This report is the result of a ten-day general conceptualisation research trip in May 2003 into an Indigenous community to study the Djelk Ranger program operating under the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation (BAC). During this visit I spent time with several different groups of Rangers and visited several sustainable wildlife harvesting sites which are described here.

Given the substantial deficits in economic activity, infrastructure and human capital identified by the ICCP/COAG trial in the Thamarrurr Region of the Northern Territory, questions were asked by the COAG partners as to the opportunity cost—both to governments and the local community—of sustaining the status quo. This report presents the findings of a study aimed at answering these questions. It follows a methodology first deployed by the Canadian Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

This paper sets out the methodological and conceptual framework for the Indigenous Community Governance (ICG) Project on Understanding, Building and Sustaining Effective Governance in Rural, Remote and Urban Indigenous Communities. The paper describes the Project’s research aims, questions, and techniques; explores key concepts; and discusses the ethnographic case-study and comparative approaches which form the core components of the methodological framework.