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Aboriginal people and their cultures and what
knowledge they can acquire. The section on
Significant Issues (2) provides further insight into
a variety of issues affecting Aboriginal people.
This booklet is intended to complement the
experience and knowledge officers already have
and cover basic information that officers dealing
with Aboriginal people for the first time may
not have.
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It is important to be aware that Aboriginal
people and communities have definite
expectations of government officers. It is
expected that government officers will know
enough about their unit/branch and their
department (including the government
generally) to be able to assist Aboriginal people.
There is an expectation that government officers
have enough understanding about the situations
and opinions of Aboriginal people to be able to
represent their views in other, non-Aboriginal
forums.
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The section relating to Aboriginality (3)
highlights a range of issues regarding who is an
Aboriginal person and who is not in the”black”
community.
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The sections relating to Consultation and
Negotiation (4) are arranged twofold. Firstly
Community Visits (4.1) which identifies issues to
think about prior to meetings and secondly the
Formal Meeting Section (4.2) provide practical
advice for the actual meeting.
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In many cases how officers deal with situations
will depend on what they already know about
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It is important to emphasise that there is no
single Aboriginal culture (see History Sections
1-1.2). Government officers need to have some
understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal
history, culture, customs and their relationship
with governments for effective communication
and negotiation.
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Therefore, this booklet does not provide an
answer to everything. There are some
problems that have more than one answer.
Other problems have no readily apparent
answer.
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Although, some general principles are provided
as guidelines to officers to apply in particular
situations this document is not intended to be
prescriptive and it is up to individual agencies
to establish detailed consultative arrangements.
You may find that you deal with one
community in a certain way and with another
community in a totally different way.
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This booklet has been developed by the
Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Policy and Development on the basis
of advice from an Aboriginal Working Party. It
is a guide to Queensland Government officers
who at some time need to consult with
Queensland Aboriginal individuals, groups and/
or communities. The information provided is
intended to be useful in a variety of settings urban, rural and remote.
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introduction
7
Pr o t o c o l s f o r Co n s u l t a t i o n a n d Ne g o t i a t i o n w i t h Ab o r i g i n a l Pe o p l e