Act and its elected chief and council governance arrangements. One participant specifically noted that the system involves an artificial status that has caused damage and grave concerns within communities: With our people a chief has no status, a chief is there to do what they can for the people. But with the white influence, the government, the licensees, they give too much status to them and a lot of people can’t handle it and abuse it, and they don’t last long and when their term comes to an end they are back to nothing again and it really hurts. I’ve seen it. To just realize that that status doesn’t last long and to be able to be one with the people, it’s a hard lesson to learn. Participants noted that the hierarchical nature of bureaucracies results in a failure to recognize talent and leadership because certain roles and qualities are assumed only to attach to individuals at senior levels: “I’m also like a diplomat among nations. Government doesn’t see it that way. A handful of people do, but broadly they don’t want to see that. Because of the hierarchy.” Participants also saw hierarchy as militating against a sense of oneness within organizations. A BC participant spoke in these terms: “That’s why I love the circle. There is no hierarchy. That’s the blessing of that … In hierarchy there are no equals. If you and I are in a hierarchy, I don’t know how we can be as one.” Hierarchy can also militate against appreciating the connection that Indigenous people have to the wider universe and the importance of this. A Queensland interviewee said: There is a different standard [in the bureaucracy]. Most of it is generally around your status … I don’t think [Western] leadership genuinely understands the connection, the deep connection mob has to land and water and how do we get them thinking differently? The failure to recognize the value of oneness and connection was seen not just to affect Indigenous public servants. It also constitutes a lost

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opportunity for public services confronting complex or “wicked” problems and seeking to address intergenerational issues and the challenge of environmental sustainability. In speaking about what they believe is missing from non-Indigenous leadership in the bureaucracy, participants were clear that leadership needs to move beyond compartmentalization and titles. They indicated that in the Western system, the tone of political leaders, and so-called “top bureaucrats” dictate the tone of leadership through a trickledown effect. This can be extremely constraining. Participants also questioned what they saw as a general assumption that everyone wants to “move up the ladder” and that it is only by doing so that leadership can be exercised. Western public service needs to pay more attention to recognizing and cultivating the talent of individuals at all levels and across government, and accepting that people who choose to work closer to community make leadership contributions that are equally valuable. Some participants noted the need to accept a wider variety of leadership styles. According to a Queensland participant there are examples where certain Indigenous public servants can be ignored because they work at a different pace or in a style different to that valued in Western systems. This can occur despite peoples’ extensive academic and cultural credentials and their strong links to community. In this person’s view the imposition of a single, stereotypical model of leadership is evident in the fact that Indigenous employees who mirror this style are granted preference: look I don’t know how to say this … But I look at the similarities between those of us who can do it, who can get traction with non-Indigenous leadership and we are all quick thinkers, very outgoing, you know and … maybe I am just being superficial but I think that we look a certain way. In other words, non-Indigenous leaders only respond to those who are most like themselves. This clearly constitutes a major obstacle in allowing public service to mobilize, and further develop, the full range of skills held by employees. We return to this point in the concluding chapter. Another area participants highlighted involved different approaches to time, and involves two dimensions. The first involved the time frame for making decisions, with participants noting that in bureaucracies these are often truncated and do not allow for the deliberation

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required for effective decision-making. A BC interviewee saw that in the public service “There are some values that are very focused not necessarily on consensus but on authoritarian decision-making and on a particular timeline … it’s a totally different system.” In contrast, another B C participant spoke of how in community a good leader takes the time required to bring in all the views of the community into decision-making and takes account of past and future generations. A Queensland participant noted the pressure that can be applied in and on government to hurry decision-making, but at the same time indicated a capacity to resist this pressure: and yes, sometimes the timelines aren’t where you know the modern day lawyers want it to go or the mining company or you know, the council, so they become frustrated and so they have pulled out. We will bring them back when the time is right. They will come back and hopefully they will be able to know, they will see that the way it is done is age old, it is about that patience and that round about conversations that eventually come back to where you want them to. The second dimension involved a concern about the short-term perspectives that often characterize decision making in bureaucracies, which was contrasted with the long time frames (for instance the “seven generations”) that should that should be adopted if the full effects of decisions are to be considered.

C o n c l u s i on The perspectives, stories, and experiences of Indigenous public servants from B C and Queensland exhibit remarkable consistency when it comes to presenting a picture of the personal qualities associated with leadership, the link between these and Indigenous worldviews and ways of governing, and leadership in bureaucratic settings. Leadership is associated with a holistic perspective that emphasizes leaders as people rather than positions, with leadership as a calling that finds expression across all facets of a person’s life and, critically, requires consistency between thought, words, and action. Leadership is respectful and relational, and is attentive not just to the present but to those who have gone before and to the impact of actions taken today on future generations. It is resilient and persistent, humble and authentic,

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with authenticity again demanding consistency between words and actions and across personal and professional behavior. Leadership is inclusive and focused on community and “bringing people along,” which requires careful listening, a recognition that the contribution of others is as important as that of leaders and, in many cases, “leading from behind.” Indigenous leadership recognizes and values the range of interests and perspectives found in communities, requiring exercise of diplomatic skills. These personal qualities emerge from and are linked to Indigenous ways of knowing and Indigenous social organization. The emphasis on community and on inclusion is linked to ways of governing that prioritize dialogue and consensus rather the unilateral exercise of power on the basis of position. The holistic approach to leadership is related to worldviews and ways of knowing that emphasize the links between past, present, and future and see the natural and human world as inextricably linked. Ceremony and spirituality are seen as having an important role in leadership, including public sector leadership, mirroring their role in Indigenous life. The adaptability essential to leaders is linked to the ability of Indigenous societies to adapt to change and survive over millennia, including surviving the ravages of colonial settlement. Participants believe the leadership they describe to be unique and to stand in contrast to Western concepts of leadership, especially as they apply in the public service. The latter are seen as hierarchical and one-dimensional, characterized by short-term decision-making, a failure to draw on the knowledge accumulated by earlier generations, and a divorce from the wider natural and spiritual world. Participants also believe their understandings of leadership and their leadership qualities have much to offer contemporary public services. Yet the statistical analysis presented in chapter 3 indicates that in British Columbia and Queensland, at least, despite twenty-five years of policies designed to recruit Indigenous public servants, very few of them occupy leadership positions. Why is this so? What must happen if the situation is to change? We turn to these questions in the next two chapters.

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6 Barriers to Indigenous Participation and Leadership Practice

In t ro du c t i on In this chapter we present interviewees’ understandings of the factors that act as barriers to Indigenous participation and the development and exercise of Indigenous leadership in the Queensland and BC public services. In the next chapter we will report their views on what changes are required in government policy and practice, and on the part of non-Indigenous public servants, if those barriers are to be addressed. As in the previous chapter, our approach reflects our goal of giving voice to the Indigenous public servants who participated in our study and our narrative is designed to provide a frame for their experience and understanding.

B a r r ie rs a n d O b s tacles Emergi ng f ro m N o n - In d ig e nous Soci ety Overt Racism Some interviewees in both B C and Queensland shared examples of overt racism and prejudice in the workplace and outside it, affecting themselves, colleagues, and family, and the Indigenous community more broadly. While less frequent than discussion of racism in its more subtle forms (see next section), these examples serve as a reminder that though overt racism may no longer be an everyday experience in the government context, it continues to exist. The experience of one Queensland public servant illustrates this point:

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the first week that I was there [in a child protection agency] I remember very clearly I jumped in the lift and all of a sudden bang, bang. These two big fellows [senior police officers] standing beside me. All of a sudden as the lift moved, one of them sort of gave me a bit of a nudge and I looked at him and he turned around and I won’t swear, but he used a few swear words, and he said basically, ‘So you’re the f***ing black so and so that thinks he is going to come here and change everything.’ I just said, oh, not really mate. I said there are quite a few of us around these days. You know, if you get rid of me, we’re still coming. BC participants cited examples of racist name calling, lack of managerial action to call out racism and, in the final case mentioned below, racist acts intended to end a participant’s career: The conservation officers were really prejudiced. This one guy. He called me a stupid Indian. I told my supervisor and he said [if you want to bring it forward] you need to find out the source, [but] you need to let it go. There’s a couple of people here who I’ve worked with and I will never work with again, based on how they treated Aboriginal staff. Another time, a couple of years after we were having a silent auction for Christmas, I said I would donate some fillets of salmon. [After I brought in the salmon] … I got a call from the Conservations Officers because they said someone had claimed it was a case of illegal selling of salmon from an Indian. They were going to take it to Ottawa. And [they] did. Another interviewee recounted a colleague saying to him “‘You write well for an Aborigine.’ And I thought, well, I don’t know why Aborigines can’t write, but you know, you have got to be able to deal with those sorts of situations.” A participant who occupied a senior executive position recalled a government minister saying to him: ‘Well you know you have become too powerful in this department and you know you are a powerful Torres Strait Islander … and you are dangerous.’ And I am thinking, how can I be

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dangerous when I am tasked with serving the public of Queensland … and I do that? A person appointed to a management role at a comparatively early age explained hostility towards her from staff she supervised as follows: “Not only was I younger than them, who was I to tell them what to do, and I think they also had a little bit of bigotry there. A lot of people I find … It sort of comes off them, like ‘What would you know, you Murri?’ type stuff.” After successfully managing twenty staff over a period of time this individual was moved to a role that involved no supervision of personnel, a change they attributed in part to bigotry in the organization concerned. One interviewee talked about how she was subject to systematic attacks and attempts to undermine her by some non-Indigenous colleagues. Her experience highlights the severity of the racial hostility Indigenous public servants can face and the trauma this can cause: I was just surprised [with] the level of resistance and to be fair, it was just a couple of people but unfortunately they hold very strategic roles in this organisation and it has been constant, it has been brutal, it has been sometimes, several times a day … I’ve had a lot of social trauma in my life … I’ve grown up in poverty, I’ve seen police in the early 80s coming in, storming a family party with batons and … and then encounter[ed] extreme racism in country Queensland. [These are] … spikes of trauma, but they’re not sustained, it’s a very high spike but then it’s an incident [which is then over]. Whereas I would have to say, and I’m not being dramatic but this twelve months has been the most traumatic period of my whole life, and I don’t say that lightly because even though the trauma hasn’t been as high, it’s just ­sustained since day one until today. Some interviewees attribute this hostility, at least in part, to insecurity on the part of non-Indigenous co-workers: “Some of … my colleagues have found it very difficult to have an Indigenous executive who also can do their jobs in some instances. They find that very threatening.” Other participants recounted cases where government officers openly displayed a lack of respect for Indigenous communities, for example by leaving meetings they had been invited to by Aboriginal elders while they were still underway, so as to avoid making minor

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changes to travel plans. Racism in the wider community also provides a key part of the context within which Indigenous people seek to make their careers. The following is typical of experiences recounted by a number of our interviewees: Having to leave home and move from the country to the city and up house, and then feelings that you’re in this grey world because racism was quite bad then with the early days of Pauline Hanson [nationalist, right-wing politician who denigrated Indigenous Australians], and going into David Jones with my brother to buy some clothes for him to wear to a funeral and security guards came and were shadowing us. So to go from that and then being told at university when I started, ‘So many of you lot start but none of you seem to finish.’ “Everyday Racism” Virtually all interviewees raised cases of racism expressed in forms that are subtle, indirect, or oblique, what Larkin (2013) refers to as “everyday racism.” As one Canadian interviewee summarized the situation, “I think one of the things that Aboriginal people have to face within government and within a lot of other areas too is you know there are, they’re not even visages of discrimination [but] … there’s cultural barriers, there’s stereotypes.” Indeed many of the behaviours and responses documented by Larkin in the Australian Public Service emerged strongly from our interviews. These include the tendency of non-Indigenous public servants to deny that they display racist attitudes or that racism is a systemic issue, and to react defensively when racism is brought to their attention. A BC interviewee spoke of one interaction with non-Indigenous colleagues: I said, ‘Well you have to acknowledge our colonisation, but we’re not saying that all people working in the public sector are evil, horrible colonisers. But some of you are, you do have to acknowledge that.’ They were like – everyone took a breath, and I was [thinking] ‘Like really? Am I saying anything shocking?’ One Queensland public servant described her experience as follows: “[non-Indigenous colleagues] especially get upset if you say, ‘Well the way you did that was actually quite racist.’ Then they go, ‘I am not

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racist, rah, rah, rah.’ They don’t even want to hear it, they don’t believe that they are.” This interviewee referred to a senior non-Indigenous colleague’s request regarding what she could do to compensate when a racist response was drawn to her attention. Our interviewee’s comments on this situation are included below at some length, because they also encapsulate the dilemma Indigenous public servants can face when they encounter racism: Sometimes it’s like, nothing [they can do]. You know you just have to give them time or whatever and sometimes, bless them, white people overcompensate for it … the next minute they are walking past going, how are you? How are you today? You know, I am thinking, you haven’t talked to me for three years, haven’t come to my office and now you have been here every morning for the past week, asking me how I am feeling, because you have actually heard that you have upset me or something. It’s kind of like and then I am placating you again, by putting up with this … they are really sensitive and so yes, you really think twice about having to say anything to them and also because they have the power in the place. You know that other white people will side with them, so you have just got to be really careful about how you do it. This respondent also mentioned that confronting expressions of racism can lead to withdrawal of support from previously supportive colleagues. She also placed attitudes to addressing racism in the workplace in the wider context of Australia’s failure to properly address its history and race relations more broadly: Australia tries to skip the truth and goes straight to ‘Can’t we all be friends now’ … They know their history, but they don’t accept the history, so I think there is a lot of work that needs to be done around that. Like even [talking about] having a reconciliation happen, because we were never friends to start with, they get all upset by that. So you know, you have to use the word reconciliation, because it makes them feel good. Interviewees in both jurisdictions also highlighted a tendency to devalue Indigenous skills, to assume the superiority of non-Indigenous knowledge. One Queensland respondent who had previously been a senior

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executive in an accounting firm recounted how he was denied responsibility for financial management decisions, which were instead allocated to a non-Indigenous auditor. Another who was a manager in a service delivery agency described a meeting at which she was proposing to an external partner what she regarded as a better way to deliver a particular service. She recalled a non-Indigenous colleague: throughout the whole meeting, pushing back and pushing back, ‘this won’t work, that won’t work.’ And I thought, how interesting, we’ve got one of my team leaders, male, white, educated, all the things that represent mistrust for an Aboriginal person and after that meeting, I felt a bit embarrassed, we had [external ­partner] there and I had one of my team leaders keep saying, ‘this won’t work.’ Another interviewee commented: They don’t take seriously the contributions that you can provide and if you do show them up, by the way you ask your questions or the things that you actually have thought about and point out, there is always this resonance of distaste or dislike. That is how I have experienced it, because I never ever get treated the same again. A senior executive in another Queensland agency recounted comments from a colleague about the results of a departmental performance survey, which included an Aboriginal work unit: ‘We always mark you down [with respect to performance measures] …’ I said, ‘Well why?’ ‘Oh well you know, surely you can’t be you know, that good.’ ‘I think that’s pretty funny sort of logic,’ I said. ‘Yes, but I have done that every year,’ [she replied]. I said, ‘Well why do you do that?’ ‘Really I don’t know, I just do it’ … I don’t know what the logic is, but she continued to do it until I confronted her about it. In some cases positive outcomes achieved by Indigenous public servants not only failed to win recognition, but resulted in institutional envy and retaliation. Two interviewees recalled how other agencies moved to take over and “mainstream” a highly successful

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Indigenous housing program after its success drew attention to it. One recounted how: when I was in the [name of department] as general manager, we won Premier’s Award for the Best Program [for] building bridges to reconciliation. We had a runner up award previous to that and then … my whole management team got awarded Australia Day awards for our contribution to … Indigenous Housing in particular. The next year … the whole program was shut down. Tall poppy. So, they are the sorts of things … I wonder about, is the Queensland public service or our politicians serious enough about having difference? Another person, who had previously held positions across a number of agencies, discussed the negative response she received from her current supervisor when the networks she had built led to invitations to participate in cross-agency forums or activities. This was despite the fact that her networks constituted an important asset to her current employer. She commented: They could not understand why a regional director in another region would ring me and say can you be a part of this focus group or whatever … You try not to bring race into it, but I think, would you have [questioned] … my mainstream counterpart? I absolutely know that had that person been approached to contribute to how Queensland government develops up [name of policy initiative] or something like that you would have seen that as ‘Wow, she has been asked to contribute to this.’ Whereas mine was suspicion always, ‘Who asked you, why did they [ask you] … Why didn’t they come and ask me, come through me to ask you?’ The tendency to downgrade Indigenous skills and capacities can also be reflected in the attachment of a lower status to public service roles that deal with Indigenous peoples or issues, compared to identical roles with a “mainstream” focus. As one Queensland public servant commented: we were called Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Practice Leaders. Now what other job in the world would your ethnicity

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be attached to a title and therefore two roles created so there was a mainstream function and the black function and because of that you were automatically treated differently. Racist behaviour also involves deliberate attempts to undermine the credibility of Indigenous public servants by “setting them up to fail.” One executive commented in relation to an Indigenous person who had just been recruited into a senior role from outside the public service: They’ve set her up to fail … She’s never been a public servant and no one bothered to induct her. She didn’t do anything wrong per se, [but] she’s pissed off everyone [because] she went outside of … a normal core process but that’s because no one told her. Now she’s going to be tarred with that … She is skilled and they just didn’t bother to tell her the rules of engagement. A related issue, also identified by Larkin, involves assumptions that skills that are held by Indigenous public servants are dispensable because they are held by, or can easily be acquired by, their nonIndigenous counterparts: When they do that crappy ‘Aboriginal business is everyone’s business.’ Yuck. I could just stab myself in the eye, because it is kind of like, when something becomes everyone’s business, it becomes nobody’s business … we are not even on their radar, so when they have to employ four extra people, they just go and get four people, sort of thing, four white people. They go and hire their friend, their kids and things … They get upset when they can’t apply for an identified [Indigenous] position. That drives you crazy and you go ‘What, it deals specifically with Aboriginal issues’ … [They respond] ‘Yes, well I have worked with Māori, so I will be right.’ Another interviewee expressed their anger at the appointment of an unqualified non-Indigenous person who had under-performed in their existing role to a managerial position in an Indigenous program: I was furious about it [the appointment]. Never been to a remote community, has absolutely no interest in going to a community

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and that just shows that there’s not a willingness by this department, a lot of Queensland government departments, to move competent and capable Indigenous people into these roles. Indigenous skills and capacities can also be diminished by “ghettoization,” or assuming that they are only relevant to the Indigenous context and have little or nothing to offer to the public service more broadly. One B C interviewee said: There is still a view that well, this is who you are or this would be your skill set, or this is what you would be interested in versus you can have all of these other things that you’re also intensely interested in and passionate about and have skill sets that aren’t only connected to being an Indigenous person. According to a Queensland participant, the “pigeonholing” of Indigenous people makes it difficult for them to apply for mainstream roles and so to diversify their experience and further develop their leadership skills. I think in government a lot of the time the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island public servants won’t apply for high level roles, unless it is [an] identified [position], because … people just get pigeon holed and then you just get anything black thrown at you. ‘Oh yes, that is the Aboriginal role and that is all you do and can do’ … it is hard for them to then consider a mainstream [role]. Another interviewee commented: I have been told so many times that ‘you are an Aboriginal leader, you wouldn’t be able to work for another department.’ Well, management and leadership, doesn’t matter who you work for or what, it is just the topic that is different and it is just a matter of getting the product knowledge and then you can lead, you can lead that group too. So yes, it is about being able to deal with those situations. One participant highlighted a wider implication of the tendency to “ghettoize” Indigenous public servants in Indigenous policy areas: “Can you really influence systemic change, if we only influence change

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in those policies and programs that have Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander in the title? Are you going to change the whole government, the whole system, the whole HR system?” Given the underlying questioning of Indigenous skills and capacities, it is not surprising that interviewees felt that they were under pressure to demonstrate their credentials by performing at a higher level than their non-Indigenous counterparts. As one B C respondent said, “you not only have to meet expectations you have to exceed expectations. To be a strong Indigenous leader in government, you have to exceed expectations.” A Queensland public servant asked: Why am I supposed to learn everything about them [non-Indigenous people] and they don’t need to learn anything about us? … Indigenous people will always end up carrying a heavier load than anybody else in the public service, because you are supposed to know everything they know, plus all our stuff. Another said: “Some of us are exhausted … we have to work five times as hard because you are going to think we’re not worthy … we’ve got to do more than everyone else because you might think we’re not actually worthy or we don’t have a real valid opinion.” Indigenous public servants also receive signals about how government perceives them and their communities from its general approach to Indigenous culture and Indigenous policy. As one B C interviewee noted: So just a lot of what I would call institutionalized, systemic ­racism, so there’s – people in [agency name] like to think that they’re the most enlightened, intelligent people on the planet and wow, look at us. We know what we’re doing here. But I still hear stuff from the leadership level like, the mispronunciation of very simple First Nation names. A Queensland public servant whose department had recently moved into a new government “flagship” building noted that they were told that they were not allowed to name rooms with Indigenous names. Other similar examples are discussed later in the chapter. Exclusion of Indigenous public servants from policy development forums, or their involvement at a minimal level, sends strongly negative signals about their value: “I think it is very lonely when you are sitting in a

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meeting and you are thinking, why am I the only black person here again. So I think that is hard for people. I think people get frustrated with not being listened to or not feeling valued.” A number of Queensland public servants noted that while Aboriginal people are supposedly recruited because of their specific knowledge of Aboriginal culture and policy, there is no real intention to incorporate their distinctive knowledge or cultural approaches: They [public service agencies] employ Aboriginal people because they are Aboriginal, because they want that Aboriginal culture and influence, but then when you get there, you are supposed to act and be white. So they don’t really want it at all, but they don’t know they don’t want that. They are just confused people. Of course they didn’t like [the draft Strategy] I delivered, because at the end of the day I wrote an action plan from an Indigenous perspective, not from a government perspective. All a bit different. ‘Oh, we can’t do that or we can’t recommend that [to the minister] … He won’t like that.’ B C participants made a similar point: a true leader, who’s got the respect … knows their stuff in and out, then you find people who [say] ‘We don’t want to put somebody like that in place because they’re going to challenge us when we make decisions.’ So, they put people we refer to as the yes men in place who are going to say ‘yes,’ no matter what. They would never hire someone who acknowledges, look, ‘We’ve got a horrible history in this country and we need to work through it.’ They don’t want anyone to say that. You can’t be working in executive for the government and say things contrary to what the Minister can say. Alternatively, agencies are open to solutions proposed by Indigenous staff but only if they are “ready-made.” They are not prepared to undertake the engagement required to seriously address policy issues: White people want a ten-point plan. ‘Well okay, if I do these ten things, then everything is going to be fine. Just tell me what they are. I will just follow it.’ It is not that easy and they don’t want to

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put the effort into it. You know if they can do something really quickly, yes, they will do it, but if they have to put a lot of effort into it, they won’t. The unwillingness to seriously engage can be accompanied by a tendency to place the burden of change required to address Indigenous issues onto Indigenous public servants. One Queensland interviewee recalled an interview for a senior executive role: the question I got from a panel of four people [was]: ‘So if you were in charge of Aboriginal Affairs, how would you fix it?’ I don’t think they know. I left and I cried. I am so sick of that question. How is it that I am responsible for answering that question? I felt like saying, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ And I wish I had enough guts to do that, to say, I’m not answering that question but I’d be very happy to hear what you’ve got to say about answering that. A related issue involves placing responsibility for dealing with any issue that is Indigenous-related on Indigenous staff, even if it does not fall within their area of responsibility. A Queensland interviewee recounted how he was recruited to a senior “mainstream” role in an agency, and found himself given the added responsibility of resolving major organizational issues in a unit that dealt with Indigenous issues, despite the fact that there was no business alignment between this task and the role for which he was recruited.

T h e B u r d e n o f R epres entati on Many interviewees in both B C and Queensland spoke regarding pressures on them to be the “Aboriginal voice” in their workplace, to represent the interests of Indigenous people as a whole. Such demands were not regarded in an unequivocally negative light. Some respondents welcomed the opportunity to ensure that Indigenous perspectives were considered in policymaking, having been omitted for so long. On the other hand demands to articulate “Indigenous interests” or “Indigenous perspectives” were seen both as placing unreasonable and onerous demands on Indigenous public servants, and as an effort by non-Indigenous public servants to avoid engaging with affected communities and peoples. One B C interviewee recounted that:

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For the people I work with in the province, I am the representative of Indigenous communities … one of the voices that we have to have internally is yes we are Indigenous people doing this work, but we are not necessarily representative of the community you serve so we can be a conduit and a facilitator, but engaging with me doesn’t count. This theme recurred in numerous interviews in BC and Queensland. Other examples from B C included: I’m only one individual who has a particular heritage and I can bring that to the conversation, but that’s all I can bring. So there are two sides of that coin, yes I’m representing, but no I don’t represent. I’m not the voice of all Aboriginal people. I am the voice of what I’ve witnessed and what I know from my own knowledge experience of how to engage with community and what has and has not worked in my experience. [There are] not enough Aboriginal people at what’s called ‘Strategic Leadership’ level or ‘Executive Leadership’ level, you are still, you’re not just representing yourself you are representing your nation, your cultural background, because people will judge you against that so there is actually … there’s a lot of ­pressure on you. Another BC interviewee illustrated this “pressure to represent” in a different context: I remember my first attempt at university, sitting down in, it used to be called Native Studies at that point, Native Studies class, 200 people in the theatre, and something came up, I can’t remember, and the prof kind of looked at me and asked me to ‘speak’ as an Aboriginal person … just because you’ve interacted with me, doesn’t mean you’ve interacted with all Aboriginal people. Similar experiences and perspectives were recounted by many Queensland interviewees:

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At senior leading meetings or whatever, you do feel like [people are asking] ‘Well what is the answer, what do we do, what should we do?’ Then you, all eyes on you to perform and give an answer … It is a huge burden to carry when you are only one person and is it reasonable to have that expectation directed at you? That point of view is pervasive at a higher level, particularly in government itself, in Parliament, is that you are an Aboriginal person, you work within an Aboriginal Affairs Department, so therefore you would know and you should know all the views of Aboriginal people in regards to a particular issue and that is a dynamite place to be. You are expected to be a representative of the Indigenous communities, so that they basically want you to tell them what they need to know. If you [a non-Indigenous public servant] are going to Yarrabah to do a piece of work, I’m not going to answer on behalf of the Yarrabah people. Your job is to talk to the Yarrabah people and come back to me … I mean I’d like to get every Irish person in the office or Italian person in the office … [they] wouldn’t like it if someone said well, what are you going to do to fix that. You know, you can’t answer for a whole country or a people. I don’t speak on behalf of all Aboriginal people in Queensland and one of the things I do say very quickly, regardless of where I go, is I don’t talk on behalf of people, but I have my experience. The hardest part, to be honest with you, is the lack of Aboriginal and Torres Strait people at the [highest] level [in the public service] … So at a senior leadership meetings that is led by our directorgeneral and opened by a [government] minister, I am the only person there that is Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. Such demands can make it very difficult to focus on key functional responsibilities that must be fulfilled in order to demonstrate performance and ensure career progression. One participant noted, referring to an Aboriginal colleague he regarded as having considerable leadership potential: She is one of the very few that are really pushing to make changes. She is at a good high level, but she doesn’t have the

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support mechanisms behind her. She is continually getting bombarded by her ministers and people like that to, you know, to constantly respond, respond, respond and you are in a response mode, rather than a working mode. An extended extract from a Queensland interview highlights another dilemma that arises for Indigenous public servants faced with demands to provide a “community perspective,” especially within tight time frames. Working with timelines. So, I get a message: ‘Quick, I need an answer on what people think about the Child Safety Reform. You have got forty-eight hours.’ I can’t talk to anybody in fortyeight hours. I can probably talk to a couple of aunties and I might be able to get my staff in [a regional town] to talk to a couple of people up there, but is that a big enough sector to then say, ‘Well I believe that the response should be XYZ?’ … You take your experience and you try and build a picture and you always got that feeling in the back of your throat that have I done a real service to my people with that response, or have I just answered a deadline to get the information back into the political sphere … You have got to be very, very careful about that, being placed in that position. It looks good, sometimes it might feel good, but there are really inherent risks attached to sometimes commenting on community values without [input from] those people. A different risk was identified by another Queensland interviewee, that a refusal to play the “representative role” could damage career prospects in a situation where other Indigenous public servants agree to do so. But I won’t do it. If there is somebody else that will do it, that will pretend they are talking on behalf of everyone, then all of a sudden that person is being given all these opportunities, because you are the naughty one, you know, you are the one that is not playing the game. They are playing the game. They get given these opportunities. You argue for consultation, because the community actually needs to have the voice on this. They will say, oh no, the answer is this. They will go with them, because it is easier. So it’s difficult, because as an Aboriginal person, I could just take that route if I wanted to and probably be at a higher level … the

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problem is the damage that they do … It is really hard to undo later on. This interviewee also highlighted cultural values that constrain Indigenous people from criticizing or challenging behaviour they consider as inappropriate on the part of Indigenous colleagues: Because we have this thing, if there is a whole bunch of white ­fellas around and you might be in the room with that person and you know what they are saying is just wrong, we never have a go at each other in public, never have a go at each other in front of white people. It might be later on you might say something to them outside. Yes, not like white people, they have a go at each other … To the stage where some of them are in tears and I am thinking, ‘What are you doing to each other?’ But we probably won’t do that and sometimes it is to our detriment, because then no one else around that table hears that what they are saying is complete and utter crap … You might kind of delicately say that there are other views out there, but you never put that ­person down. Our interviews make it abundantly clear that despite this risk many Indigenous public servants do resist demands to “represent” wider community interests. Some also saw such demands as providing an opportunity to educate non-Indigenous colleagues about the realities facing Indigenous communities and about appropriate ways of engaging with them. In this way opportunities could be created to establish common ground, as a basis for improving the public sector’s ability to meet Indigenous needs. For instance two BC interviewees said: So it’s just kind of finding those opportunities or the common ground of how I can sort of support them in my position … like where is the common ground, a good starting point to sort of move forward … I guess just focusing on what is most feasible or where there is most common ground. I kind of have to be an educator of both sides of that world. I have to educate my Indigenous partners about government and how it works and what the process is and how you deal with that especially at an operational level … on the other side …

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how do we make this a culturally competent organization and work respectfully with those partners. Other interviewees felt that a key issue was increasing the numbers of Indigenous public servants, especially at senior levels, thus reducing the “burden of representation” currently felt by a small number of individuals. This raises another important point to emerge from the interviews, what might be termed “the loneliness of the Indigenous public servant.”

T h e L o n e l in e s s o f t h e I ndi genous p u b l ic   s e rvant Interviewees in both jurisdictions drew attention to the pressures and challenges associated with the small number of Indigenous people at senior levels in the public services of BC and Queensland, a reality clearly reflected in the statistical profiles in chapter 3. A number of Queensland public servants noted this point: I am the only Aboriginal person on this entire floor and there’s two departments and two ministers’ offices and that is it, you know, so it is isolating. It is really hard. There’s often only a few of us that are Aboriginal in, you know, significant positions … you [the interviewer] have got them all on a piece of paper … It is really lonely and we [Aboriginal public servants] all talk about that as a group sometimes. I mean lonely is a funny word, it’s also a human condition and you get used to it, [but] it would be sometimes nice if there were more of us … I’ve often thought God, I’m crazy, I’m on my own island, no one’s even paddling towards me … So it would be lovely to have a bigger group, but I also think we’re on that journey and at least that journey is happening. Because you are isolated at times, you know you have got no one to, whilst you can debrief with a supervisor, it’s different. Similarly, a B C participant said: We have an Aboriginal service plan. We have a very clear-cut plan that we need to try to achieve and we can’t do it with the small faction of Aboriginal staff because we’re grossly

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disproportionate, pathetically. There’s five of us at a director’s level [across the province]. There’s five directors sitting in this office, in this particular office right now, in the non-Aboriginal side. Never mind across the province. Another BC interviewee noted: “There were three directors hired five years ago and I’m the only one left. You see Aboriginal departments with hardly any Aboriginal people in them. I’ve seen Aboriginal leaders be emotionally distraught because they felt the system was getting them down.” She also observed in relation to an Aboriginal colleague appointed to a senior role: I think it was a fairly stressful role. Sometimes we bring people in and don’t prepare them as to what it’s like to fit into a bureaucracy. I’m not sure we spend the time to understand leadership from different perspectives. What is leadership from a mainstream perspective and what is it like to fit in with that idea? … I think people who get to those senior positions … it’s really complex and it can be overwhelming for them. Isolation can make it difficult to have the confidence to play an active and strong role in policy forums: Now if you are one Aboriginal person at the table … despite it being at a senior leader level or middle management … you’ll probably often notice that it’s mostly the white voices that are dominant, that black voice doesn’t say too much and often it could be that they’re not … willing to bring their full self to the table, to propose something different because you think well it’s not going to lift, it’s not going to get up. [You are] that lonely limb, if you are one voice … you are the only identified [Aboriginal or Torres Strait] person there, you need to feel that everyone else is willing to hear what you have to say … that you are not going to just be a mini me of everybody else … you know often you just don’t feel that you can bring your full eccentric self to the conversation. You do water it down a bit. Another problem is that if an isolated Indigenous person does regularly articulate a position critical of accepted policy, they can be labelled as difficult or obstructionist:

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When she [lone Aboriginal voice] speaks up too much or she seems to talk up too loudly, she’s tagged as an activist. You know, so it’s just a hard gig. That’s a really hard gig because you’re not kind of saying things that are going to be easy fixes, and then you’re tagged as a bit of an activist or too loud. I have to pick my battles, otherwise you will be labelled quicker than your head can spin, as a problem, ‘Oh, you know she’s smart but she’s difficult to deal with.’ I’ve learnt that, and I’ve watched that and I’ve seen great people that I think had much value, just get discarded. The small numbers of Indigenous public servants also mean that the support and knowledge needed to back policy initiatives are lacking: “We just don’t have the numbers in the middle management coming through that would understand all the systems. For me it’s become problematic too, the things that I am wanting to achieve but I don’t have the work force around me to help.”

In d ig e n o u s e m p l oy ment poli cy In chapter 3, in an analysis based on policy documents, annual reports, and statistical data, we noted features of Aboriginal employment policy in both BC and Queensland that militated against recruitment, retention, and advancement of Indigenous public servants. These included a lack of consistency in policy over time, an emphasis on “quota filling” and, associated with this, absence of focus on advancing Indigenous people into more senior positions and application of employment targets to the public service as a whole rather than separately to various occupational levels. The interviewees highlighted the significance of these issues. In terms of policy consistency, many Queensland interviewees drew attention in particular to the effective abandonment of an Indigenous employment strategy under the conservative Newman government, elected in 2011, and the fact that many Indigenous people left the public service as a result of the government’s staff cuts. One discussed the efforts that had been made to attract Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into the service, and to give them experience and enhance their qualifications, efforts that were then ignored in the government’s determination to cut the workforce. This meant that when

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a new government renewed the focus on Indigenous employment, “you are starting all over again rather than thinking through that. We just let a lot of them go, so people were cross and understandably it … is going to be a struggle to bring them back in to come and work here.” A number of participants highlighted what they saw as a quota filling approach. One B C interviewee said: “To me, it’s almost like they’re satisfying a number [somewhere]. The government should have X amount of people employed that are First Nations or this and this … more about meeting a number.” Other participants felt that employment policies were not underpinned by serious efforts to come to grips with what is required to recruit and retain Indigenous employees. A B C interviewee noted: [Government agencies say] ‘We encourage … Aboriginal people to apply.’ How are you doing it exactly? ‘Tell me,’ I always challenge people. ‘You say you encourage, how are you encouraging?’ … That’s not enough, just to say you’re encouraging someone. You need to do something, what are you doing that is an encouragement? What is it through this application process that is encouraging? Have you actually sought out communication sources that focus on Indigenous public, and advertise to them, have you done that? That’s a very simple thing. No, you haven’t. Do you know what they even are? You don’t, well how can you say you’re encouraging, you’re not even reaching the people – simple things like that. Other interviewees comment on the failure to focus on skills and career development: “At that higher level, there’s very few people coming through the pipeline, but that is something we don’t do very well, is that talent management and trying to attract people and develop them through you know.” This person, now in a senior executive role, when asked whether they felt supported in terms of formal leadership development and they worked up through the ranks, responded: “No … when I think back, I honestly don’t know how I got here, so I can’t think of who it was that helped me, you know what I mean?” Failure to work on retaining people Indigenous employees was another issue that attracted comment: I think we need to be more accommodating around the practicalities, particularly in some of the regions and the remote places …

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people need to be conscious of the support that people need to actually get into work and you know, maintain employment. We also noted in chapter 3 that an atypically high number of Indigenous employees are in temporary or casual positions. One interviewee illustrated this point by reference to their own career, mentioning that they had been in contract (rather than permanent) positions for twenty-six years. Another talked about how hard it is for Indigenous public servants who lack permanency to advocate strongly or adopt a position critical of existing policy: “I truly could be frank and fearless. It didn’t feel like those temporary [AO ]8s and that temporary SES [senior executive service], gave them that ability. So there was something about permanence.” A third interviewee noted the personal cost of impermanence: “[Indigenous public servants are] disproportionately in temporary positions, so they’re always in a state of trauma, anxiety and then they can’t get a home loan, a car loan because they’re on a three-month contract that keeps getting renewed, it’s tremendous stress.” Particular criticism was directed at the failure of government to make senior Indigenous appointments in large mainstream departments, a situation clearly illustrated by the employment data presented in chapter 3, despite the availability of qualified and experienced candidates. One Queensland interviewee noted: “There’s five agencies that employ people who are SES [senior executive service] … in twenty years we’ve made five people, but there’s no ways I’m going to sit here and celebrate and say that’s a great achievement because it’s not … [In the Health Department] You’ve got a large workforce of 50,000 people, you can’t tell me that in 50,000 employees, you can’t find one Indigenous person to be an SES like come on … people who work in those departments are really frustrated. I look at [named individual] who I employed, who’s down there now … I employed him as an AO7 twenty years ago, like why has he not progressed through when we have all these leadership opportunities, courses, everything. So it goes back to the willingness I believe and it’s just very, very frustrating.”

Co n f l ic t s in wo r k in g wi thi n the s tate As discussed in chapter 2, the history of state repression, dispossession, and discrimination in Australia and Canada, combined with the persistence of state policies inimical to Indigenous interests, can create

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particular conflicts and tensions for Indigenous people working within the contemporary state apparatus. Those conflicts and tensions, and peoples’ ways of managing them, emerged across most, though not all, of the interviews in both jurisdictions. In discussing the responses of interviewees, we must reiterate that by definition our respondents, as serving public officers had, at the time they were interviewed, found tensions bearable and conflicts manageable. We know that Indigenous public sector workers have high attrition rates (see chapter 3), and acknowledge that at least some of those who left did so because they no longer found it possible to work within the apparatus of the state. A number of Queensland and B C participants referred to colleagues who had found themselves in this position. It is easier to address first the small number of respondents who did not report any tension or conflict about working for the state, or saw little difficulty in managing it. When asked whether they felt tension or conflict, one Queensland interviewee responded: “I have never had any challenges in managing them, even though I know some people do, who probably have more closer family connections maybe. But I am very straight up about what my job is and really it is just trying to look for the win-win for everyone. So I haven’t had any conflicts arise, but I know that people would have experienced that.” After another participant identified a number of conflicts they had faced, the following exchange ensued: In terv i e we r : Either in this role or in the last twenty years, have you been in situations where that conflict was so severe that you thought of leaving a role in the public service or actually did leave a role? In terv i e we e : No, no. I could always reconcile the two and I could always explain [my position] to both sides. The good thing about the public service, is it recognises the conflict that you face with your own community. That is what I like about the bureaucracy, but it is also very clear to me what the rules are. Some Canadian participants did not even want to discuss barriers and challenges they face, as doing so did not fit their perspective on working in the public service. Many interviewees, even those who clearly felt there were ways of managing the conflicts involved in being an Indigenous public servant,

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indicated that doing so created significant tensions. For example one Queensland official described her experience as follows: In terv i e we e : the person obviously would need to balance their obligation and responsibility as being a bureaucrat and also their responsibility as being an Indigenous person to the community and to me that is being open about your role and articulating that … They [community members] know that I have a job to do, but I know the system and how it works and how can we do this so that we have the best outcome for you. Yes, because my hands are tied. It’s either me or a white worker who doesn’t understand you, so I am here, let’s work this through. In terv i e we r : Have there been situations where it has been a struggle for you to stay in the public service. I mean have you thought seriously about leaving? In terv i e we e : Yes, all the time. In terv i e we r : All the time? In terv i e we e : Yes, all the time. Yes seriously, all the time. That is why I left and went [to work abroad for a period of time]. A Canadian interviewee said: I know Aboriginal people who come into the public service and really, really, struggle with having a different way of working. Like, you put on your government hat and you take it off and sometimes it’s hard and sometimes it’s completely contradictory to somebody’s values and what somebody believes in and that’s what at some point can’t be compromised, and people feel too much like maybe who they are is being compromised. Another commented: At the end of the day you’re an employee. The corporate concept dominates … You can’t get around that. You can try to do what you can through your personal style but in the bureaucracy you’re one amongst a sea of people. You’re one perspective on

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fifteen perspectives and you have to be part of the corporate team. There are some decisions you have to make that you don’t necessarily like … And your central bureaucracy defines your agenda … under one government you emphasized employment equity and under the next one it was employment based on certain skills and equity went out the window. On the other hand a number of B C interviewees referred to a “line in the sand” or a “hill to die on,” indicating that a limit existed to their willingness to compromise their values in working in the public service. A day might come when they would be forced to choose their personal values and beliefs over the decisions or approach endorsed by the system: “if you come to that ‘Is this a hill you’re going to die on?’ and you say ‘This is it, I’m done,’ then it’s time to walk away, and that’s not always easy.” Another B C participant said: “I have felt that there would definitely come a time where I would have to make a choice between my own personal values and ethics and my career. Or to put it more bluntly, to pick between my Nation or you know my employer.” One Queensland interviewee recounted how he had left particular roles because they involved an unacceptable conflict of values, though at the same time recounted that the decision to leave was not career ending: I tell you what, some of it [public service] is quite exciting, but also quite different and challenging sometimes in relation to my own moral compass … there have been two jobs where I have said, no three now, ‘No I am not going to work here anymore, because it is not congruent with my values.’ So, and you do leave. You go and do something else, but funnily enough you actually get work all the time you know. Another Queensland participant recounted how he had declined a promotion because in his new role he would have had to support a government policy of restricting access to alcohol in certain Aboriginal communities: I tossed up in the air, because I got tapped on the shoulder for a director’s job over at [name of department] and I had a look at the politics and I thought, no, I am not going over there, not for any kind of money … I am not going to be responsible for what

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the minister is going to say, you [the Aboriginal community] must do. I am not going to say you have got to now stop drinking because we decided it is no good for you. What do you want me to be? A missionary? In some cases interviewees judged that senior Indigenous public servants had not been able to find a way of managing the tensions and conflicts they face, at considerable personal cost. One, speaking of a senior officer who had left the Queensland public service: He had had enough. I saw him on the day he left … I look at him and think well you remember you got that job … we thought you were going to do wonderful, marvellous things, but you didn’t because you couldn’t. You weren’t allowed to. You were actually hobbled, emasculated and … made to toe a particular line and obviously he chose to do that. It is really about people’s choice about how they operate within the system. For some participants in both jurisdictions the challenge of “walking in two worlds” weighed heavily. They felt they might have to leave their position because of value conflicts at any time. For others, while they certainly felt conflicted at times, their commitment to playing a positive in the public service was sufficiently powerful to consistently win out: In terv i e we r : Have there been times when it has got to the point where you really wondered whether you could continue in the public service? In terv i e we e : No, it has never got to that … I’m still here and I’ve made the right decision … because if it’s not me, who’s it going to be? … You know I am happy, the public service is where I want to be and I’m hopeful that we can effect change but there’s still some big work to do. The need to stay involved in the public service in order to effect change was a strong influence in both jurisdictions: My only thing that continues to drive me and I was very lucky to have the mother that I did, she [taught me] … that you had better be at the table or try and have the ability to change and alter

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and provide influence to decisions, than not. So that is probably the biggest thing that drives me and continues to bring me back and keeps me in the [public service] … for me as an Aboriginal person, I have always got to turn up at the table. I mean not just turn up and be present, I mean be actively involved in trying to assist change. I am at the table, I can hack it, I have been given a seat and it is really, really, bloody tough, particularly at higher levels, so I have actually come to terms. It is a bit of an obligation, if I can handle it in those spaces, then I can bring my voice and be an Aboriginal person in those conversations and those levels … I think I have an obligation to do it now. What exactly are the sources of tension and conflict faced by Indigenous public servants? Dealing with racism, and the pressure to act as community representatives, both discussed in detail above, were raised by many participants. The historical role of the state, and what some interviewees see as its contemporary role in controlling and repressing Indigenous people, are also major issues. In relation to the latter, one interviewee saw the repressive role as deeply embedded in contemporary state institutions, which have their basis: in protectorates and in the ways in which we develop into Department of Interiors, Native Affairs, all those sorts of things during the colonial [era]. That history, it sticks into the sorts of mindsets and how we create the administrative response, the sorts of issues that we have been engaging with over the last ­century and … agencies themselves are really not prepared to have a go at … reform … in really taking a look at actually how we understand what it is we are really doing and particularly the sorts of ideas, assumptions, or preconceptions that these institutions carry. It is their own cultural baggage which they are all trying to protect and they do that all the time and you know, we have as that phrase, ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’ … I found working in government … we only change how we do things, not what we are doing and we just keep repeating those same sorts of outcomes. However this individual also described how he continued to work in government, at times being openly critical of the institutions that

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employed him, at times undermining their agenda by passive or active resistance. His response resonates with the B C interviewee who described: “I have been challenged by my employer on several occasions on who I am working for or what hat I am wearing when I made that recommendation or when I made that decision or when I made that comment.” For some interviewees, tensions arose from different ways of communicating, working, and relating to each other. A B C participant expressed this point in broad terms: “Because the whole dynamics of working within government is so different than the way we’ve been brought up. It’s very hard to fit in and those are hard barriers to overcome.” A Queensland interviewee said: It is difficult being in the position I am in too, because I am in a hierarchy, but about 50 per cent of my staff are Aboriginal and all of them working on Aboriginal projects. So I try and operate more in an Aboriginal way with them and then try and work in a non-Aboriginal way with those that are out there. That kind of puts me in a kind of difficult position at times, to get things together I suppose. People above me don’t understand what is going on. One Aboriginal manager related how she had set aside an office wall where staff could indicate what mattered to them most, by placing there items like photos of children. Every time people walked into the office they saw the wall, helping to create a sense of relationship and community. However when a new non-Indigenous senior manager was appointed, they insisted on enforcing a rule dictating that personal items should not be displayed in government offices: As a manager I had to enforce [this decision], but I didn’t want to. I had to rip down the wall and I cried because it is like I am ripping away my heart here, I am ripping away the foundations that we all come together every day to build, because we are building a little community … that is when a lot of people just became very negative within the environment as well. You saw a shift in people’s attitudes when that happened. Differences in cultural styles and ways of engaging with knowledge and with other people can also cause problems. One interviewee illustrated this issue in discussing an Aboriginal colleague:

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He [has] more cultural knowledge, he knows more, he has got this amazing academic grounding [more] than I will ever [have], he has got more education than I do, Western and cultural. He is amazing, but nobody in the organisation can engage with his pace which is very slow, where he explains things. He needs to have very deep connections and understanding and needs to kind of talk it out and I just constantly get told about the annoyance that [non-Indigenous] people experience with his pace, because it is not a fast pace. In contrast, this person felt that Indigenous public servants who display qualities regarded as culturally attractive or appropriate by non-Indigenous people can have more influence: “White people like bubbly people, like you know you see them with kids, white people like bubbly kids, [not so much] that little sensitive child or that quiet child … shyness is taken as surly or that introversion is seen as surly.” For some participants another source of tension involves what is perceived as a culture of blame and criticism in the public service. As noted in chapter 5, interviewees identified a willingness to accept the essential humanity of leaders, and therefore the inevitability of mistakes, as characteristic of Indigenous approaches to leadership. A BC participant made a related point in contrasting their experience of community and of government: never once [in government] have I seen a positive report come out saying oh wow look at what they did right. In community in an Aboriginal leadership role we will have [an] Elder stand up and say: ‘I’m very happy that you did this … I’m very impressed that you guys built the church and had our Elders built it with the youth because it helped us share stories.’ Never once in government do you hear some report that comes out that’s opposite [to] scathing and it says ‘you guys did an amazing job in this ­particular area. You guys should be commended for it’ … Instead in a community you would see more of a balance of positive/­ negative; people would be looking to affirm as well as criticize or critique. A number of interviewees raised the inability to oppose, or openly oppose, government policies with which they disagree, including in the example of the alcohol management policy mentioned above. One B C interviewee said: “Here what I’ve noticed is if I have an opinion

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I go see three people to make sure I’m allowed to say something, and I have to make sure that it’s said in a manner that’s appropriate for somebody else, right. That to me is probably in recent months … the most difficult thing to deal with, because I’m used to expressing my opinion.” Another B C participant offered a revealing and poignant account of one Indigenous colleague’s changed behaviour when dealing with those in positions of authority in government: I had an A DM [assistant deputy minister] before who really did his job well, I learned a lot from him on how to be respectful to others, to deliver a harsh message … while maintaining your own integrity … But I’ve seen him in meetings with ministers and it’s like, where’s my boss, he just disappeared, he’s suddenly sitting there, he’s like, ‘Yes minister, yes minister,’ and his whole body language is trying to make himself smaller, because he was a tall man. He’s just agreeing with everything, and then afterwards I see him in the bathroom, and [I think] ‘Jesus Christ, what’s wrong with that person.’ He was just losing it, I’m like, you seem very upset with how that went? Why didn’t you say anything? Why are you saying something to me now in the bathroom? I felt very uncomfortable. Child protection policy was a specific area that arose in both jurisdictions when people discussed difficulty in speaking out. A number of participants were concerned that government policy failed to attach priority to keeping children with their immediate or extended families, and was too inclined to see child removal as a first or “default” position, rather than as a last resort. The inability to speak out in this sort of situation was frequently mentioned: Part of my personal struggle has been to sit in a room … if you want a career in public service, sometimes you’ve got to shut up, so I often sit in a room and I often have a real reaction in my head … [to a policy the interviewee opposes] … To have a seat at the table at all, being Aboriginal, I’ve just got to wear the government hat sometimes … I watched a whole lot of people either get dismissed or moved along or put in a corner and that’s a terrible thing … I’ve got to feed my family, I’ve got to pay my bills, I’ve got to balance where I am going to be able to have an impact with all of those things and not get a bad reputation.

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This interviewee provided an insight into the decisions and calculations that are involved for Indigenous public servants in choosing how strongly to oppose proposals or policies they may disagree with: “At the end of my career am I going to be sorry sometimes that I didn’t fight harder? Maybe. What’s that going to do to me when I’m sixty-five and have got nothing to do and I have to think about [it]?” Some participants expressed the dilemma more starkly, simply indicating that they had no choice but to refrain from critical comment: “I didn’t leave any of the roles because I couldn’t financially afford to … Yes, I definitely would have stuck up for Indigenous rights a lot more but you can’t, because there is no room, there is no room for it.” We should note, though, that this perspective was far from universal. A number of interviewees indicated that they could, and did, express criticism as an integral part of their roles. While noting that “some people won’t appreciate you being straightforward and frank, and they will step in your way of rising the ranks,” a BC participant said: “That’s one of the things I’ve never hid what I’m thinking … Because I’m always talking and saying what I think, and be kind for the most part, but I’m not going to hold myself back.” Similarly, a Queensland interviewee noted: I bring my pretty genuine self to work and I have managed to always be genuine to my values. There are times when you have to pick your battles, but I don’t feel like I have never been able to have my say. I put myself out there and say the hard things and draw the hard things to people’s attention, because I had no fear. This interviewee stressed at the same time that their position was permanent, and noted that it was much harder for the many Indigenous people in temporary or contract roles to adopt this approach. A number of respondents felt that the pressure to conform to, and not oppose, government policy grew much greater as one progressed through the ranks – an especially significant issue from the perspective of Indigenous leadership. One Queensland interviewee, referring to their experience in senior management roles, recounted: You really can’t do anything in those positions because you have to, if you want to stay in those positions, tow the line, the political you know, meet the needs of the government of the day …

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[referring to civil disturbances in a rural town] race riots and all hushed up of course. Not allowed to talk about that. Interviewees also raised the problems they can confront in their relations with their own communities, especially when government policies are unpopular or where outcomes are slow to eventuate, and the “balancing act” Indigenous public servants must try and perform in mediating between community and government. One Queensland interviewee said: That happens pretty much on a daily basis. Yes, that is tough. You walk that road every day and I think people like me, we have found a way to walk it, you know, zigzag that road. Every so often you come unstuck and you get beaten up by the community because you have gone too far to the public service side and made decisions based on that criteria, not on community criteria and so you have got to be very, very careful. Similarly a B C participant noted that: A significant barrier to leadership is getting Aboriginal people to be engaged in the [government] process. It’s a big problem how decisions are arrived at. Including the Aboriginal voice and perspective is a significant barrier. We’re often forced to come up with things by me as a person and not us inclusively. Resourcing is also low. We don’t get participation in the process as a result as well. Legislation is developed confidentially … it’s closed off … You have to accept these limitations in the system but be as inclusive as you can be. Interviewees in both jurisdictions stressed the importance in dealing with these situations of being open with their communities and honest about what they can and cannot hope to achieve: there is a lot of trust that is gained in open conversations and as much as I can share [with the community] I will and they acknowledge that … [I] try to advise there are things that we can get done and we will be really happy with and there are things we might not be able to move [because] … we are talking about government as a whole.

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I think that’s the key. I think it is possible to be able to do that [public service] role effectively, but … you have to be very open with yourself and community about yourself and where you stand … what I do is try to say ‘what is realistic’? what tools, what supports can be realistically do in this environment? … I don’t want to be that kind of flashy person … be realistic and consistent … I would not want to be leading people to a dry well. A further source of tension for many of our participants involves the inherent constraints of working in a complex bureaucracy with slow and opaque decision-making structures, making it difficult to pursue initiatives that could improve Indigenous lives. One Queensland participant provided the following example, involving funding of an initiative: We were originally going to Cabinet and they said ‘No, no, do it as a mid-year budget,’ so right, we did it as a mid-year budget. ‘No, no, we are not going to do that now. Go back, do it to Cabinet.’ Alright, so do it. ‘No, no, stop. Do it as a CBRC [Cabinet Budget Review Committee] submission.’ Alright, we do it as a C B R C submission. We actually had finalised the CBRC submission, got Treasury, Premier and Cabinet briefed and [got their] support, everybody agreed, everybody supported it, it was a joint submission with [Indigenous Affairs Department], got it through the DGs [directors general], it was going to the Ministers and then we get a thing from treasury, ‘No, no, don’t do it as a CBRC, do it as a budget bid.’ Something that could have been done and approved eight months ago, is still going through the system. B C participants spoke in similar terms: That’s one of the biggest things I had to learn entering into the public service. I was like, all right, let’s get things done. It’s like, what do you mean, I have to go through 8000 steps just to get a meeting with somebody to do that? What? It didn’t make any sense to me at all. If you were to come from even say the First Nations health authority, to come and work for the Ministry of Health, you’ll go nuts real fast, because there’s – your way of getting things done,

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very different than how we do things. We often have frustration with our colleagues there, who think we’re dragging our heels when in fact it just how long it takes … so many approvals, and then so much bureaucracy, and then what’s considered a value versus other things. Multiple layers of authority within hierarchical organizations were mentioned as a specific problem. A B C interviewee said: “leaders at the top aren’t approachable. You can’t even get in there to – you’ve got to call someone to try and set up a meeting and then it might take you a month before you can get in their calendar. Who’s going to wait?” One person who had recently returned to government after a spell managing an Indigenous community organization expressed their frustration in this way: The problem in government is that none of us are ever at levels where you can make things happen. You are always positioned at levels where you can propose things or you can say this is what should be done or this is how things should be handled, but there are so many layers above you … it is only when you get to the levels where you can actually influence true decision-making, that you can actually show true leadership. The reality is your leadership at the lower levels, is more just around persistence, in terms of trying to push the cause. This interviewee linked the inability to effect change to declining levels of Indigenous employment in the Queensland and Australian public services: The number of … Indigenous people leaving the Australian Public Service is increasing and I think the Queensland Government has got the same sort of issue with regards to retention, because again, people get in, they have expectations that they want to be able to make change or help their community and then they get frustrated that all they are dealing with is bureaucracy and idiocy. A B C interviewee also stressed the need to reach senior levels before it is possible to have an impact:

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You get some good wins, but it really is pushed at a higher level. You have to get leadership at the top to buy into your vision and if they don’t buy in you’re not going anywhere, you’re spinning your wheels. Because you can talk to people and they can all just sit there and agree with you and [say] ‘I think that’s a great’ idea but walk away and go, ‘I’m not doing that.’ Another participant, recruited to a senior managerial role with a brief to initiate major organizational change, was frustrated by another senior manager’s insistence on complying with formal communication protocols: “A certain individual will pull rank and go, ‘No you’ve got to go through me, there’s a protocol of communication and hierarchy, you’re undermining me, you can’t talk to my staff, my staff can’t talk to you.’ And so it’s very difficult.” In concluding this section we should emphasize that Indigenous public servants are far from powerless or without resources in dealing with state processes or policies that are in conflict with their values. We return to this point in chapter 7 in discussing the impact of Indigenous public servants more broadly, but here provide two interview extracts which illustrate it, in very different ways. In the first, from Queensland, a respondent talks, with a degree of irony and humour, about how they address inappropriate proposals from nonIndigenous superiors: it is about knowing the game, knowing when to talk, when to not talk and how to put a positive spin on something that you totally know is going to fail. So a leader comes to you and says, ‘We are all going to paint our faces yellow and we are going to be great to go to Aboriginal communities.’ Well you know that is not going to work. So you have got to say to him, ‘Well yellow is a great colour, I don’t know whether the face is the right place, but if we were all to be issued with an Aboriginal flag that we could show as we walk into a community, people would recognise us as being on their side.’ So maybe we can take that concept of yellow and turn it into something. So it is about being able to take something that is clearly not going to work and … being able to turn that around and saying, ‘I hear what you are saying director-general, but this is another option that might be available to you.’ Now unless you know how to do that, your first

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tendency is to say: ‘Well that won’t work.’ [And the response will be]: ‘Well you can leave now, [interviewee’s name].’ The second extract, from B C , puts the challenges that Indigenous public servants face in a broader and historical context: I feel like I’m part of a team, part of a movement. Being an Aboriginal person, too, I very much feel we’ve got a distinct team and I belong to something, to a greater cause. And I don’t know many of my contemporaries who aren’t or who don’t feel the same connection. I think there have been so many efforts to marginalize us or to oppress. You know, we’re living the after-effects of colonization all the time. There have been so many people who have been before me who have led the charge, like the Ed Johns or the George Manuels or even Crazy Horse if you go back far enough … they were fighting against oppression and devastation to their ways of life. So I feel part of that connection and I think that that’s really what, on my bad days, it helps [because] the weight of the bureaucracy that’s trying to oppress you can be really heavy sometimes. A final resource that emerges from many of the interviews is the power of persistence. In the words of the interviewee who provided the example of the constantly changing instructions on how to advance a budget bid: You have got to have persistence, because I keep saying to people, I don’t care, you can rewrite it and do whatever you want, as long as this budget bid goes up, as long as we get the money, because at the end of the day, I want to see the outcome for the community and the people who are affected … I guess from my personal perspective, that is why I am hanging around at the moment. I want to see that get over the line.

O b s tac l e s f ro m In d igenous Soci ety The history of Indigenous-state relations, the “burden of history,” can make a commitment to public service problematic. As one Queensland interviewee expressed it, “People don’t want to go and work for government. You do really have to sell it, that you know, they are the

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people who took kids away and you know, kept our wage and whatever it is, like there is all of that stuff as well.” There is also the personal risk that working for government will result in being seen as a “sell out” and alienation from family and kin. According to one participant, “you get family taking the piss all the time, calling you a white bureaucrat, sorry for that wording, but … yes, it is difficult.” Another expressed their sorrow at hearing community members make disparaging comments about a senior Indigenous bureaucrat: “I will hear people say just disparaging things, ‘He didn’t do anything, he was a gatekeeper.’ Whereas I know he also did some really fantastic stuff in the education space for example.” A third expressed their sorrow at finding “that an elder I really respected thought that I was turning my back on my mob and being a coconut” [black on the outside, white on the inside]. Senior public servants can also be seen as “selling out” by their junior Aboriginal staff. One Queensland interviewee described their experience in this way: The higher up the ranks I have gone, sometimes with Aboriginal staff I have felt tagged as a bit of a sell out to the people and felt that my Aboriginality has been compromised, as there has been the expectation from the Aboriginal staff that I am not doing enough for them or for the community, that I am becoming more like the system … I feel a bit ostracised by it, you know, staff at the lower levels that you have come up through the ranks with. A recurring theme among interviewees, including some who expressed no conflict of values in their role as public servants, is the loss of contact and engagement with community, and the loss of capacity to deliver tangible benefits to community, as one becomes more senior in the public service. We provide a number of examples below from both jurisdictions to illustrate the prevalence of this perception, given that it has significant implications in terms of Indigenous peoples’ willingness to strive to attain senior leadership roles in the public service: Aboriginal people join the public service to make a difference and to work with a community and as you go higher, you just don’t get any contact … I would much rather be out there you know, talking with community and … working on some project.

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[As you move into senior positions] It is very much meetings, you sitting in a room, you having those sort of high level discussions … it is a lot more paper and policy, yes, than community contact. You get emasculated and you get tied up and you really can’t do anything. You really can’t do anything in those [senior] positions because you have to, if you want to stay in those positions, you have to toe the line, the political you know, meet the needs of the government of the day and whereas if you work below the line, you know you can actually do lots of things. I can still [in current role] influence … what needs to be done, rather than being in a higher position where I see the work might be more administrative and rather than getting some changes and actions … There is the view that if you are working higher, that you lose that connection with people, with our mob. That is why we stay in these [less senior] jobs … because this is where I believe I should be, because this is where I can operate and that is with a lot of us. We don’t take the higher jobs … because we know it is a false job, it’s not something that can be delivered, it is something that can be controlled. So a lot of us don’t want to step up to be controlled … That is why I prefer it here, because I am in a working mode. There’s the on the ground stuff. This is what is important, this is what matters. Another interviewee, indicating their ambition to work for a nongovernment organization at some point, said: completely changing and doing that frontline engaging again, because that is one thing I did like, is actually going out and sitting with community, hearing their issues and then working through how do we help them. Yes and actually getting back to them [i.e., community members] and saying this is what we have done or let’s go and sit down and fill out a blue card together or whatever it is. [It is] hard telling the bureaucracy why that is important to do. A belief in communities that the power and responsibilities of Indigenous public servants are much greater than they actually are

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can be a source of pressure. As one interviewee noted, “I am pretty sure community don’t know what I do on a day-to-day basis you know, so I think there is that sort of mystery.” Canadian participants expressed that when they engage with Aboriginal communities they were seen to be representing government, and in some cases all of government, which could lead to discussion outside of their actual professional role, knowledge or influence. A Queensland interviewee noted that: I may not have been the person that went and picked up the child and took them away, [but] you still work for government … so and so got evicted at Housing [and people will say to me] ‘I know you work in government’ (even though I [am] in Natural Resources and Mines), ‘you will know where, go and sort it out, or can you find out what is going on there.’ Or ‘The police came and raided this house, Aunty so and so’s house and it was very disrespectful … who can we talk to about that’ … So you are expected to know, because you are government. More broadly, community members may expect that Indigenous public servants also have the capacity to bring about major change of the sort they seek: I think there is an appetite for change [in communities]. People want change and I think that they think well, get out there and change it. But you are just one part of a bigger beat, you know, when you are talking government agencies … I think people want fundamentally to believe that we have a right to voice [the] concern of our … Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Another source of tension involves challenges from a community or community members to the Indigenous “authenticity” or standing of public servants. One Queensland public servant recounted this experience: On occasions I have been back [to their homeland] and I have attended public meetings … one meeting I got told … ‘In our community you are still a small boy and you are jolly come lately.’ So you know there is sorts of things that you have to put up with from your own community … it is just like going back

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to [home community] and people don’t recognise you there. You can tell them all your linkages [but if] they think you get too big for your boots, you get smacked down rather quickly. Some participants’ standing, particularly in British Columbia, was also questioned with respect to the authenticity of their Indigeneity. Several participants who were raised off-reserve or with Western families responded in different ways to questions posed in the interviews vis-à-vis participants raised on-reserve or in close connection with traditional teachings and culture. The former were appreciative of the welcoming outreach they received from First Peoples’ communities and the connections they had been able to achieve, but also sometimes bemoaned the grief they sometimes felt at “not being Indian enough” or “not being black enough.” One Queensland participant, who was adopted into a Western family, raised the same dilemma: “I know I am Indigenous, I have got proof that I am Indigenous, but I feel like I am an interloper because this isn’t my community … I’m not living in community as all the others are.” This experience of being raised in non-Indigenous families, while simultaneously being Indigenous, gave these participants what they felt were unique perspectives and bridging roles. As one participant expressed it: “I sort of sit outside but sort of inside.” This can come at a price, however, in that these participants also feel challenged by the need to justify their Indigeneity. It seemed difficult for them to achieve acceptance and a secure identity in both Indigenous and nonIndigenous communities, often feeling neither black enough nor white enough to fit in and contribute without being questioned.

C o n c l u s ion Indigenous public servants experience numerous challenges that are not faced, or not faced to anything like the same degree, by their nonIndigenous colleagues. In some cases they face open racism, and in many more they experience “everyday racism” including the general discounting of Indigenous knowledge and skills, the assumption that non-­ Indigenous people can replicate any skills Indigenous public servants do have, and that the latter have nothing to offer outside of Indigenous policy portfolios. Experience and capacity displayed by Indigenous employees, such as networking, are ignored or viewed with suspicion, whereas the same skills exercised by non-Indigenous staff are praised

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and valued. The failure of many non-Indigenous public servants to recognize that systemic racism exists makes it much more difficult for Indigenous people to challenge “everyday racism” and, where they do so, can lead to them being branded as “troublemakers.” A very large proportion of our interviewees spoke about the “challenge of representation.” They are expected by their colleagues and their employers to be able to provide an “Indigenous perspective” on, and “Indigenous input into,” policy discussion and decisions. At the same time their own communities often fail to understand the specific nature of the roles Indigenous public servants play, and expect them to be able to help resolve any issues that arise with government. Despite these difficulties interviewees welcome the opportunity to help ensure that Indigenous interests are articulated, and to provide a bridge between Indigenous peoples and government, a point that also emerges strongly in chapter 7 when we discuss the impact of our participants on policy processes and outcomes. Three other factors constitute significant challenges for Indigenous public servants. The first is that they are so few in number, especially at senior levels. This exacerbates the pressure to take on “representative” roles, and also means that seeking to influence policy and service delivery in ways favourable to Indigenous people is often a lonely and frustrating exercise. The second is the general lack of value governments attach to Indigenous culture and society, and the associated failure to seek substantial input from Indigenous peoples and communities when developing policies that affect them. Finally, some participants face challenges to their Indigenous identity that cause personal distress and can undermine their capacity to contribute as public servants.

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7 Indigenous Participation and Leadership Facilitators and Impact

In t ro du c t i on In this chapter we present interviewees’ understandings of the factors that facilitate Indigenous participation and the development and exercise of Indigenous leadership in the Queensland and BC public services. We also report their views on what changes are required in government policy and practice, and on the part of non-Indigenous public servants, if greater scope and influence is to be achieved for Indigenous leadership. Finally, we summarize our interviewees’ assessment of the impact they themselves, and Indigenous leadership generally, have on policy development, implementation, and outcomes in B C and Queensland.

F ac il itato rs o f In d ig e nous Leadershi p Mentors and Role Models Many interviewees across Canada and Australia mentioned the importance in their careers of mentorship, formal and informal, from Indigenous and non-Indigenous colleagues: I was quite lucky in the police, I was taken under a wing of senior police officers in different districts, under the radar … not that they publically acknowledge that, so I was quite lucky that I learned quite a lot. I’ve been really lucky all the way through that I’ve had … champions … that have provided safe haven and opportunity for me

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to ask questions and to learn and develop … But I think we’ve got to be real. So you’ve got to assess each individual. It can’t be a group thing, it’s got to be an opportunity, it’s got to be individualised. I worked with a particular person out there and even though he was my contact [in a community], he was also my mentor … it wasn’t anything formal, but it was something, as an older Aboriginal man, a role that he took on for me; we never called it mentoring or anything like that. I have had great leadership [in the public service], who I have always found to have been very understanding of … community needs and have really embraced me and my different ways of thinking and working, so I guess that maybe I am just very lucky in that. A Queensland interviewee spoke in detail about the importance of mentors at different points in their career: Two people in particular. One was a male, he was my boss, he was the manager … a non-Aboriginal fella. And also another regional director I had, a white lady. Just amazing stuff in terms of keeping my confidence up, working around that confidence, that self doubt that you have … Just kept chanting, ‘Women can do this, and I support you to do this.’ Just being incredibly supportive … I’ve always struggled with that confidence stuff, and both of them in their different ways helped me along with that. Always made time, no time was ever a bad time, dropped in and had a listen. They were really good and then the other people around me, the Aboriginal leaders around me … Just having people that promote you in a way, it’s not giving you a big head but along the way they’re giving you a hand up and supporting you, even when you make mistake. An interviewee who experienced domestic violence spoke of the critical importance of having support in this context: I felt that, enough safety and enough cultural safety to share that with … my boss, a non-Indigenous woman, and got an incredible amount of support. I didn’t feel judged and my partner and I got

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all the support we needed to move forward and come out of those dark days. To be able to work through those things that aren’t work related but have the potential to impact on your work. And I think they were what makes a great leader, that I could share that and not get a response where I felt judged. And if anything I was helped up and continued to be helped up. Other interviewees mentioned the challenges of working with nonIndigenous mentors or potential mentors, specifically raising the motivation and attitudes of some of them: You need to get the right white people and you may need to train them a little bit first and they don’t like that either, so really nice that they have been doing it [mentoring] for years, but they are doing it for paternalistic kind of reasons … You sort of say, ‘Oh well, actually can we just change the way you say that’ … and then they get upset and don’t want to be your champion anymore. I have been mentored by incredible people, men and women, and they really understand, you know they understand strategy and … the textbook capabilities that you might find in … the Capability Leadership Framework. There are a lot of people who are switched on in that. What I would probably say is, how well do these people stop and consider things through an Aboriginal lens, but the things that we are deciding and implementing at these levels, are we really pausing to think? Mentoring and support can take many different forms. One interviewee spoke of how a non-Indigenous senior executive ensured that her voice was heard, in a management group that was almost entirely non-Indigenous: [Name of senior manager] gives me space in meetings. So we will go up there, government hierarchy, and talk about Indigenous issues. I might go up with a couple of others who are above me and when we start to talk about it, [name of manager] will go, ‘So [name of interviewee], what do you think?’ and would just sort of let me explain what is going on. And then other people might give their opinions and [then] say, ‘Oh [name of

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interviewee], what do you think of that? Which way do you think we should go?’ So that is good. You need people to be able to do that for you. One Canadian interviewee stressed the need to cast the net widely but selectively: Search out the brightest opinions and minds. Make strategic alliances and partnerships with non-Aboriginal peoples. I speak with various good people in the ministry who are strong practitioners. There are some very talented ones and I very much consult with them as well. From another perspective, a senior executive in Queensland spoke about his role as an unofficial mentor: “The other [goal] is to teach them the game. You know it is, it’s a game. It is a highly charged, political game that is fought in the hallways of every agency and it is about knowing the game.” Collegiality between Indigenous public servants is an important source of learning and support. A BC participant noted that “Having other Indigenous people to talk to is really important. Talking about their strategies and how did they deal with that? More for the emotional and social kind of things.” Another talked of how: Even when things get really ugly and we feel like our spirits are being broken, when the Aboriginal staff get together, we can make each other laugh, and we keep each other sane, and we take that then with us into our teams, and we provide that – I call it a dark humour, but it’s just realistic. A Queensland interviewee noted how: [Name of colleague] and I have stuck together in the sense that we speak a lot about what we are doing with our pieces of work and I will let him know what other teams are doing and vice versa, so where we can informally do that, because there is no formal structure where that can happen. Other interviewees stressed the importance of having Indigenous people in senior positions who can serve as role models:

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It helps when you have got people of colour in positions, you know SE S positions, you actually model another way for people. A lot of Indigenous colleagues that work in government in senior positions that I speak to about challenges that I have encountered … advise – different advice in different situations, but they have been a big influence on what I have learned and how I have managed and negotiated my way through government, through work. Being able to talk with them [senior Aboriginal colleagues] in confidence and bounce ideas off, they’ve just been really great as well because I’ve seen them go up the ladder so to speak, so watching them and getting mentored off them and just keeping those networks alive. You know if you don’t have anyone [Indigenous] up there, then you are totally suppressed all the way down to the bottom level. I think having someone who you can connect with at the higher level and I don’t necessarily mean that you are mentored by them or anyone, but somebody you think to yourself, I would really like to be like them. I think that that is always a good driver. Having Indigenous people in senior positions can also provide protection and reassurance for more junior staff, as one interviewee indicated when they spoke of their staff’s reaction to a proposed departure: I was offered, or asked if I wanted a [redundancy] package … It looked really tempting, but some of my staff came to me and said, ‘[Name of interviewee] please, please don’t take the package. Please don’t take it, you know, because we can’t stay here if you are not here, because we need someone in between us and them.’ Non-Indigenous Allies A number of interviewees noted the significant role of non-Indigenous allies and mentors who provided inspiration as well as practical advocacy and support to Indigenous public servants in their careers

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and advancement as well as in policy areas supporting Indigenous peoples. According to one Canadian participant: The collaborators, he’s one. I find them. I find collaborators wherever I’m working and whoever I’m dealing with. Who are the movers and shakers and who’s going to get the job done? Who can I work with and what can I work with. I work with the people, not the position. Another said: “You also cope by having good, strong mentors. People you can go to when you’re having a stressful time and who are allies. They don’t have to be Aboriginal. They can be non-Aboriginal allies.” One Queensland participant phrased the collaboration with nonIndigenous people – whose names have been removed to ensure anonymity – in this way: “With [X] and [Y], I don’t say it lightly that they’re part of my mob, that they’re part of my family, because my mother raised me to see elders isn’t defined by race, it’s defined by your being.” A “Critical Mass” of Indigenous Employees A number of interviewees raised the importance of having a “critical mass” of Indigenous people employed in an agency in order to create a work context in which Indigenous employees feel comfortable and culturally safe and receive support in dealing with what can seem an alien bureaucracy. A Queensland manager in a unit with a high proportion of Aboriginal staff commented: “Sometimes things will happen and my staff will say to me, ‘I don’t understand how they made that decision or why it’s like that.’ And then it’s about explaining [to them] how the decisions were made.” Another interviewee employed in a similar context described their work environment in this way: So when you first get in, the first five minutes will be chatting about family … what is happening, you know and then through the day, there will be different sorts of connections I guess … and joking, you know a lot of laughter and joking and poking fun at each other. It’s just a different environment to work in … like you know we all sort of bounce off each other and we expect to behave like that. Whereas with non-Indigenous, if I come out and behave like that, they might think oh, inappropriate or you

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know, she spends too much time talking about her family or too much time talking about [her home], so it’s not something that is seen as appropriate in the workplace. A B C participant spoke in similar terms: There is a certain sense of humour. There is just a certain way of being or a different way of approaching things or even following different protocols that are interwoven in my values that are part of who I am and I won’t deny them and I don’t feel that I should separate them out. One interviewee recalled how “success bred success” in Indigenous recruitment and retention in the successful Indigenous housing program discussed earlier in chapter 6: The general manager was Indigenous, operational manager was Indigenous … the managers at the local levels, the majority of those [were Indigenous]. The construction crew, yes, one, two, three Indigenous foremen. All the apprentices were Indigenous and the majority of the tradies were Indigenous. Even in the design unit we ended up with one Indigenous architect and two Indigenous staff doing drafting. We had Indigenous people coming through doing their architect degrees and their drafting qualifications … the more success you have, the more Indigenous people … want to come and work with you … so we never had any problems in the housing side of things when we needed to attract staff. Mobility and Experience across a Range of Work Areas Many interviewees stressed the importance of lateral movement across agencies and a variety of work experiences as important in opening up career opportunities. Its importance is certainly confirmed by the work profiles of interviewees in senior executive roles, with virtually all of them having worked in multiple agencies, often across different jurisdictions and levels of government. One Queensland interviewee, a deputy departmental head, said: This [current role] is about my twenty-eighth move in government … that’s hard work, that’s moving, that’s taking sideways

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opportunities, not just up, because I think people need to understand that in their career, it’s not always up, you’ve got to go sideways. The moving is very strategic … you’ve got to go to where the opportunity is … It’s not about the money, it’s about being able to have a seat at the table and being well informed. Other interviewees expressed similar views: I took a lot of sideways moves, so I think that sort of broadening experience is a key thing. You need to have a knowledge of the program and policies of other agencies. You need to have a significant public service network, so that you can call in favours or information, mainly because of who you know and you are not getting lost in the hallways of the public service. So what we need to do with our young Aboriginal leaders, is to say, ‘Where are the positions being offered? Don’t go looking for a role in Training, when it is the third smallest agency, when Health’s the largest… Go away, learn about other policies, learn about other agencies … Get your professional network set up and then come back.’ “Identified” Positions: A Complex Issue “Identified” positions refer to public service roles for which only Indigenous people can apply. Interviewees expressed different views regarding the desirability of such positions. On the one hand they can guarantee a minimum level of Indigenous employment and more specifically can be used to ensure that Indigenous people are placed in senior positions. On the other hand they can result in, or support, perceptions among non-Indigenous public servants that Indigenous people lack the skills and capacity to win positions on merit (see the earlier discussion of “everyday racism”). They can also mean that roles held by Indigenous people are rated at a lower level than “nonidentified” or “mainstream” roles that involve exactly the same work. One interviewee spoke of their experience in an identified role: It was a soft entry point for the people that were a bit nervous about [the public service] or unsure. It was a soft way to come in and to be looked after and then you know, to work out where you wanted to go … it’s a double-edged sword that one …

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[When I held an identified position] I was sick of the stigma. So I had heard people saying, ‘Oh well, the only reason she got there is because … it was an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander intake’ … I’ve got no problem being judged, but I want to be judged [on the basis of] skills and abilities. Another participant would prefer to be able to dispense with identified roles, but felt it would be premature to do so in current circumstances: In tervi e we r : So do you think that identified positions are a bad idea? Should the government get rid of them and just try and focus on building [Indigenous] peoples’ capacity to win in what would effectively be mainstream jobs? In tervi e we e : I think absolutely, but we are not ready yet to get rid of them. We [the public service] are not grown up enough to get that … I think it [identified positions] still has a place unfortunately … to get rid of it, because to me I think it is limiting as well. This view was shared by other interviewees, who would much prefer not to have identified roles, but do not think the public service is currently capable of treating Indigenous candidates on their merits, especially for senior roles. In a perfect situation, one commented, “We don’t need identified roles, we are all culturally capable enough to employ Aboriginal and Torres Strait people in senior executive positions and provide them opportunities, because they are good enough.” Other interviewee expressed unambiguous opposition to identified positions, arguing they mark Indigenous public servants as inferior and make it almost impossible for them to subsequently move to mainstream roles: “Those people who come in under those schemes get treated like second class public servants anyway, you know, so you don’t want to mar the future of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people coming in under schemes like that.” One interviewee who had always previously worked in mainstream roles expressed concern about the implication of accepting an identified role: I fear that I will be tarred with the brush. If somebody applies for a job and they come from [the Indigenous Affairs Department],

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like you can basically hear the eyes rolling. It is that strong across government. It has come out of identified positions. You know, that is a big rug for you to shake off. From a broader perspective, using identified positions as an important part of Indigenous employment strategies can be seen as inherently limiting, because only a small number of positions tend to be identified: You know you create this kind of artifice with too many identified positions. We realised that our strategic measure was how many Aboriginal people in mainstream roles, because if you ever wanted to build the percentage, it had to be outside of ­identified jobs. A Safe Environment to Speak Out on Indigenous Policy As noted earlier, a number of interviewees recounted how they felt unable to frankly express, or felt they were actively discouraged from expressing, views on Indigenous policy issues. Others spoke about the way that doing so led to them being isolated or tagged as “troublesome.” From the perspective of these participants, creating a “safe” environment in which to canvas views on the often-contentious policy issues surrounding Indigenous peoples is important to facilitating their participation and career progression. Providing another perspective on this issue, a number of interviewees mentioned cases where, in their view, critical Aboriginal voices had been “bought off” through promotion to more senior roles in other agencies. One person, discussing a senior Aboriginal executive who had sought to make major changes in an agency: [name of executive] was trying to get like a committee formed from outside that would look at all of this stuff that we are doing and ask the questions about well, have you applied this, have you applied that? And I was going to chair that committee … so we could actually ask the right questions, but of course she got offered this other job … she was offered a better chance … [at a higher level in another department] just to get her out of the way.

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Wh at m u s t G ov e r n m e nt do to promote I n di g e n o u s pa rt ic ipat io n and leaders hi p? To some extent, the answer to this question involves government addressing, to the degree it can, barriers to Indigenous participation and advancement identified in chapter 6. However there are important questions about how government can do this, and also about whether there are positive initiatives that government can take, in addition to working to remove existing barriers. For these reasons, while recognizing that there would be some overlap between responses to various interview questions we asked participants in a separate section of the interview schedule to give us their insights into what government can do to promote participation and leadership by Indigenous people in public services. We begin with responses that deal with the overall approach of government to Indigenous peoples, issues, and public servants. We then turn to a number of specific suggestions regarding Indigenous recruitment and advancement. Racism For many respondents, the most fundamental change that is required is for government to recognize and seriously address the remnants of overt racism and widespread “everyday racism.” At the moment governments in both BC and Queensland are seen as failing to recognize the prevalence and impact of racism, and certainly discussion of it is noticeably absent from government reports or plans regarding Indigenous employment. Many of the specific initiatives discussed below have the potential to address racism, but are unlikely to prove effective unless they are accompanied by a concerted and explicit rejection of racist attitudes and practices at the most senior level of government. Encouraging Respect for Aboriginal Culture A number of interviewees stressed that a fundamental starting point is for government to demonstrate respect for Aboriginal culture, in both its everyday practice and its overall approach to policy development and implementation. In relation to the former, many interviewees recorded negative experiences that highlight a marked lack of respect for Indigenous culture and a lack of interest by non-Indigenous public

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servants in acquiring knowledge about it. One interviewee mentioned that in their department: “Within the executive, I think next to none had done the cultural capability training, but I thought it was mandatory … I was surprised to hear that at an executive level, nobody has done that and so for me I posed the question, ‘Well how serious are we?’” Another recounted how senior executives would not allow a young Aboriginal woman to perform a “welcome to country” at a large meeting of senior public servants in Brisbane, because they were not sufficiently informed of Aboriginal politics and protocols and feared they might cause offence to someone. “Yes, the people in the room are all white bureaucrats in senior executive roles, they don’t know the community politics or the Native Title issues around here … it is about valuing and culture and acknowledging it.” The same person commented in relation to the opening of a new government building: They had a smoking ceremony out the front, but nobody knew about it in the building, you know. I happened to know about it because my DG [director general] said ‘Are you going to that?’ and I said, ‘Didn’t even know about it.’ He said, ‘Come on then’ … Wouldn’t that have been nice to tell the whole building that the traditional owners have come to bless the building and officially open it? A third interviewee said “that would be the game changing piece, celebrating that we [Aboriginal Australians] have the oldest continuous living culture in the world … I don’t think we do enough about that.” One person contrasted the situation in Queensland with that in New Zealand: I think New Zealand is always different because there … is a treaty there, so there is a different level of respect to start with, whereas that is not here … we were always operating from a ­deficit model here and a negative model, rather than an equal footing model and whilst that might sound simplistic, that does actually influence the way relationships and the way business is done. Two Queensland participants drew a distinction between less and more substantive cultural engagement:

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We do work a lot on cultural capability and I do think that needs to be more widespread … [but] the Queensland government is doing okay [in this area] … But I think we need to move beyond the acknowledgment stage to the actual meaningful engagement, understanding, respect, sort of phase. There should be far more emphasis on cross-cultural awareness. I think that is more than just a training [session], one day. I think bureaucracies need to really instead of just doing the ‘Oh yes, welcome to country and we acknowledge blah, blah, blah,’ they really need to know who it is that they are acknowledging. A BC interviewee made a similar point, noting that Aboriginal people are encouraged: to have meetings and be inclusive and exercise traditional teachings but it’s with your own kind that you’re encouraged to do that. So ‘if you guys want to gather as leaders, then go and do it’ … but it’s an Aboriginal meeting. It’s not brought into the mainstream. We just don’t have that cultural competency. So there are … lots of people talking about it but don’t necessarily do it or don’t know how to do it … Aboriginal issues are higher on the agenda but the actual implementation falls short. Another BC participant explained how a mindset change is critical for how non-Indigenous public service leaders and processes if they are to recognize and build on the strengths and assets of Indigenous communities and wisdom: There are a lot of brushfires because the ministry has acted very colonial. They go in and they do almost like an Inquisition. They act like a parent. The ministry is blind to the need for the community to own the experience. Our job [as Aboriginal Cultural Change Managers] is to help them reverse that. That sees the community as a problem or having problems. That needs to be flipped. If the community is seen as one of possibilities or opportunities, then the community has resources to do it themselves. Our biggest work in cultural competency is that senior [nonIndigenous] leadership learn to reframe and see that First Peoples are not bankrupt; they have huge wisdom.

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One Queensland interviewee argued that public services ignore the potential role of Indigenous elders in building cross-cultural understanding. She suggested that there should be a recruitment drive for older Indigenous people, who hold an enormous amount of cultural knowledge, leading to appointment of “elders in residence” in departments and agencies. In her view many elders maintain a high level of engagement in community affairs, and would be willing to work as cultural advisers in return for modest remuneration that would not undermine their pension entitlements. A BC participant made a similar point, noting that while some people have been employed for their traditional approaches, “their talents are not utilized because the value of it is just not recognized.” At a broader level, one interviewee regretted that time is not available to engage with communities in a culturally respectful way: We don’t have that chance to go to community and build that relationship and that trust and so forth and say look, you know this is a really important piece of work. We need to know what you think. That whole process might take a year, just to establish that connection, so yes, timing is huge. Another related a story that provides a pointed illustration of this issue: One of the bureaucrats came in and offered a community organisation a particular proposal for a project and funds coming through … and they said, ‘Oh yes, we will consider it but we just have to go back and talk first.’ They came back five years later and said ‘We will do the programme.’ And the bureaucrat said, ‘Oh we can’t do it.’ And they said ‘Pardon? What do you mean we can’t do it? You said we could do it.’ The bureaucrat said no, but you have taken too long. Another interviewee related attitudes to Indigenous culture to broader public service attitudes to difference: what I always see is that the [public service] culture needs to change in a way that is accepting of people who are different, who may have a different lifestyle or background or they might look different … I don’t want to be treated different to you,

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because of the colour of my skin, but I want to have my culture recognised and the fact that I identify as a Torres Strait Islander. A Queensland participant who shared this view related it to the largely homogenous nature of the Q P S: Now if I look across the public service, I see very few people who are not Caucasian. I’ve got one lady here who might be Indian or Chinese in a very senior level, but predominantly, the white people make the decisions … [The public service is] very happy at the moment having a closed mind and keeping things the way they are and all agreeing with each other. Similarly, a BC interviewee recounted, “I was at a diversity workshop yesterday, symposium. I sat in there and there was myself, one person of Asian descent, and one person of African descent. Every other person [was] very white … They were saying, ‘All of us are diverse.’ Yes, I guess, but certainly not in skin colour in this room.” Insist Indigenous Input into Policymaking Be Taken Seriously Many interviewees stressed the need for government to insist that agencies take seriously the requirement for Indigenous input into polices that affect Indigenous peoples. A number indicated that while in recent years governments have sought Indigenous input, there was little real intention to change in response to this: “None of it mattered in the ways in which bureaucracies made their decisions.” It follows that “It has got to be a cultural change thing for Queensland government as a whole to be able to get a meaningful engagement with our communities, that it doesn’t only apply to Indigenous bureaucrats, it applies to everybody.” Another participant expressed their frustration at the government’s failure to take advantage of knowledge that already exists in the Indigenous community regarding effective protection systems: rather than expanding [existing] government services in order to meet demand, there are some really good organisations out there doing this stuff, on a small scale, but actually have a yarn and say ‘What makes that, what you are doing, successful. Why does it work on that small [scale]?’ And then think differently. Don’t just automatically go, oh my gosh, this is going to mean we are

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going to need to recruit another thousand people, you know. Like just stop and think it through … actually sit down with Aboriginal organisations and say, what are you doing out there? Where is the gap? … How can we use it [government funding] in a different way to target the need? One interviewee drew attention to the importance of employing ­language that is accessible to Indigenous people, and not “public service speak.” I was talking about cultural change and the language we use and yes, as a step towards getting changes … it needs to be small, but from the ground up. From a government perspective … you have probably seen this time and time again, using big words, using jargon, using language that is government and I get stuck in it sometimes. I go home and I start talking and my brothers are like, ‘Get out of here. You mean this don’t you?’ You know and I say yes, okay. I slap myself. So language and being mindful of the language you use and if it means not saying anything, then don’t say anything. On a positive note, another interviewee spoke about their role in implementing a different and more culturally based approach to child protection: they are trying to implement a whole new way of talking to ­families … changing the way they [agency staff] engage with mob, and for the first time getting them to understand why it was important to let them [community members] come and just tell their stories, and even as simple as getting them [agency staff] to talk to the children, and find out who the children’s most important people are … before we just send kids off or make a decision about foster care. The way in which policy briefs and submissions are structured was identified as another area needing change. One participant spoke about a recent initiative to change policy briefs so that they addressed key issues in relation to Indigenous involvement: One of the things we have recently … put together to go in our briefs [in relation to] a decision by the executive management

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board. These are the Aboriginal staff, or Indigenous staff, you need to cover before you can make a decision. Have you talked to these people? What is the impact on Aboriginal people as opposed to non-Aboriginal people? So actually, you can start putting it into your templates for decision-making, that that needs to be done and D Gs [director generals] or whoever is in charge, needs to take that bit seriously. They can’t just put N/A and move it through. It [the brief] needs to seriously [answer] those questions. A similar approach should be adopted, in this person’s view, for cabinet submissions, comparable to an existing requirement that submissions must note any potential impacts on rural and remote areas. “If you had an ‘Impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,’ and it can’t even come into cabinet … Premiers Department won’t even accept it as a discussion paper, if it doesn’t have it in there.” One interviewee suggested that little is likely to change unless the need to seriously address Indigenous issues is built in to reward and promotion systems for all public servants: If you actually put that your next promotion is going to be based on your outcomes for Indigenous people, all of a sudden there will be so many things happening. It would be unbelievable, but at the moment, you can fail Aboriginal people miserably and still get your next promotion, you know, because we don’t matter … they are so used to it, no outcomes for Aboriginal people, it has become normal for them … If you actually changed it to say, ah, you are not getting that next principal’s position or you are not getting an extra position in the public service, or you are not getting your bonus, until you actually get outcomes for Aboriginal people, when it is tied to something that means something to the white person, then you will see something change. This interviewee also noted, however, the resistance such a proposal would meet: “The [Public Service] Union would then crack up, the radio talk shows would go crazy and it will never happen, but it is something simple that they could put in place.” The value of Indigenous knowledge as worthwhile in its own right and as a valid form of evidence, knowledge, and insight applies not only to Indigenous affairs policymaking but to policymaking writ

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large. One Queensland interviewee was very clear: “there is such an important knowledge base there that you have got to understand and then reuse in a modern context.” Attitude towards Indigenous Employees: Listen and Recognize Abilities Many interviewees considered that public services and political leaders fail to recognize the abilities and skills of Indigenous employees, and saw changing these attitudes as a priority. Few interviewees focused on preferential treatment for Indigenous employees. Rather equal treatment was their goal: Be genuine, authentic about treating people the same, having the same expectations … that is what drives me to do my work. What I would want to see more out of our leaders is how are we valuing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledge and including that in the work … I can hear you say there is increase of [Indigenous] people … getting up in higher level, but they are just one here and there and I think that it has been incredibly difficult … Supporting staff, listening to the feedback, listening to ideas where people are coming back saying, ‘You know these approaches aren’t working.’ How prepared are we to really, to listen to that voice that is not represented at the executive level and often that is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice? This interviewee described the experience of a senior Indigenous colleague who had reported to her superiors hospital procedures that were creating inequalities and resulting in Indigenous people being turned away. Her information “fell on deaf ears.” She stressed the importance of giving Indigenous public servants the freedom and responsibility to realise their potential: Interviewee: I think letting go a bit and allowing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to go and do their job … we’ve got all these trained up health workers, they’ve done different certificates, upskilling and all of that, and largely what they’re doing is being a taxi service, going out picking up patients, being expected

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to bring them back when they can be doing a whole lot more to sustain our health out there, rather than just be taxi services. In tervi e we r : So it’s also about letting people apply the knowledge and the skills that they have? In tervi e we e : And being trusted that they can do that. Cultural expertise and community links were among specific capabilities that were seen to be undervalued: I think we don’t value the cultural expertise and knowledge enough. So whilst we might create identified roles across government, the mainstream work group don’t understand why it might be paid slightly higher. [They] … don’t value it as an important cultural advice function. The greatest asset that Aboriginal people provide to any agency, is their ability to get you into a community. They know their introduction protocol, they know the conflict resolution protocol and so [on] and they have learned that from birth, they have got huge familial networks that … can get you into many communities. You can’t teach that to anybody … I can teach you how to write public service style, I can teach you to negotiate, I can teach you to use a computer, I can teach you to drive a car, but I can’t teach you Aboriginal familial networks or the professional networks in the Aboriginal style. Does it add value that you actually are Aboriginal? Yes, and it adds credibility. It is – it adds that instant credibility when people can see you as a real – like when you go out into the community or such, that I am First Nations and I can say to BC First Nations, look, I am First Nations, these concerns are my concerns. A Queensland interviewee took the view that non-Indigenous public servants had a responsibility not just to appreciate, but also to support, their Indigenous colleagues: “I think the question about support, I think it’s not just up to the Indigenous staff to do that supporting, there has to be [non-Indigenous] … champions. That would, I think, really help people.”

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A number of interviewees stressed that the need for government to acknowledge that the knowledge and skills that Indigenous people bring is not just relevant to policymaking and delivery in Indigenous affairs. In their view relationship- and network-building, for instance, are areas in which Indigenous public servants thrive and which are increasingly important across the whole of government. Avoid “Token” Appointments, Develop Concerted Programs to Achieve “Critical Mass” at Senior Levels Some participants were critical of what they saw as a tendency for government to adopt a tokenistic approach, appointing individual Indigenous people to high-profile position in order to be seen to be taking action on Indigenous employment. A B C interviewee recounted an example, highlighting the negative consequences for the person involved: There’s an Indigenous A DM in [name of agency], but she came in lateral from an outside organisation, because they were getting slammed for the number of First Nations kids in care, and that they didn’t have any native people in the executive, so they were like, we need someone. They grabbed someone from the outside, threw her in, and to be quite frank she was a bit over her head, which I really felt bad for her, because everyone was just like, you just got the job because you’re a native. In some ways she did, and it was clear in that she was just like a fish out of water just going, what am I supposed to be doing here? What did you guys hire me for? I really saw her struggle. What participants wanted to see was a concerted effort by government to build up numbers across all employment levels. A Queensland interviewee indicated that government also needs to take attrition into account in planning targets: We do need targets in the public service … not that 3 per cent target that the Queensland government has, but the proportion of Aboriginal people in the State, which is over 4 per cent and it needs to be at all levels. So 4 per cent at all levels and they need to over-recruit, to allow for the Aboriginal people who leave, because they never ever reach their target, because they go, oh,

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3 per cent, that’s an extra 200 people. We will plan to recruit 200. Well they actually need to recruit 250, because they will never ever have the 200 all at once. One interviewee argued that targets, especially in relation to senior appointments, should be related to the proportion of an agency’s clientele who is Indigenous, not the Indigenous percentage of the total population. I think the marker should be not based on percentage of population, it should be based on your client group, your customer group and I think that’s the big misleading percentage that distracts resource allocation in the public service because they will see, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are only 3 per cent of the population … well 3 per cent of director generals is still zero whereas if you look at say Child Protection … almost half of kids … in the next ten years will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in out of home care, so my argument is half of the workforce should at least be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander [and] … half of the leadership team. Strong direction from senior leadership in government was seen as essential given that many agencies are not strongly motivated to take the lead in promoting Indigenous employment. One interviewee recounted his experience when he sought, in an agency he had recently joined, to replicate a strategy used in another department to advance Indigenous public servants from more junior positions: One of the things we actively did [in his previous agency] was if anyone sat on a salary level for eighteen months, we would go to them and say, ‘Do you want to be in a higher position?’ … so we could invest in a development program for those people who wanted to progress through the workforce. Now we sit on that data [on employment levels] here. They get funny when I ask for it. I said, no I want to know. We’ve got 115 Indigenous employees, I want to know what level they’re at, you know, so I get all that sort of stuff and they’re all at low levels. Nothing surprises me. I said so, next one is, ‘Let’s have a look at a project for the ones that have been at that level for eighteen months.’ [And the response was] ‘Why would we do that?’

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A number of participants spoke of the need to support Indigenous people who are appointed to senior positions: I think for our … Indigenous staff that are in high senior level positions … I would hope that there is some sort of support for them across government … they are the most vulnerable I think, being in those levels. Yes, very vulnerable and I would hope that they are protected from and supported to do what they have to do. I have seen a lot of people, our people, yes, get treated very badly psychologically and mentally impacted because of you know, they are just doing their job … and they are passionate about helping their mob … The government doesn’t seem to me to address that side of things and I think about the mental and emotional and all the rest of it that impacts on … leaders at that level. What are they given in terms of support? This comment relates to a broader need to invest in skill development and retention of Indigenous staff, which in the case of one interviewee requires recruitment of Indigenous staff into “mainstream” roles. He pointed out that the almost complete absence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait people currently in senior roles outside an Indigenous portfolio makes it extremely difficult for them to aspire to director or head of department roles in a mainstream agency, because they cannot build up a career profile that compares with those of non-Indigenous candidates for the same role. He also highlighted the lack of any clear guidance to Indigenous officers as to what steps they should be taking if they aspire to senior “mainstream” roles, and added: The trick is for me, the biggest one, if we have Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people in leadership positions now, what is their next step? I think that is probably something we haven’t really matured or thought about and providing priority access to those mainstream roles … We still require a meritorious process, but still be given the best opportunity to actually take up that role. Another related point involves the need to provide opportunities for lateral movement and to broaden peoples’ experience, the importance of which was noted earlier in discussing the factors that facilitate exercise Indigenous leadership:

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[The government needs to] have an Indigenous executive mobility strategy or program in place for people to move across departments. I would love to be given the opportunity to go to other government departments, purely to see how they do things and what benefit that then brings back to this department here. This person mentioned that he was in the process of developing a personal “mobility strategy” with the support of the Public Sector Commission. His point was that this needed to occur as a government strategy rather than on an ad hoc basis. One interviewee, noting that some Indigenous people excel in service delivery roles but may not aspire to senior managerial positions, stressed the importance of ensuring that career and salary structures can reward those who continue to work in front line services. This person also noted that many talented Indigenous public servants work in the regions and that training and career development opportunities need to be offered there if they are to be accessible. She added that generic leadership development courses provided in the public service do not necessarily create a safe or productive environment for Indigenous staff, and that specialized, targeted courses are therefore required. Others emphasized the need to increase support for Indigenous employees to enhance their academic credentials, noting that this is increasingly a requirement for career progression: Round the ’70s and ’80s, where you would actually get a job based on your life experience and your education level wasn’t that needed … after a few years, it started dropping back into, you have got to have a degree, you have got to have a degree. There are so many good jobs around the place that we can’t get into, because our people don’t have the right degrees … but then we are getting people in with the degrees and they don’t have the background. Other interviewees agreed: So we need to get more and more people postgrad qualified … and with Aboriginal people, many … may not have the educational or entry qualifications to do two degrees, undergrad and postgrad. So we need to provide a lot more support to get people through to postgrad qualifications.

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With Aboriginal people we all know the rates of education – the retention rate with education. It’s not going to happen unless we start catching up – and I think that’s something we realise, that Aboriginal people realise, is that in order to change the system, we have to rise up to that. The need to institutionalize links between universities and government as a way of increasing recruitment of Indigenous graduates was also highlighted: The other [thing needed] is the actual direct pipeline between universities and the public service … there are some very obvious and visible pipelines and there are some that aren’t there that should be there. There is no deliberate strategy on the part of the Queensland government to actually get into a formal, official documented arrangement with universities to say … as an employer of choice, we want to take all your Indigenous graduates. The importance of recognizing Indigenous ways of learning was emphasized by another interviewee: Recruiting at all levels, retention as well, so professional development training, the different way that Indigenous people learn isn’t accounted for and I spoke to our H R about that, in terms of having different styles of like mentoring, having a formal plan in place, but you know, having a mentoring or a different environment or a different work place for the person to learn or rotating, like all these different strategies to keep people involved in the public service and keep them in the job. This person also stresses to her Indigenous colleagues that there are now alternative paths to obtaining professional credentials: “There’s other ways of you know, skinning this cat. You don’t have to go to uni and do your four years and all this you know. That has changed, which is good, recognising experience and people’s work experience, rather than academic achievements.” The need to focus on the professional development of senior staff was mentioned by a number of people. Noting the availability of scholarships and cadetships for entry level Indigenous staff, one interviewee noted:

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For the senior, for people like me who are coming up through the ranks, there’s not many of us, one or two here and there … I feel out on a limb already when you’re in senior leader roles but there was no option on my level to further those skills, knowledge development or doing other things … that investment [in skills development] wasn’t reaching staff like middle managers to senior leaders or senior leaders going to executive leaders. Returning to the earlier theme of the loneliness of Indigenous public servants, she added: “There’s scopes [for] in investment because … when you’re one person at a table, it’s a lonely space to be alone, so to broaden your skills and to study if you’re prepared to do so, looking at ways that that could happen.” Accommodate Particular Constraints and Obligations Facing Indigenous Employees Some interviewees discussed the particular constraints or challenges facing Indigenous public servants and the need for government to recognize these. One said: we want to know that we’re not going to be thrown out the window the first time we stuff up and we might stuff [up], because we haven’t been at the table as long as everyone else. I don’t want anything special, but I just want you [non-Indigenous people] to think about sometimes, I might stuff up and I don’t want to be so worried about that all the time. A number noted family and social obligations that Indigenous people face that are not borne by non-Indigenous colleagues. A Queensland participant told us: My brother got cancer, this is the only way I can explain it. He had private health, we all have private health, but I gave him the money for the scans. Anyway, he gave it back to me, but it’s my obligation to pay for him to be okay, because I’m the oldest. Didn’t matter that he had the money and I had the money and it still came back, but that’s the rules. So he doesn’t have to ask, I have to offer … So we were taught those things as we grew

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up, and if this cousin doesn’t have something, then we give it to that cousin. A B C interviewee spoke of how: I would be pulled away for various things with my family or with the community and it would affect me. I’d have to take time off from work to be in my community or to go back to my community and help out. Now, if something happens I have to … find different ways to help out in my community … instead of taking time off work … It has to do with me finding a balance for myself … you can get worn pretty thin. You’re just trying to get so many different things done. You just wear yourself out. You just don’t have any energy anymore. Others noted the issue, discussed earlier, that they face demands because family or community members assume they hold expertise, and can help address issues, across all areas of government. While they may lack the requisite knowledge of a particular area or issue, they still have a cultural obligation to try and assist. One interviewee referred to situations where “their role in community is stretching them beyond imagination to a point where they can’t turn up to work you know, or they are taking too much sick time to cover that.” In this situation there might be a need for the individual to take some months away from work “so that people can … still keep their job, but at the same time come back strengthened with what you need.” This person recognized the potential difficulty of allowing this option only to Indigenous staff: You know, so we are trying to work on those sort of processes … [but] how can I do that for one and not the other, because then you have got unfairness. So one person gets dismissed over some absenteeism and our people get the right to stay off for a while.

I m pac t o n P o l icy: W h at di fference can In d ig e n o u s p u b l ic servants make? Many interviewees felt they have a significant impact on policy processes and outcomes. This explains their willingness, and in many

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cases determination, to continue to serve as public servants despite the challenges, and for many people the personal cost, this involves. For ease of presentation we discuss a number of dimensions of impact separately, but acknowledge the interaction between them. For example, mobilizing resources to support Indigenous service delivery organizations and working to change policy processes to make them more accessible to Indigenous people are both expected to ultimately result in more favourable outcomes for Indigenous communities, families, and individuals. Directly Shaping Outcomes Interviewees in managerial roles provided examples, for instance in the child protection area, where they had been able to directly shape programs in ways that benefitted Indigenous children and families. In some cases this involved provision of the sort of practical support that was vital for Indigenous parents but whose importance was not recognizes in mainstream programs. One interviewee explained: “I think we were at a stage [where] we would over bureaucratise or ‘over programme’ programmes, to the point where … somehow we [would] slip away from the real practical help [that Indigenous parents need].” Another senior manager talked about her impact in a previous role, winning recognition and support for Aboriginal careers who looked after grandchildren or children of kin: Those Aboriginal people that are kinship carers … can [now] stand proudly. Yes, that’s a win for me. They’re trained, they’re paid. You know, it’s a big win for me. Before they were getting no money and have eight or nine children dumped on them. That’s not okay. So in the ocean of wins, that might be minute, but it’s a win for me and it’s a win for those people that I helped. A participant in a regional centre talked about how they had developed and documented a new and more effective way of engaging with families in a child safety program, an approach that was then adopted more widely: We changed the model [of engagement] turned it on its head a bit and wrote it up and presented it [to] … all the managers within the region, and then my regional director took that down to

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Brisbane. So we had something written up to tell to people and [we were] able to demonstrate what we did to effect change and some of the promising results we were seeing as a result of it. A manager in the housing area, spoke of how a lack of coordination across agencies meant that houses would be constructed in Indigenous communities that were often of poor quality, were not integrated with services such as water and sewage, and so often deteriorated rapidly and could be a health hazard. Under his direction: We had a lot of trouble up there in the Torres Strait where contractors would go on site, build a house, have no connection to sewerage or water or septic or whatever. So I got the T AF E [Technical and Further Education] college with the Department of Housing in Cairns, develop this course whereby health workers could get trained for a period of time and go out and inspect the houses … They went back to their own communities and did that. You know so giving the people back their own futures I suppose and the skills to look after their own housing. Another interviewee talked about changing an agency’s whole approach to child safety. Their experience is recounted at some length because of the insights it provides into what is required to bring about change: It is really hard getting Child Safety Service Centres to see a family in a different way. So we might have a family with eight kids and they are all … spread across five different Service Centres, that might cover three different regions. Just getting people to think of them as a family unit, not individual children … no wonder families are just so confused. Children are lost and traumatised … I am still working through that stuff to try to get them [agency staff] with the case loads that they might have, just to think about prioritising it [reuniting families], because to them, well those children are in a safe foster care arrangement, so it is not a priority … Trying to get them to think about … if we went back to the drawing board, just put the family out on the board and let’s talk about what are the issues. It is going to save us so much time and trauma … But yes, trying to change bureaucracy, [agency staff say] ‘But this is what we do and

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legislation only allows us to do this,’ and that sort of stuff. It is really limiting and it is a huge achievement, some of the families I was able to get [reunited], like a grandmother got her children, grandchildren returned. Like one of the Service Centres wouldn’t allow her to take them and so we put them in foster care, when Gran is saying, ‘Oh I will take them’ … All these hurdles she had to jump through just to look after her grandchildren … like that was a huge struggle … You can’t switch off and just worry about the horrible things happening to families out there, [and] government contributing to it when we could simplify things. Interviewees provided other similar examples of effecting change across a number of policy areas. For instance a BC participant working in the criminal justice system recounted how she worked with a validated research program developed to assist people to avoid recidivism using Indigenous-appropriate methods: I would end up with all the higher risk clients because nobody else wanted to work with them and nobody else knew how to deal with them. Before I did the program my interview with a client would last maybe ten to fifteen minutes. But now my interviews last at least a half hour to an hour or over an hour just helping the client and building rapport with the client. Working with goals and setting them up with assistance from agencies and giving them homework and providing them with skills and tools … I tell them ‘My goal is to work with you so you don’t end up back on probation again’… that’s a new way of thinking for them. But it’s also asking them what are your goals? What do you want to achieve? Help Incorporate Indigenous Perspectives into Public Administration and Policymaking Many interviewees discussed cases where they had worked to ensure that perspectives of Indigenous peoples and communities, and a fuller and accurate understanding of their situation and experiences, were included in policy discussion and forums. One BC participant said: I guess for the others [Aboriginal colleagues] and myself, is being able to have that voice. The Indigenous voice at a high level of government, to influence, which hasn’t happened very much, ever.

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That’s important. To say, wait a second, you guys are making decisions but you never – we were consulted, but we never dialogued around what this means for aboriginal agencies, what this means for aboriginal community, in general. You can’t make the decision blind, without considering these factors. Another BC participant shared how she took steps to change a reporting process to be more respectful of clients, through better reflecting who they were and where they were from: I provide leadership in the office. I work with probation officers. I was watching the different words that would be used. They would refer to First Nations people as Indians or as coming from this reserve or that reserve. I got the staff away from those words. I said ‘No. I don’t like those words myself. Refer to them as First Nations people or as the community they come from.’ So they got all the First Nations names for the communities that they actually came from … So people reading reports won’t see all the words holding First Nations people down, like reserves or Indian … There is so much power in language … And I would help out with getting the history of various communities and peoples included in the reports. Another example she shared was about shifting the thinking of colleagues in terms of how they speak about clients: At one point in time I remember being at the front desk once and people were talking about one of the clients and they were talking about how the client was, you know, just a drunk. Like somebody who was on the streets … and I said ‘Well, he’s a person and he comes from somewhere and there is probably more to him than we know’ … Don’t be referring to people, labelling them, and just seeing them as people instead of somebody that is just living on the street … Look at them as people instead of seeing them that way and then educating people on the residential school, talking to the staff because none of them have been really exposed to it. A Queensland participant working in the area of child safety spoke in similar terms about introducing a personal dimension and an understanding of people’s situations into decision-making.

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The elders will ring me and they will say, ‘This young dad, he has done his time, he is doing really well, can you help him get that across to the Service Centre so they can let him see his children?’ … When you go to the bureaucracy and they are like, ‘But he has done this, this and this.’ And I say, ‘yes, he did that five years ago or he did that one year ago, this is all the stuff he has been doing to turn [things around], get his shit together.’ So how do we genuinely recognise that [while acknowledging] that he has done some pretty bad stuff? … that sort of conversation that government struggles with. They get stuck in what happened, not in the possibilities and our ways are different to get stuff together and support that young dad for example, what he’d put in place to stay sober and do all this stuff, and they just kept putting obstacles in front of him. This person, when asked if government policies would be very different if Indigenous peoples’ perspectives were recognized, highlighted the link between policy process and policy outcomes: In terv i e we e : Yes, absolutely … when you are writing up policies, not have Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives as an afterthought. Like if it is to do with us, we should be up in the whole scoping part of that conversation, yes, because always it [policy] will be a finish product and then oh, we forgot about that [Indigenous input] … Yes. I mean it is changing, don’t get me wrong. Things are improving, but it is still a long way. In terv i e we r : Can you see that [ensuring Indigenous input] having a big impact on policy? In terv i e we e : Absolutely for everything, yes. It is so important to have the voices of who you are supposed to be developing something that benefits them, to be in the conversation … [to ask people] ‘How should we do this in a way that will genuinely benefit or help you out?’ Another manager talked about how she had sought to reform the way in which her agency worked, stressing the need to involve nonIndigenous staff in the process of change: I noticed that the [name of region] was run by and I don’t mean to cause anyone any offence, but it was run by middle class,

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middle aged, white men and I thought that if I had the opportunity to take a job up there and really try and do something different … A key … [is] being able to bring the staff along with you and help the staff, particularly in Brisbane, where you don’t get as much community contact, help the staff attach themselves to the vision of what we are trying to achieve … I think there is real skill in doing that … I think that that is an important part of being a leader in the public service. I mean keeping families and individuals as our clients, front of mind is something that doesn’t happen a lot, I don’t think. A number of interviewees stressed the need to encourage adoption of government processes that are more “Indigenous friendly.” A Queensland participant gave an example of an Aboriginal council that was plagued by government departments that sought to follow timeframes that suited them, rather than thinking about the council’s needs and the demands it faced: They were just getting bombarded by government departments coming in … they never had any time to think about how they would or what they wanted to get out of things [so I said to the council] … why don’t you just say to government departments, if you are coming to consult on something … last week of every month is when we will be available. … that did have an impact on the council and it also had an impact on the community, because it was always the same elders who would turn up to everything … so through contacts across government, everyone in the region knew that that was the week to come and do business and everything in government can wait three weeks generally. A B C interviewee gave this example of being able to influence the temporal aspect of a process: I looked at the deputy minister and I said if you expect – and I have it here in his pile of papers – if you expect a community engagement strategy by 31 March you’re crazy. It’s not going to happen. That’s what I told him because engagement takes time. He listened and he understood so that was a positive, right. Another way in which Indigenous input into policy and service delivery can be facilitated is by providing a bridge between government

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and community. The ability to translate information, policies, and expectations is critical: to help get things done, Indigenous public servants simultaneously must help government to understand community and community to better appreciate how to link to government processes. This translation role demands intercultural skills as well as a great deal of patience and acumen. One Queensland participant described the intricacies that are involved: So you tread that line where you step back and forth from skills that you learn in the mainstream environment and bringing that back into your own community. A lot of listening, a lot of negotiating, a lot of explaining things to people to ensure that it meets the needs of everybody in the community … It’s a very fluid environment, where you are continuously talking and jigging and moving forward and coming back and moving forward again. More broadly, Indigenous public servants also play a key bridging role in promoting reconciliation. They work to educate non-Indigenous peoples, as indicated by a B C participant: educating [non-Indigenous] people about residential schools. I did lots of research on residential schools and talked to the staff because none of them have really been exposed to it. So, talking to people about what our people went through and how it’s difficult for them to rise from being put down so much to making a better choice for themselves and making a better life for themselves. Participants in both jurisdictions noted that high turnover makes the task of educating non-Indigenous colleagues even more challenging. As a BC participant noted: “The turnover, the [lack of] stability, you’re always re-educating.” Indigenous public servants also provide encouragement and translation work for Indigenous communities to assist them to understand the positive potential of government. This is often tiring because of the sheer amount of work needed to continuously bridge cultures and walk in multiple worlds. The translation role is not always easy, and can pose significant challenges to Indigenous public servants themselves, as we outlined in chapter 6. Many feel like “the ham in the sandwich,” as one B C interviewee expressed it. A Queensland interviewee explained:

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I have been asked by members of my immediate and extended family for sensitive information. Yes. And I have said ‘no.’ They have quoted cultural reasons they were coming from another perspective and I also thought for them to think that way, was to place me in a compromising position … we had to have some very stern conversations after that, outside. Mobilize Resources and “Work the System” Another dimension of impact involves the efforts of public servants to mobilize resources to support Indigenous organizations and communities that interact with government, including those involved in service delivery, and more broadly to “work the system” to bring about policies favourable to Indigenous interests. Interviewees frequently referred to their efforts to navigate the government system in order to achieve a particular outcome. This was linked to having the capacity to work across public sector and Indigenous cultures, and particularly to work on the government side, understanding how to work with government to meet the needs of Indigenous peoples. A B C interviewee provided the following example of how this occurs, and at the same time highlighted the need to be honest about the limits of their capacity to shape government decisions: A lot of times you come across things that I have absolutely no authority or jurisdiction over. And I can tell people I can help you get in touch with the right person because trying to find your way through government is pretty tricky for the average Joe and I can. So I make sure that I only promise what I can do, and what I can commit to, and I certainly don’t make promises on behalf of government and what they will do. I can try and explain how processes and policies and laws and whatnot work in plain language that people can understand. So, you know in that way I think that for government and for the people that I work with that benefits them. A Queensland participant recalled: I did lots of work in [names of communities]. The community really embraces you in those roles and it kind of becomes 24/7

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and you do lots of other things, but it taught me how to get money from Government, Commonwealth, and State. It taught me how to negotiate with really no power base. A B C interviewee said: Sometimes, we’re crafty. We’re creative in how we approach stuff at times. It’s like, well we know that we’re not going to get this money if we ask for it like this, because they want something very specific. So let’s ask for it like the way they want it asked for, but leave it open enough that we’re actually going to do what we want to anyways, and sometimes you’ve just got to play within those lines, especially when it comes to financial stuff … we ask for it in a way that leaves it open for us to actually implement it the way we see fit. A Queensland participant is quoted at length because they illustrate the skills that Indigenous public servants bring to bear, in this case in particular a keen sense of timing, and patience: It is like shining a penlight on a globe and spinning it; the light shines on something for a while and then it passes over that particular point. What I have found in my experience is that every so often the light shines on you as a person and you have an opportunity to really start to implement some policy … suddenly people are listening to you that weren’t listening to you yesterday. You are suddenly on committees where you are face to face with the director general as an A O 6, which shouldn’t happen in hierarchical situations, so … all those ideas that you have had, you now need to quickly be able to put them into writing and get them into the E D [executive director] of policy or the D D G [deputy director general] of policy … You get an opportunity to do that and just as quickly as it comes, it goes … what you do then is you take all those ideas that you have over the next three to four years or whatever and you put them in your bottom drawer and you wait for the light to come back and sometimes it comes back when there is a change of government and so you will sit in a room and people will say, we are looking for new ideas … Yes, and you go, ‘Look, I have got something here.’ You mightn’t get every facet of your idea, but you will get some of it in there.

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In discussing their experience this interviewee also highlighted an important aspect of Indigenous leadership: you can’t influence every single policy and I just know that so many of our up and coming leaders, they are so energetic and it’s wonderful … but it is about being able to shelter them from the disappointment and it [policy proposal] all doesn’t get up you know and saying, ‘It’s okay. Put it in the bottom drawer. Let’s hold it there, let’s wait for the time to come back again and do that.’ A B C participant also highlighted the importance of timing: “I’m going to sit here and I’m going to shut up and things are going to happen, and then something is going to occur where they’re going to need that voice, and then I’m going to use that as an opportunity to start pushing it.” “Working the system” can also involve mobilizing external entities to exert pressure for change. One interviewee, discussing an approach to child protection that was causing harm to Aboriginal children and families: I had to get them [Aboriginal Legal Aid] to actually do some heavy leaning on my own department, to actually get a grandmother who lived in Mt Isa, from Doomadgee, to be able to take over control of her children and we had to come through Brisbane and through the family court to do it. This example illustrates the risk that Indigenous public servants can face in pushing for policy change, as involving external agencies – including the judiciary – might lead to retribution against this officer by his employer. Another participant highlighted the Indigenous emphasis on relationships in allowing them to “navigate” the public service and to achieve outcomes for Indigenous peoples: “We have that ability to make things [happen] … through our relationships … It is an important part of being a leader … because if you’d taken a combative approach or an overly asserted approach, you just put people off.” Facilitating Indigenous Employment and Career Progression Another area of impact interviewees regarded as important involved their work in facilitating Indigenous employment and career

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progression in the public service. As noted earlier many of them commented on the “isolation” they themselves felt, on the importance of having a “critical mass” of Indigenous public servants, and on the importance of having Indigenous role models, especially in senior positions. One Queensland interviewee commented: [In an agency where the person worked] For some time we were at 25 per cent [Indigenous employment] and I got it to 30 per cent, which I was immensely proud of … I wanted to be able to do something that helped Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people … when I initially came in, it was to employ them, to give them jobs, help them get through that process to get them jobs. In [an emergency service role], it was getting them healthy [enough] to pass the beep test which … you have got to run it under nine seconds, 100 metres. Another talked specifically about their desire to provide an example that other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people could follow: “I want people to actually see that it [assuming a senior leadership role in the public service] can be done and that people out there in the Aboriginal community and the Torres Strait Islander community can see the levels you can actually rise to.” Other interviewees stressed how providing support to individuals, often informally and “behind the scenes,” can advance their careers. One, mentioning a young woman who was showing great potential, said that they worked “behind the scenes, just trying to profile her, keep talking about her, about her work, to just put her on people’s radars.” BC participants spoke of their own roles as mentors: There’s got to be some sort of mentorship possibility … This hasn’t been that bed of roses either, right? Why was I able to stick it out or am I able to stick it out? Because it’s not about me. It’s [about] how do I put that skill – give that skill to somebody else? It’s mentorship, it’s talking about it. Talking about what it means for them to be a leader. To me, I guess maybe that’s one of my purposes too, is to help engage those people [Indigenous colleagues]. Promote the positions and also, I guess the opportunities that are available … it’s a mentorship piece or promotion piece … the purpose for me is

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support those young Aboriginal people that work in our organization to a good degree. A number of participants highlighted the importance of influencing the attitudes of non-Indigenous public servants as a precondition for increasing Indigenous employment and promotion. One spoke of the inability of many non-Indigenous public servants to recognize the privileges they enjoy and the achievements of Indigenous colleagues who lack many of these privileges: you have got a job, you are privileged; you are able bodied, you are privileged; you are heterosexual, you are privileged; you are Christian, you are privileged; you have education. Getting them to start thinking about that, because I think that would go a long way to seeing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in a more positive light, rather than just in that disadvantaged space. Another talked about involving a local community in the process of  changing the knowledge and attitudes of non-Indigenous public servants: So that is what we need to teach these [non-Indigenous] people, so it’s about them coming back over to our side I suppose, with a little bit more knowledge and a little bit more friendliness. So we are doing things like protocol, teaching them about that, but we are not doing it here in classroom, we are taking them over to North Stradbroke Island and the Minjerribah elders over there actually do the course … they take them [public servants] down to Brown Lake or somewhere like that for lunch and talk about the significance of the lake … this is why you shouldn’t swim here, because this means this to us and this is how it affects us under customary law and then they take them to medical centre and they take them down to the bush tucker area and they talk about their middens over there and why they are still important to them, even though they don’t go around collecting shellfish and eat them in one place anymore. It is about that historical way of life. So it’s a good way of them coming to grips with a community. In terms of impact on policy, a number of interviewees mentioned their impact in developing and implementing policies designed to

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encourage growth of Indigenous employment in the economy as a whole. They highlighted the beneficial impact of employment not just on incomes of individuals employed but on their social and cultural well-being and that of their families and communities.

C o n c l u s ion Indigenous public servants are by no means without power or resources in dealing with the challenges outlined in chapter 6. They are a critical support to each other, and as they progress through their career they also draw support from Indigenous and non-Indigenous mentors and from having Indigenous role models who, while small in number, constitute a vital source of encouragement. Indigenous public servants also exercise considerable skill in “working the systems” of government to push for more favourable outcomes for Indigenous people, while at the same time seeking to consolidate or advance their own careers. Nevertheless, an important point emerged in related to this latter career issue, a point very relevant to the issue of Indigenous leadership in public services. A substantial number of interviewees indicated that they refrain from seeking advancement into senior executive roles. Their reasons for doing involved a belief that accepting such roles would reduce their ability to challenge government policy, would tend to deprive them of opportunities for community engagement, and would reduce their ability to achieve concrete gains, which some saw as easier to achieve by “flying under the radar” rather than by occupying senior, high-profile positions. Other interviewees, in contrast, felt it is impossible to have a significant impact in hierarchical organizations except from senior executive positions (see chapter 6). All interviewees saw the need for more active, sustained, and radical action by government to facilitate Indigenous participation and leadership. A fundamental requirement is for government to openly and consistently condemn and refuse to tolerate overt and “everyday” racism. Other priorities are to foster respect for Aboriginal culture, both within public service organizations and in government dealings with community; to recognize the abilities and skills of Indigenous public servants and facilitate their meaningful participation in policy design and delivery, both in Indigenous affairs and in “mainstream” policy and administration; and for coherent and sustained policies to increase Indigenous employment across all levels of the public service,

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including by recognizing the particular constraints and challenges that Indigenous public servants can face. Interviewees believe they have a significant impact on policy processes and outcomes, by directly influencing policy decisions, by incorporating Indigenous perspectives into policymaking and public administration, and by mobilizing resources for Indigenous organizations. More generally they also have an impact by “working the system” to create opportunities for Indigenous advancement, including through their support for employment, retention, and promotion of Indigenous public servants.

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8 Conclusion Indigenous Participation and Leadership in Public Services I n d ig e n o u s p e o p l e s , governments, a n d p u b l ic servi ce After centuries of almost total exclusion, since the early 1990s Indigenous peoples in Australia and Canada have gradually increased their presence in the public service. The primary approach of governments in BC and Queensland, at least, appears to be one of “passive representation,” a desire to ensure that Indigenous peoples, along with other previously excluded or underrepresented groups, are included in public service employment in approximate proportion to their demographic representation. There is little indication that governments have sought to recruit Indigenous public servants on the basis of a commitment to “active representation,” or to take advantage of their distinctive concepts of leadership or associated leadership practices. This is indicated for instance in the absence of any coherent strategy in either B C or Queensland to advance Indigenous public servants into leadership positions, and by the lack of a link in both jurisdictions between leadership training generally and Indigenous employment policies. It is also evident from the almost complete exclusion of Indigenous public servants from key sites of policy formulation and resource allocation, such as premiers’ departments and treasuries, and by the general failure of governments to address the major obstacles to Indigenous retention and advancement. These findings are consistent with the existing limit research on Indigenous participation in public services (see chapter 4). They resonate, for example, with Rousseau’s detailed study of one BC agency (2014). In her terms, this agency operated a “deficit” model of

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representation that failed entirely to support Indigenous employees in ways that would have allowed them to remake service delivery in a manner more beneficial to its clients. There have been efforts by some agencies and senior managers at particular points in time to develop a more supportive environment for Indigenous participation and leadership. Many of our interviewees attested to the commitment of individual non-Indigenous colleagues to supporting their careers, and to the importance of this support in allowing them to face the challenges they encounter. Yet these efforts have not been part of a coherent strategy designed to take full advantage of the growing presence of Indigenous public servants.

In d ig e n o u s l eaders hi p Despite the differences in the histories of Indigenous relations in Australia and Canada highlighted in chapter 2, the forty Indigenous participants in our interview research showed remarkable consistency in their conceptual and operational understandings of leadership. They responded to questions on leadership along three dimensions, the first of which involves qualities that are displayed by leaders and values that they espouse. These emphasize in particular that leadership is holistic, balanced, and involves consistency between talk and action; it is respectful, relational, and involves “bringing people along”; it is resilient, persistent, and reliable, qualities that are indispensable in contexts where Indigenous peoples have been marginalized and dispossessed; it is authentic and humble; and it is community focused and diplomatic. Leadership is holistic in that it involves all of one’s life and engagement with others, and not just a professional or organizational role, but it is also holistic in that the individual qualities just listed are interrelated and mutually reinforcing. For example, consistency between “talk” and action is essential to authenticity and to establishing respectful relationships; humility is also linked to respect, and to having a focus on community and not just on self; a talent in diplomacy, showing respect, and humility are, in the Indigenous context, essential in order to “bring people along.” This characterization of Indigenous leadership is consistent with existing literature, including the work of Johnston and Althaus (2013), Julien et al. (2010), Warner and Grint (2006), and Stewart and Warn (2016). However, much of the existing literature on Indigenous peoples in public services posits a distinction between “contemporary” and

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“traditional” leadership, with the latter exercised in a historical or/ and community context (see chapter 4). A key finding of our research is that contemporary leadership is in fact deeply grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing and forms of governance and social organization. For our participants, Indigenous leadership is personal, in the sense that it is a person, not a position, that leads. But it is also broader than the individual, in that it draws on the past, on traditional teachings, on the exercise of leadership in a traditional context and on modes of social organization and cosmologies that underpinned Indigenous leadership in the past and continue to underpin it today. The emphasis on relationships, on listening, on “bringing people along,” on “leading from behind,” on orientation to community are all linked to this wider context. Another indication of the links between the wider Indigenous world and leadership in public services involves the efforts of a number of interviewees to bring Indigenous ways of engaging with the past and with the spiritual world into the public service, for example through the use of ceremony or the naming of rooms after elders. Some also spoke of their frustration at the resistance they encountered to these efforts from superiors and the organizations they work for. Indigenous public servants may be “leading from between” and may be “between two worlds,” but their understanding of leadership is not bifurcated or schizophrenic. Instead there is a coherent sense of leadership that has its sources in Indigenous society and cosmology, and whose exercise Indigenous public servants pursue across different aspects of their lives – albeit not always with success, or with consistent success, in a public service context. Our interviewees acknowledge that some of the qualities, concepts, and practices they associate with leadership can also be found in Western models of leadership. However they believe that the combination of personal qualities as well as the traditional teachings, social realities, and ways of governing from which they emerge and to which they are linked constitute a unique mode of leadership. We agree, and conclude that there is an Indigenous perspective on leadership that is coherent, consistent, unique, and spans countries and continents. It is certainly possible to identify leadership qualities identified by our participants in non-Indigenous concepts and models of leadership. Some might suggest, for example, that when our participants stress that leadership is focused on community rather than on self, they are espousing the concept of “servant leadership,” which conceives of

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leaders as sharing power, putting the needs of others first, and helping people develop their potential. Similarly, the consistent focus on “walking the talk” and “bringing people along” could be seen as mirroring aspects of transformational leadership, with its focus on leaders as role models who inspire their followers by their actions and by creating a sense of common identity. However, the Indigenous leadership articulated by our participants differ from these and other concepts in the Western leadership literature in two important respects. First, they combine multiple qualities, values, and dimensions, as summarized above and described in detail in chapter 5; and they are linked to Indigenous traditions, ways of knowing, approaches to time, and connections to land in a manner that has no parallel in Western leadership models. As Ospina and Foldy (2009) anticipated in their wide-ranging review of research on leadership, race, and ethnicity, these findings have important implications for leadership theory. They suggest that individualized notions of leadership being a solo act are impoverished unless they are supplemented by collective concepts of leadership. The distributive nature of Indigenous public service leadership and its emphasis on holistic approaches place a high value on the relationality of leadership as a communal endeavour, and as something that moves beyond relationships between individuals, towards relationships that span agencies, organizations, communities, systems, cultures, and nature. Such ideas are not foreign to recent Western thinking on leadership, even if they have not yet taken centre stage in the leadership literature (Ospina and Foldy 2009, 2010). Models and metaphors such as inter-organizational leadership (Hartley and Allison 2000), meta-leadership (Marcus et al. 2006, 2009), stewardship (Travis et al. 2002), and orchestration (Wallace 2004, Wallace and Schneller 2008) point to similar preoccupations with collective leadership ideals, and the need to put leadership at the service of the common good of humanity and the planet.

E x e rc is in g In d ig e nous leadershi p in p u b l ic s e rvi ces To what extent are participants able to exercise a distinctive Indigenous leadership in their public service roles? Their response to this question is complex. There is wide agreement that they face significant obstacles in seeking to do so, a point we address below. There are divided

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opinions, on the other hand, on the issue of whether it is possible to exercise authentic Indigenous leadership at senior levels. Some believe it is possible and that potential exists to transform Western bureaucracies drawing on their Indigenous leadership practices. Others take a different view, deliberately choosing to stay at lower levels and refraining from seeking advancement into senior executive roles. Their reasons for doing so involved a belief that accepting such roles would reduce their ability to challenge government policy, would tend to deprive them of opportunities for community engagement, and would reduce their ability to achieve concrete gains for their communities – a goal seen as an underpinning tenet of Indigenous public service leadership, and which some saw as easier to achieve by “flying under the radar” rather than by occupying senior, high-profile positions. Participants also recounted different experiences in relation to the compatibility of their Indigenous identity with public sector employment. Some told stories of openly and consistently expressing their identity in the workplace and behaving in a way consistent with that identity. Others talked of “leaving their Indigenous identity at the door” in order to meet the expectations and demands of the public service. Many, though not all, interviewees felt that there is often a misalignment between their Indigenous beliefs and values and those expected or practised in Western bureaucracies. This misalignment often results in an exit – even temporarily – of Indigenous public servants from the bureaucracy, either to recharge or to consider again whether there is merit in pursuing reform from within government. Three basic forms of leadership emerge from the interviews: a form strongly based on Indigenous values and social relations that stands in contrast to Western models and can often be disruptive to them; a “bridging” form that seeks to combine elements of Indigenous and Western bureaucratic leadership concepts and practices; and one drawing more on “Western” models of leadership, sometimes favourably but at other times infiltrating it and leveraging it to secure power and exercise change once senior positions have been attained. Some respondents indicated explicitly that they had made choices between these alternatives. In others cases their choices emerged from the stories and experiences they chose to share. These sometimes revealed a range of different approaches to leadership by the same individual, depending on the stage of their career, the policy area in which they operated, and the organizational context in which they were employed.

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I n dig e n o u s pa rt ic ipat ion and leadershi p: o b s tac l e s a n d faci li tators Indigenous public servants face a number of fundamental challenges in seeking to participate and lead in public services. First, they face the decision, not on a “one-off” but on an ongoing basis, about whether or not to work in and for state structures that, as described in chapter 2, have in the past sought to assimilate and, in many ways, to destroy the peoples and cultures to which they belong. As we have noted, colonial regimes in B C and Queensland displayed features that were, in their national contexts, particularly harsh and persistent, making these decisions especially challenging. Second, they operate in an environment dominated by non-Indigenous values and ways of organizing, making decisions, and communicating. Within this broad context, they face a series of more specific and formidable obstacles. Those obstacles include open racism and, much more commonly, “everyday racism” (Larkin 2013). The latter manifests in the general discounting of Indigenous knowledge and skills, and in the assumption that non-Indigenous people can replicate any skills Indigenous public servants do have, and that the latter have nothing to offer outside Indigenous policy portfolios. The failure of governments to even recognize that systemic racism exists makes it much more difficult for Indigenous people to challenge it. Other obstacles include the expectation that Indigenous public servants should be able to provide an “Indigenous perspective” on, and “Indigenous input into,” policy discussion and decisions. As discussed in chapter 1, women and non-Indigenous minority groups do not face this burden in the same way. For many of our participants it is a heavy burden, greatly increased by the fact that there are so few Indigenous public servants at the senior levels where policy is made and resources are allocated. Three other factors constitute significant challenges for Indigenous public servants. The first is their small numbers, which, in addition to exacerbating the pressure to take on “representative” roles, also means that seeking to influence policy and service delivery in ways favourable to Indigenous people is often a lonely and frustrating exercise. The second is the general lack of value governments attach to Indigenous culture and society, and the associated failure to seek substantial input from Indigenous peoples and communities when developing policies that affect them. This failure is extensively

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documented at a broader, political level (see for example O’Faircheallaigh 2018b), and our participants provided many examples to illustrate how it plays out within public services. Finally, some participants face challenges to their Indigenous identity that cause personal distress and can undermine their capacity to contribute as public servants. Obstacles also arise from within Indigenous communities, with public servants being criticized, including in some cases by family members, for “selling out” to governments that have been responsible for dispossession and efforts at cultural genocide. Other community members have inflated expectations of the roles that Indigenous public servants play, and expect them to be able to help resolve any issues that arise with government. Conversely, government agencies often expect Indigenous public servants to bear the burden of addressing the problems besetting Indigenous communities. In this regard the experiences of BC and Queensland participants strongly mirror those reported by Ganter (2016) in her study of Aboriginal public servants in the Northern Territory. Despite these difficulties, interviewees welcome the opportunity to help ensure that Indigenous interests are articulated, and to provide a bridge between Indigenous peoples and government. In pursuing that opportunity Indigenous public servants are a critical support to each other, and they also draw support as they progress through their career from Indigenous and non-Indigenous mentors and from having Indigenous role models who, while small in number, constitute a vital source of encouragement. Support can also come from community members and elders. Indeed, some Indigenous public servants are deliberately marked out by elders and communities to join the public service and navigate the system of government on their behalf and, hopefully, to help transform the state in ways that will render it more accessible to, and supportive of, Indigenous peoples. Explaining their willingness to persist in public sector employment despite its many challenges, interviewees believe they have a significant impact on policy processes and outcomes. They achieve this by directly influencing policy decisions, by incorporating Indigenous perspectives into policymaking and public administration, and by mobilizing resources for Indigenous organizations. More generally they also have an impact by “working the system” to create opportunities for Indigenous advancement, including through their support for employment, retention, and promotion of Indigenous public servants. The

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success of participants in influencing policy outcomes and processes validates the view of “representative bureaucracy” as allowing the voices of different strata in society to be heard in policymaking and resource allocation (see chapter 4).

S im il a r it ie s a n d di fference b e t w e e n   j u r isdi cti ons There is a strong commonality between Indigenous public servants in B C and Queensland in terms of their demographic representation, their career profiles, their institutional location, and their understandings and practice of leadership. In both jurisdictions numbers of Indigenous public servants increased from a very low base in the 1990s and 2000s, but they have now plateaued and are below the Indigenous proportion of the population. Indigenous people are overrepresented at lower levels of the public service, and substantially underrepresented at senior levels. They are virtually absent from central and economic agencies, and concentrated in Indigenous policy and service delivery. The commonalities in terms of leadership concepts and practices have been discussed in detail above. From our interviews there do appear to be some differences between the two jurisdictions – though, given the small size of the group involved, we raise these as suggesting the need for, and the value of, further research rather than as definitive conclusions. One involves professional mobility. More than half our Queensland interviewees have worked for another level of government or in the private sector, and many mentioned the importance of movement, including lateral movement, between sectors and agencies in providing them with the varied experience and networks that they considered to be important to their career prospects. This mobility is less evident in BC. A second involves the issue of gender and leadership. A number of interviewees in both jurisdictions argued that there can be significant differences between male and female leadership. Most noted this difference in the context of the stronger leadership role of either men or women in specific Indigenous societies or contexts, for example Aboriginal as opposed to Torres Strait Islander society, or colonial versus pre-colonial Indigenous societies. One Queensland interviewee believed that male leadership displays specific and negative characteristics regardless of whether the men involved are Indigenous or non-Indigenous.

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Finally, as noted in chapter 1, we abandoned our plan to include ethnographic observation as part of this study by having a researcher accompany and shadow Indigenous public servants as they undertook their work, because only one Canadian participant was willing to be involved. Others feared the implications of publicly exposing their work practices for their careers or for how their communities would view them. When we raised this possibility with Australian participants the response was considerably more positive, and no participant expressed fears of the sort evident in BC. We do not know the reason for this difference, but wonder whether the greater cross-government experience of our Queensland cohort adds to their self-confidence and reduces their sense of vulnerability.

W h at n e e d s to be done? All our interviewees saw the need for more active, sustained, and radical action by government to facilitate Indigenous participation and leadership. A fundamental requirement is for government to openly and consistently condemn, and refuse to tolerate, overt and “everyday” racism. Another priority is to foster respect for Aboriginal culture, both within public service organizations by implementing authentic and ongoing cultural capability training for non-Indigenous public servants and people, and in government dealings with community. It is also important for government to recognize the abilities and skills of Indigenous public servants and facilitate their meaningful participation in policy design and delivery, both in Indigenous affairs and in “mainstream” policy and administration. Government must also implement coherent and sustained policies to increase Indigenous employment across all levels of the public service, including by creating a safe environment for Indigenous public servants to speak out on Indigenous policy, and by recognizing the particular constraints and challenges that Indigenous public servants can face. In addition, there is a need for a more open dialogue about what leadership means, and should mean, in a public service context. As one B C participant noted: We should be inviting in diverse nations into government to talk about Indigenous leadership. ‘What does it mean to be a Métis leader? Tell us what leadership is like in the Esquimalt nation? What is leadership like in the Nisga’a nation? What does it mean

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to be an urban Aboriginal leader in that context?’ … Let’s open up conversations and the ability to ask questions. We add some further observations from our own experience and analysis. One significant point is that many senior non-Indigenous public servants and politicians believe that removal of obstacles to Indigenous advancement, and greater Indigenous influence over policy, can be achieved by appointing a small number of Indigenous people to the top levels of the bureaucracy. We doubt very much that this belief is justified. The obstacles that stand in the way of achieving these goals are largely structural, and only structural changes to bureaucracy can diminish or remove them. A coherent strategy to advance Indigenous public servants across the whole of the public service is essential so as to achieve, over time, a critical mass at senior levels – and end the “loneliness” of isolated senior Indigenous public servants that many of our interviewees described. Another point is that improving employment strategies and training programs for Indigenous public servants or cultural capability training for their non-Indigenous colleagues will not in itself bring about fundamental change. Such initiatives can only be effective if they occur in the context of basic change in how government relates to Indigenous public servants and Indigenous communities. We offer the following practical suggestions that can help foster Indigenous public service leadership as a force for the positive development of public services more broadly. As a starting point, we offer some ideas to value and honour Indigenous culture in public service practice and policymaking: •

•

•

•

Make respectful and appropriate use of Indigenous language/s, ceremony, symbols, and art in public service buildings, activities, and significant events; Recognize, value, and utilize Indigenous research methodologies and approaches to evidence and evaluation in connection with programs affecting Indigenous peoples and more widely; Invite Indigenous elders into the workplace to help mentor Indigenous and non-Indigenous public servants including through use of “elders in residence” models; Provide opportunities, in a structured manner, for Indigenous public servants to mentor and coach each other, and to provide opportunities for them to “reverse mentor” non-Indigenous public servants.

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It is also vital to support Indigenous employment mobility, including increased opportunities for Indigenous public servants to work in their communities and on country, and to secure positions in diverse agencies and jurisdictions. The latter offers a way to build experience in navigating public service systems, expand career options, and alleviate the “burden of representation.” Specific measures are required to address the attitudes, values, and practices of non-Indigenous public servants. Regular, ongoing cultural capability and cultural fluency training should be mandated for all non-Indigenous public servants; cultural fluency should be a key selection criteria for public service positions; and accountability provisions in relation to Indigenous recruitment, retention, and advancement should be built into the contracts of senior managers. The unique challenges that Indigenous public servants face, including the isolation they often experience, must be recognized. Safe spaces should be established for Indigenous public servants to speak out on Indigenous affairs policies and not suffer negative employment repercussions. Where possible, groups of Indigenous public servants should be created within work locations to facilitate mutual support. Pools of non-Indigenous allies should be identified and supported who can provide support with respect to employment and in relation to participation in policy development. Flexible leave and work arrangements should be created to help Indigenous public servants honour their community obligations and roles. The fact that Indigenous public servants face ongoing dilemma about whether to stay in the public service should be acknowledged. Similarly, it should be accepted that some Indigenous public servants do not believe they can exercise authentic leadership at senior levels of government. These employees should be supported to perform leadership roles at whatever level they feel they can exercise authentic leadership in working to develop effective policies and meet community needs, and their leadership at these levels should be acknowledged. These practical suggestions are part of a web of change that is needed. They will not, of themselves, give effect to positive transformation of public services unless and until non-Indigenous public servants take responsibility and begin to educate themselves about the history, contexts, and contributions of Indigenous peoples to their countries and to address power imbalances and injustices that still prevail. Finally, it is essential to achieve a reimagining of public service based on a recognition that Indigenous peoples in Australia and

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Canada can offer new thinking about bureaucracy that builds on the deep wisdom and sustainability their societies have practised for thousands of years. It is to this point that we now turn.

T he b roa d e r c o n t r ib u ti on of I ndi genous p u b l ic s e rvants Bureaucratic Theory As discussed in chapter 1, Max Weber advocated for something he called the legal-rational model of bureaucracy, which derives its authority from legal rule. As Silos (1993, 6) summarizes it, the Weberian ideal bureaucrat is “impersonal, objective, calculating, strictly determined by the goals of the organization.” Weberian bureaucrats are instrumental tools deployed in service of the office, providing the means to the organizational ends and benefits of order, precision, efficiency, calculability, unambiguity, speed, continuity, discretion, and reduction of friction. These principles act as a continuing bedrock for modern bureaucracies, despite arguments regarding the benefits of diversity as well as the positive outcomes to be achieved through more personalized public services (Needham 2011). Two reasons for Weber’s turn to the legal-rational model of bureaucracy over models based on charismatic and kinship authority were his mis-conceptualization of kinship and charisma, steeped as they were in the historical constructs of his time, and his laudably keen preoccupation with equality. For Weber, legal-rational bureaucracy gave the best chance of delivering repeatable universal treatment to citizens across a polity, without fear or favour. But is standardization the nirvana of public administration? Is “bureaucratic equality” advisable in all instances? Many commentators and practitioners now suggest that personalized service and tailored program delivery are also essential principles for public services to follow. For example, the objective of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (N D I S ) in Australia, according to the N D I S Operational Guidelines (Commonwealth of Australia 2018), is to “provide all Australians who acquire a permanent disability before the age of 65 which substantially impacts how they manage everyday activities with reasonable and necessary supports they need to live an ordinary life.” Disability, of course, occurs in diverse ways and unique responses to meet discrete circumstances are therefore needed to enable every person the ability

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to “live an ordinary life.” This indicates that standardization combined with personalization has become the new benchmark. Bureaucracies and the public services they provide can no longer assume equality of process as the only driver of good public administration. With this in mind, the observations of Indigenous public servants take on heightened interest. They bemoan the strict adherence to impersonal hierarchy that characterizes the traditional Western bureaucratic form. Simultaneously they talk cogently of the opportunities and challenges of linking bureaucratic practice with community service, engagement, and relationships. This requires a reconsideration of Weber’s approach. In Weber’s framework kin-based authority makes claims on followers on the basis of tradition and precedent. As a result the “traditional” bureaucracy, embodied in the clan, is seen to deviate from scientific rationality. It is premised on personal relationships and is seen to possess all the negative connotations of nepotism, favouritism, and village politics. The Weberian reading of kinship tends to portray it as primitive, emotional, and illogical. Because it is traditional, it also is “accused” of being closed and static as opposed to the universal legal-rational model. As such, Weber “failed to appreciate … [the] positive organizational qualities” of kinship systems (Silos 1993, 7). If kinship is understood as a system of governance that extends beyond blood and family ties, it can be seen as having its own rationality and to be as open and dynamic as the legal-rational approach (Silos 1993, 7). Where it differs is in seeing human relationships as an end in themselves and not a means to an end. The value of a kin system derives from its very existence, rather than existing to create value elsewhere. While Weber was right to be cautious about the kinship authority model, his outright rejection of it was premature. The experiences and insights of Indigenous public servants suggest there may be great merit in modern bureaucracies reflecting on how to better engage with communities and work with them to achieve the outcomes that are right for their particular time and place. Organizational theorists such as Ouchi (1980) have for some time identified opportunities to use kinship systems, as opposed to markets and bureaucracies. Their comparison of the three approaches is often based on concepts of efficiency and effectiveness assessed according to the level of mediation and control that is needed between parties, set against certain conditions. For example, they argue that kinship systems operate effectively when there is high performance ambiguity and low

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opportunism or goal incongruence. In other words, kinship trumps markets and bureaucracies as an organizational form when relationships are interdependently aligned and where trust and inclusion is needed to overcome task and measurement uncertainty. A kinship model also operates effectively where the evaluation of performance tends to occur through “subtle reading of signals that is possible among intimate co-workers but which cannot be translated into explicit, verifiable measures” (Ouchi 1980, 137). There is something about the inclusive and trusting nature of relationships that occur in clans that results in highly efficient and effective ways of approaching and managing performance uncertainty, due to the integrative nature of the ties that bind members of the clan together. Goal congruence for the clan emerges from history, place-based sensitivity, authenticity, and common identity dimensions over time. These develop a certain form of authority and leadership that can be leveraged to the benefit of individuals within the community, as well as to community benefit overall. The commerciality of markets and the clinical relationships of bureaucracies are superseded by the more personal connections of the clan. Markets are preferable as an organizational form, on the other hand, when performance is more easily measured and where goal incongruence is high. The parties, in a market format, often have diverse objectives but can engage in exchange based on a highly measurable relationship. Bureaucracies, with their rules and accountability focus, tend to be efficient and provide better control when goal incongruence and performance ambiguity are moderately high. Within this framework of analysis, the kinship system often precludes contracting, which is seen to be aligned with relatively easy performance measurement and high goal incongruence. This, in turn, explains why attempts to “control” communities through contracts is usually doomed to failure and often damages trust (Aoki and Hayami 2000). More recently, co-creation and co-production movements in the public management field (see for example Brandsen et al. 2018) mirror a concern that public services need to reach out more authentically and with greater impact by turning to, and including, citizens in a more personalized manner. Essentially, they are suggesting that kinship authority may have a place in contemporary governance, as do intelligent and tailored approaches to the role of markets. Does this mean rejecting bureaucracy? Definitely not. The experience of Indigenous public servants suggests instead that different

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forms of authority and leadership are essential at different times and in different ways to best suit community goals. Sometimes markets will be appropriate, at other times “legal-rational” or “kinship” approaches. Indeed we should not be limited to these models given others may exist that have yet to be articulated or mobilized within government. What distinguishes Indigenous public servants is their fluency at reading circumstances and processes across community and public service settings and adapting and deploying diverse authority and leadership forms according to need. This skill is often applied innately as they walk across Western and Indigenous worlds and the spaces in between. The experiences and insights of Indigenous public servants suggest that a revitalized theory of bureaucracy is possible and desirable – one that taps into many aspects of authority and leadership. This contrasts with framing the Weberian model as either excluding the possibility of alternatives, or setting up alternatives in opposition. While existing power distributions will undoubtedly be challenged by such an approach, we hold out hope that it might move thinking about the machinery of government in new directions towards inclusive community-engaged solutions, to the benefit of all. Public Service Practice Governments have a strong interest in pursuing actions designed to maximize the participation and advancement of Indigenous public servants because, as our research indicates, they constitute a unique workforce of great value in meeting the challenges and opportunities of modern public service work. They are consummate intercultural and diplomatic experts, possess impressive network and community engagement skills, and are talented boundary spanners and governance navigators. They are adaptable but attentive to tradition, their intercultural reality encourages them to be critical thinkers and skilled at comparative analysis, and their resilience and persistence as well as their skills in community outreach and their compassion for others makes them particularly valuable employees. They present cognitive diversity possibilities and unique wisdom to meet the demands of the modern world across a range of areas including mobilizing new forms of evidence, more inclusive policymaking processes, intergenerational expertise, sustainability, and identity.

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The conceptual and practical insights Indigenous public servants bring to leadership are highly relevant to the mainstream public service and not just to Indigenous policy and service delivery. As noted in chapter 4, there is strong support in the literature that public sector leadership (and organizational leadership more generally) must move beyond simple concepts of hierarchy or public choice or “market” approaches towards collaborative and community-based approaches (“distributed leadership”). The latter are based on networks and call for a more ethical awareness of what leadership can contribute and how it can be envisioned and practised. The emphasis our participants place on relationships and on community orientation, for instance, are highly relevant in this context. Similarly, adoption of holistic approaches appears essential in helping to overcome the “silo” mentality that is the bane of many modern bureaucracies. As one BC participant noted: To me, that whole approach [of government] that’s taking away from the holistic version of things and making everything sectionalized again. That’s the part that – that’s always the hard part because First Nations don’t believe life can function [in this way]. Life functions because of everything else that happens around it, because it is part of the bigger environment and that’s the hard part where you see a lot of head-butting between First Nations and government … it’s because of that approach. The experience of Indigenous public servants, the obstacles they face, and the strategies they use in confronting these are all highly relevant to the wider diversity agenda, to the need for government to draw on the talents of all their citizens and to organize in a range of different ways in order to meet their increasingly diverse needs. It is worth repeating the comments of two of our Queensland interviewees on this point: what I always see is that the [public service] culture needs to change in a way that is accepting of people who are different, who may have a different lifestyle or background or they might look different. Now if I look across the public service, I see very few people who are not Caucasian … [The public service is] very happy at the

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moment having a closed mind and keeping things the way they are and all agreeing with each other. The potential contribution of Indigenous public servants goes beyond their individual talents. The observations of our participants indicate that Indigenous cosmologies and traditional teachings and practises can offer new ways of thinking about public policies and about how to practise public service. What they offer is not just a matter of symbolism. While symbolism through ceremony and cultural acknowledgments has value, Indigenous public servants understand that it is not enough, and thus pursue substantive reform to organizational relationships and the distribution of power in order to achieve tangible change. This suggests that a unique approach to public administration in Australia and Canada is possible – one that respects the history and wisdom of civilizations that are amongst the oldest in the world. For instance, Indigenous public servants have a sophisticated appreciation for, and navigation of, Western bureaucratic demands and structures, while still focusing on serving Indigenous communities. Their understanding of representation as nuanced and layered highlights the need for a richer application of thinking about representation in Western government. Similarly, the fact that Indigenous public service leadership is practised through and with community itself, rather than detached from it, has implications for conventional thinking about the relationship between public participation, public services, and governments. This wider potential of Indigenous public servants can only be fully realized if they are recruited to mainstream as well as Indigenousspecific roles and agencies. This is not occurring at the moment, as is abundantly clear from the data regarding the institutional location of Indigenous public servants and agencies presented in chapter 3. In BC and Queensland, at least, they are “ghettoized” in agencies dealing with Indigenous policy or with a demographic where Indigenous people are heavily represented.

T ran s f o r m at io n , j u s t ic e , and reconci li ati on The distinctive approach to leadership of Indigenous public servants and the skills they deploy also implies that the public service might have potential as a site of transformation in the relationship between government and Indigenous peoples, and enhance the prospects for

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justice and reconciliation in Australia and Canada. There are two dimensions to this issue. The voices of Indigenous public servants show clearly that the public service, a key institution in Australian and Canadian life, is not immune to racism. It is not unreasonable to suggest that structural problems may be built into policies that emerge from public services where racism is still present. Canada and Australian cannot maximize the full effects of reconciliation and truth telling until the history of public services as sites of injustice and racism are purposefully confronted. The aftereffects and intergenerational legacy of public service history still requires deliberate attention. The second issue involves the “deficit” approach towards Indigenous peoples and Indigenous affairs that permeates policymaking at a structural level (Blackman et al. 2016). Indigenous employment strategies in the public service often have an underlying implication that governments have to “fix” the Indigenous public servants so that they can meld to the demands of public service systems. Similarly, Indigenous public servants are often called upon to offer a way of “fixing” Indigenous Affairs. A strengths-based approach to the contributions of Indigenous public servants turns these ideas on their head. Seeing Indigenous public servants and Indigenous communities as assets, which bring strengths to the bureaucracy and to government more broadly, can provide a basis for transforming the public service and the way the state interacts with Indigenous communities. Such a strengths-based approach would value Indigenous knowledges and traditions as beneficial to the bureaucratic cause rather than as oddities or problems to be screened out of the practices of Indigenous public servants. The framing of Indigenous public servant leadership, as well as their contribution to Indigenous affairs, is critical in this regard, as the narrative that is used discloses the fundamental philosophies and underlying structures of power that shape policy paradigms (Aldrich 2006). It is certainly the case that if the vision of leadership articulated by our participants was adopted throughout the public service of the two countries the impact would, over time, be profound. However, this possibility will not be realized without fundamental change – not only in the way in which public services and governments view Indigenous public servants, but also in the way governments relate to Indigenous communities. We hope that, by giving voice to Indigenous public servants in British Columbia and Queensland, we have increased the prospect that such fundamental change may occur.

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Index

Page numbers in italics refer to figures. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATS I C), 32 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders: debates on status of, 21–2; discrimination against, 35–6; dispossession of, 31–2, 35; employment of, 210; equality of, 32; experience of racism, 135–6; exploitation of, 35–6; fatalities of, 35; government policy towards, 22, 31–3; government programs for, 48; neglect of the knowledge and skills of, 191–2; obstacles to career building, 195; population statistics, 30, 32, 194; in public sector, 54, 55, 92–3, 142–3, 147; recognition of land rights, 27, 33–4; wages of, 53 Aboriginal employees in British Columbia public service: burden of representation, 146; community relations of, 149–50, 171, 172; competencies of, 67; conflicts and tensions faced by,

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156–7, 160; devaluation of knowledge of, 144; distribution across agencies, 66, 67–8; family and social obligations of, 199; geographical distribution of, 66; impact on policymaking, 161–2, 166–7; isolation of, 150–1, 186; as mediators between government and communities, 164–5, 172, 203, 205; as mentors, 210– 11; perspectives on public administration, 205; promotion of reconciliation by, 206; racial attitudes towards, 135; state apparatus and, 155, 160; statistics of, 65, 66, 67; values and beliefs of, 157 Aboriginal Relations Behavioural Competencies, 67 active representation, 10, 12, 81, 82 Althaus, Catherine, 6–7, 19, 84, 85, 215 Australia: Aboriginal public servants in, 4, 150, 220; administrative units of, 34; colonization

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250 Index and colonial legacies, 21, 24–7, 30; comparison to Canada, 23, 37–8, 48; land ownership, 30; land rights recognition, 27, 33–4; Liberal/National party coalition government, 32; National Disability Insurance Scheme (ND I S ), 225; Native Title Act, 32–3, 34; political structures of, 30–1; Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (R DA), 53; territory of, 30. See also Queensland Australian Labor Party (ALP), 31, 32 Australian Public Service (APS ), 94–5, 96 authenticity: concept of, 113; in context of leadership, 113–14 Barnhardt, Ray, 7 Bean, Daryn, 7 Bjelke-Petersen, Johannes (Joh), 35, 36, 53 Bligh, Anna, 55 British Columbia: Aboriginal population, 63; British settlement of, 44; capital city, 43; comparison to Queensland, 15, 47, 49; Douglas Treaties, 45–6; First Nations of, 44–5, 46, 47, 63; immigrant population, 43; Inuit population, 44; Korbin Commission, 63–4; land title recognition, 46–7; Métis population, 44, 63; Potlatch Ban, 44; Public Service Act, 64 British Columbia Assembly of First Nations (BCAFN ), 47 British Columbia Public Service (B C P S ): authority layers in, 166;

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bureaucracy of, 165–6; Indigenous employees in, 17–18, 63, 64–5, 66, 214–15; Indigenous Youth Internship Program, 17, 67; organization of, 47; vs Queensland Public Service, 50–1, 221–2; workforce statistics, 65 British Columbia Public Service Agency (B C PSA ), 67 British Columbia Public Service Employee Relations Commission (PSER C ), 64–5 British Columbia Treaty Commission (B C TC ), 46 bureaucracy: inefficiency of, 165, 166; vs kinship systems, 226–7; legal-rational model of, 225, 228; representative, 5, 9, 10–12, 91, 92, 93; Weberian notion of, 5, 10–11, 225–6, 228 Burns, James MacGregor, 16 Cain, Susan, 77 Calder case, 42, 43 Campbell, Gordon, 47 Canada: administrative units of, 38–9; agricultural development, 37; colonization and colonial legacies, 21, 24–7, 37–8; comparison to Australia, 23, 37–8, 48; constitution of, 40, 41–2; federal and provincial powers, 39; First Nations’ treaties with, 38, 40; francophone minority, 39; fur trade in, 37; Indigenous affairs, 40–2; military conflicts, 38; political parties, 39; population, 37; public service, 82; recognition of Aboriginal rights, 27; Royal Proclamation of 1763, 38;

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Index 251 Truth and Reconciliation Report, 21. See also Indian Act ceremonies, 125, 126–7 child protection programs, 162, 189, 194, 200–2, 209 Clark, Christy, 47 colonization: impact on Indigenous population, 21, 24–7, 30, 37–8 Conservative Party of Canada, 39 contemporary Indigenous leadership, 84, 96–7. See also traditional Indigenous leadership Corbett, Anthony, 7, 12 Costello, Peter, 56 Council of Australian Governments (C O A G), 55 Crazy Horse, 168 Dijk, Gerda van, 7 diversity in public sector: impact on performance productivity, 81–2; rationales for pursuing, 79–81; scholarly studies of, 79, 81–2 Douglas, James, 45 Douglas Treaties, 45–6 feminism, 12 First Nations, 38, 40, 42–3, 44, 45, 46, 47 First People, 41, 42–3 Fischer, Tim, 32 Fitzgerald Inquiry into Queensland Police Corruption, 53 Foldy, Erica, 217 Ganter, Elizabeth, 90, 92, 93, 94, 220 Grint, Keith, 87, 215 Hanson, Pauline, 34, 137

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hierarchy: Indigenous perception of, 130 Hofstede, Geert, 89 Hohaia, Te Aroha, 7 Howard, John, 32 Hudson’s Bay Company (HB C ), 45 humility: in context of leadership, 112–13, 114, 115, 116 identified positions in public service, 181–3 Indian Act, 45, 46, 48, 49, 130 Indians: negative connotation of the term, 203 Indigenous communities: adaptability of, 128; election of leaders of, 125; government officials’ attitude to, 136–7; organization of, 88, 124 Indigenous cosmology, 124–5 Indigenous dispossession, 25–7, 31–2, 35 Indigenous employees in Queensland public service: attrition rate, 158, 166, 193–4; burden of representation of, 146, 147; career prospects of, 148; collegiality between, 177; community relations of, 148, 149, 171–2, 207–8; conflicts and tensions faced by, 155, 156, 157–8, 167–9; conformism of, 163–4; cultural engagement with, 185–6; devaluation of knowledge of, 144; distribution across agencies, 62; doubts in Indigeneity of, 171–2; exclusion and discrimination of, 62; family and social obligations of, 198–9; government strategy for, 54–5, 58;

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252 Index historical context, 52–3; interaction with clients, 203–4; isolation of, 145, 150; as mediators between government and ­communities, 164–5, 207–8; mentoring of, 175–6, 179; nonIndigenous colleagues of, 192–3; perspectives on public administration, 204–5; promotion of, 145; racial attitudes towards, 134–6, 137–8; recruitment of, 193–4; responsibilities of, 160, 210; retention of, 195; salary level of, 61–2, 70–1, 72–3; at senior level, 194–5; statistics of, 53, 55–6, 58–62, 60, 69 Indigenous housing program, 180 Indigenous knowledge and skills: lack of value attributed to, 95, 96, 138–9, 140–2, 144, 190–2 Indigenous leaders: community’s acceptance of, 119; diverse roles of, 103, 104; Indigenous perspective on, 102; vs non-Indigenous leaders, 86; qualities of, 99–100, 116, 120–1 Indigenous leadership: approach to time in, 131–2; authenticity as attribute of, 112–16; background actions in, 110–11, 112; basic forms of, 218; in bureaucratic context, 103–4, 128–9; ceremonial and spiritual elements of, 125–7, 133; characteristics of, 85, 132–3, 215, 216; communityoriented framework of, 101, 104, 116–17, 118, 119, 122, 123–4, 133; decision-making in, 120, 129–30, 131–2; elders’ role in, 100; emphasis on relationships

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in, 105–6, 120, 216; facilitators of, 174; gender and, 89–90; generic model of, 85–6; holistic view of, 101, 102, 105, 132, 215, 217; humility as attribute of, 104–5, 112–16; Indigenous understanding of, 19–20, 98–9, 127, 161; kinship and, 122; vs leadership in bureaucracy, 128–9, 131–2; listening and learning in, 108, 114–15; literature on, 74–5; meaning of, 222–3; notion of walking the talk in, 103, 106, 107, 108; obstacles for, 217–18; persistence as quality of, 110, 111, 112; principles of, 75; problem-­solving in, 130–1; relationships in, 105–6; resilience in, 110, 111; “sacred” aspects of, 16; scholarship on, 16–17, 74, 215–16; “seven generations” principle and, 109; social organization and, 123; styles of, 104, 123, 129, 131; suggestions for improvement, 223, 224; trust and respect in, 107, 108; values in, 108, 109; vs Western concepts of leadership, 75, 102, 131, 133; words and actions in, 102–3, 215 Indigenous participation: barriers to, 134–45; government approach to, 184, 212, 222, 223, 228; mentors as facilitators of, 174, 175–7; ramifications of, 3, 4; recommendations on promotion of, 184–99, 215; role models and, 177–8; at senior level, 194–5 Indigenous people: access to natural resources, 26–7; access to

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Index 253 public services, 26; colonial policies towards, 6, 24, 26, 27; in criminal justice system, 26; cultural practices of, 8, 29; denial of self-governance for, 24–5; economic and social status of, 26; exclusion from census, 25; formal education of, 26; government relations with, 230–1; health issues of, 26; historical impact of the state on, 159; holistic worldview of, 29; hostility towards state authorities, 27; housing problem, 201; identity of, 12; impact of colonialism on, 27–8; importance of kinship for, 28–9; marginalization of, 23, 215; recruitment of, 3; relationship to land, 26, 28; scholarly studies of, 5; spirituality of, 29; terminology related to, 8–9 Indigenous public servants: academic credentials of, 196–7; assumptions about, 95, 138–9, 140–1; attitudes of non-­Indigenous colleagues to, 95–6, 178–9, 211; attrition rates, 155, 158, 166; burden of representation, 173; bureaucratic barriers, 165; career development, 195–6, 212; challenges of, 3–4, 92, 93, 159, 167, 168, 172–3, 198, 212, 219–20, 224; collegiality between, 147–8, 177, 178, 179–80, 212; community relations of, 92–3, 149–50, 169–71, 173; comparative analysis of, 11, 14–15, 20, 214; conflict management, 155–6; conformism of, 160–1, 163–4; creation of “safe” environment

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for, 183; cultural styles of, 160– 1; demands placed on, 145; ­distinguished features of, 228; doubts in Indigeneity of, 172; emphasis on relationships, 209; expectations from, 143; facilitation of Indigenous employment by, 209–10; family and social obligations of, 198–9; ghettoization of, 142–3; identified vs mainstream roles of, 181–3; identities of, 12; impact on policymaking, 5, 10, 13–14, 143–4, 188–9, 199–200, 201–2, 207, 211–12, 213, 220–1, 229; importance of “critical mass” of, 179– 80; Indigenous society and, 168–72; interaction with clients, 203; interviews with, 17–20; isolation of, 139–40, 143, 150–1, 219; lack of engagement of, 144– 5; as mediators between community and government, 164–5, 202–3, 205–6, 207–8, 220; mentorship of, 174–6; motivations of, 170; movement across agencies, 180–1; neglect of opinions of, 151–2; neglect of skills and abilities of, 94–5, 138–9, 191–3; perspectives on public administration, 202–5, 208–9; “pigeonholing” of, 142–3; potentials of, 230; professional development of, 196–8; promotion of, 145; racial attitudes towards, 136, 137–8, 219, 231; recruitment of, 214; retention of, 153–4; scholarly literature on, 11–12, 15, 75, 90–7, 220; at senior level, 154, 197–8; shortage of, 147; state

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254 Index apparatus and, 154–5, 160; statistical data on, 9; at temporary and casual positions, 154, 163; “token” appointments of, 193; traditional learning of, 197; translation role of, 206; unique experience of, 13; values of, 149; work motivations of, 158–9 Indigenous public service: comparative perspective on, 221–2; future of, 21–2; Indigenous culture and, 22, 187–91; reward and promotion systems, 190 Indigenous research methodology, 5, 7–9, 15–16, 20–1 Indigenous skills. See Indigenous knowledge and skills Indigenous ways of learning, 197 Indigenous women: leadership of, 88–90 Inuit, 44 Johns, Ed, 168 Johnston, Heather, 7, 84, 85, 215 Juillet, Luc, 82 Julien, Mark, 84, 85, 215 justice and reconciliation: prospects for, 230–1 Kamara, Martha S., 88, 89, 90 Kidd, Ros, 53 Kingsley, J. Donald, 80 kinship systems, 122, 225, 226–7, 228 Kirkness, Verna, 7 Korbin, Judy, 63 Korbin Commission, 63–4, 67 labour force, 52

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land: Indigenous connection to, 28; Western vs Indigenous perception of, 26 Larkin, Steven, 90, 94, 137, 141, 219 leadership: administrative, 17; ­concepts of, 9, 74, 76, 216–17; “­contemporary” vs “traditional,” 215–16; distributed, 77; formal vs informal, 78; gender and, 77; holistic view of, 100–1, 102, 105; inter-organizational, 217; vs management, 78; models of, 216–17; multi-dimensional nature of, 78, 83; scholarly literature on, 16, 17, 76, 217; transactional vs transformational dichotomy, 16; Western forms of, 75, 102, 131, 133. See also Indigenous leadership; public sector leadership Leonard, Janet, 7 Lewis, Nat, 110 Liberal Party of Canada, 39 Limerick, Michael, 88 Mabo case, 33 Main, Fiona, 7, 19 Manuels, George, 168 Māori people, 15 Maynard, Ian, 57 mentorship, 174–7 meta-leadership, 217 Métis, 41, 44 Middleton, Rebecca, 7 Ministry of Children and Family Development (MC FD) in British Columbia, 90–1, 92 Mosher, Frederick C., 81

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Index 255 moving between “two worlds”: notion of, 12 Muller, Helen J., 12 Murphy, Lyndon, 7 National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Manitoba, 45 National Disability Insurance Scheme (N DI S ) in Australia, 225–6 Native Studies, 146 New Democratic Party (N DP) of Canada, 39 New Relationship Trust, 47 New Zealand: Indigenous policies in, 15, 185 Nisga’a Tribal Council, 46 non-Indigenous public servants: attitudes towards Indigenous colleagues, 95–6, 178–9, 211; privileges of, 211; promotion of, 141–2; salary levels of, 72–3; s­ tatistics of, 59–61, 60 Northcote Trevelyan report, 80 Nunavut public service, 3 O’Faircheallaigh, Ciaran, 6, 7 oneness with universe, 127 Ospina, Sonia, 217 Ouchi, Willam G., 226 Parti Québécois, 39 passive representation, 10, 81, 82 Phillips, Mike, 7 Pitts, David W., 82 public administration: importance of timing of Indigenous action in, 209; Indigenous perspectives on, 202–4; resource mobilization in,

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207–8, 209; “working the system” in, 209 public sector leadership: collaborative and community-based approaches to, 77–8; definition of, 78–9; future of, 79; holistic approaches to, 229; market approaches to, 77, 226, 227, 228; vs other leadership forms, 78; scholarly literature on, 75–6, 77, 83, 229; significance of, 77; styles of, 78; Western-centric approaches to, 77 public service, 4, 80, 228, 229–30 Queensland: Anti-Discrimination Act, 54; capital city, 34; child safety programs, 200–2; comparison to British Columbia, 15, 49; economic development, 34; Indigenous employment policy, 54–5, 58–9, 93–4, 152–3; Indigenous population, 34, 51–2, 52; labour force, 51–2; land use in, 25, 36; legislature of, 35; National Party government, 53; Newman government, 56, 152; Palaszczuk Labor government, 57; political parties, 34–5; ­population, 34; Public Sector Management Commission (PSMC), 53–4; public sector reforms, 53–4, 56, 57; social and political changes, 62. See also Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Queensland Commission of Audit Report, 56

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256 Index Queensland Public Sector Commission (QPS C) reports, 54–5, 56, 58 Queensland Public Service (QPS ): vs British Columbia Public Service (BCPS ), 50–1, 221–2; bureaucracy of, 165; cabinet submissions, 190; cultural training for non-Indigenous staff, 186; departments of, 36, 62; diversity issue, 58, 187; establishment of, 51; Indigenous employment in, 52–62, 63, 69, 169; non-­ Indigenous employment in, 59–61, 60, 63, 70–3; number of employees in, 36, 57; salary levels, 61–2, 70–3, 187. See also Indigenous employees in Queensland public service Queensland Reconciliation Management Plan, 55 racism: colonization and, 24; everyday, 137, 219; forms of, 21, 137; manifestations of open, 134–6, 219; prevention of, 184; in public services, 138, 140, 231; systemic, 137, 143; trauma cause by, 136 Rasmussen, Ken, 82 representation. See active representation; passive representation residential schools: in British Columbia, legacy of, 44–5 respect: Indigenous view of, 105 role models, 177–8 Rousseau, Jane, 90, 91, 92, 214 Ryan, Bill, 7 “seven generations” principle, 109

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Silos, Leonardo R., 225 Stewart, Jenny, 96, 97, 215 Stolen Generations, 26 Supreme Court of Canada: judgment in the Tsilhqot’in case, 47; rulings on First People’s land rights, 42, 46 Thomas, Robina, 7 Tim, Kerrie, 6 time and space: Indigenous understanding of, 125, 131–2 traditional Indigenous leadership: in Australia, 83–4; in Canada, 84; components of, 86–7, 87; idea of “balance” in, 86, 87; models of, 87; modern society and, 84; qualities of, 83–4; scholarly literature on, 83, 87–8 Treaty 8, 46 Trudeau, Pierre, 41 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 44, 48 Tsilhqot’in case, 47 Uluru Statement of the Heart, 22 Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, 47 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDR IP), 47 Van Wart, Montgomery, 16–17, 76, 78, 79 Warn, James J., 96, 97, 215 Warner, Linda S., 87, 215 Weber, Max, 225, 226 Yarrabah people, 147

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