Ethan Taylor, Charles Perkins scholar
Mr Ethan Taylor is a Warumungu man who is undertaking a DPhil in Politics at Oxford University as a Roberta Sykes Scholar. This article draws on work conducted during an internship at the APSC through the Aurora Education Foundation.
An effective implementation of the APS value of stewardship can help the APS better serve Indigenous Australians in two ways.
- The value of stewardship can provide a basis of common understanding between the APS and Indigenous communities, on which can be built more prosperous future relationships. This is because the value of stewardship to that extent resonates with the Indigenous notion of custodianship – although, as this paper acknowledges, there may also be some points of divergence.
- If the value of stewardship is implemented in a way that acknowledges the need for shared stewardship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, then this will help to place greater institutional emphasis on respecting relevant Indigenous decision-makers, including Indigenous staff. This will further enable the APS to combat some of the unconscious institutional biases that may be standing in the way of the APS giving adequate institutional weight to shared decision-making.
Ultimately, investigating the APS’s value of stewardship opens possibilities for better relationships with Indigenous Australians. And more than this: it also provides an opportunity for the APS to better understand the normative depth of its role as stewards of this country – a matter on which Indigenous Australians have tens of thousands of years of knowledge to share.
Background:
The APS’s working notion of stewardship can be identified through the Public Service Amendment Bill 2023, which states that stewardship means:
‘The APS builds its capability and institutional knowledge and supports the public interest now and into the future, by understanding the long-term impacts of what it does.’
This working notion of stewardship aligns with the Indigenous notion of custodianship in the following ways:
The APS’s working notion of stewardship resonates with traditional Indigenous practices of custodianship:
- Traditional notions of custodianship focus on passing on the environment in a good condition by considering the impact of current actions on future generations to whom society has moral obligations. This resonates with the APS’s commitment to work with the Government to steward the state.
- Moreover, the APS’s working notion of stewardship, which requires that APS capabilities be invested in, resonates with the Indigenous idea that custodianship is a skill that must be developed. This is why in some First Nations, such as in the Warumungu Nation, the role of owner of the land is separated from the role of caretaker of the land.
The APS’s working notion of stewardship resonates with contemporary calls from Indigenous people for the APS to invest in its capability to work effectively with Indigenous communities now and into the future. This involves investing in Indigenous decision-making capabilities in two ways:
- Firstly, by enabling the APS to prioritise recruiting and retaining more Indigenous staff.
- Secondly, by helping non-Indigenous staff understand why it is that they must respect Indigenous decision-making. Simply ordering staff to respect Indigenous decision-making without adequately explaining why, will be ineffective. These orders must be underpinned by a persuasive rationale that is tied to the values of the APS – this links to the Indigenous notion of doing things for the right reasons.
The APS’s working notion of stewardship and the Indigenous notion of custodianship also resonate in the sense that both require systems thinking.
- Many Indigenous people prioritise what has come to be called ‘systems thinking’. This epistemic framework underpins the idea that good custodians of a system – whether this be an ecosystem, or a democratic system – examine the health of the system as a whole. This prevents rot in one part of the system from infecting other aspects of the system.
- The APS is already recognising the need for greater systems thinking by permitting for greater interdepartmental collaboration, and greater solidarity between APS institutions. This is epitomised in the cooperation that has been undertaken to form the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
The APS’s notion of stewardship resonates with Indigenous communities to some extent however there are some possible points of divergence to note. These should be kept in mind as the APS continues to work with Indigenous communities:
Some traditional notions of custodianship are underpinned by alternative ontological worldviews, such as Indigenous notions of eternalism or panpsychism, and these may not be shared in the ‘mainstream’.
- Eternalism being the idea that the past, present and future co-exist, and panpsychism being the idea that mind-like qualities can be attributed to ostensibly non-human entities, such as animals and plants.
If the idea is that Government is (functionally) the owner of Australian democracy, and the APS is the steward, then many Indigenous people may be disgruntled with this picture.
- From the perspective of contemporary Indigenous claims to sovereignty and self-determination, this picture is, at the very least, incomplete. This emphasises the need to establish a notion of shared stewardship to ensure that Indigenous demands for independent decision-making are respected.
While there are symmetries between stewardship and custodianship as governance practices, other Indigenous governance practises may also be relevant to the APS, such as Indigenous notions of accountability and Indigenous notions of good governance more broadly. This should be explored further.
All in all, by co-exploring the notions of stewardship and custodianship with Indigenous staff and communities, the APS has an opportunity to add normative depth to its role as stewards in general, as well as its role in stewarding the country alongside Indigenous communities.
- As Indigenous people, we understand the importance of grasping the normative depth of our obligations as custodians: we understand that the “why” is just as important as the “what”. We must undertake our obligations as stewards and custodians for the right reasons. In practice, this means that the APS should place emphasis on value-based onboarding. This will enable the APS to explore with staff some of the normative principles that stand behind the notion of stewardship, such as a moral responsibility to future generations.