Securing rights to their own resources is only a beginning for Indigenous groups. For the reason that winning this right in court or through legislation is usually subsidiary in importance to winning political campaigns about identity, few Indigenous groups are well prepared for what follows. In many parts of the Asia-Pacific where resource economies dominate, including remote parts of Australia, weak governance structures hamper the value of newly won rights, low work skills limit participation in the higher value parts of the economy, and the difficulty of turning identity politicians into business leaders to ‘forge spears into shares’ means internal conflicts often eat away at resource income streams before they can bring about meaningful social development.
Tags: development, Rights, social
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