How spatial strategy can help your Native Title business

For all industries working in areas of land tenure, particularly Native Title organisations, having a spatial strategy is one of the most beneficial things you can do to protect the rights and interests associated with traditional ownership of Country. 

Strategic spatial planning, or spatial strategy, is focused on making informed and data driven decisions about the pressures of other land users and their activities on your Country. Strategies, which are influenced by both the public and private sector to create policy, are then implemented through comprehensive and integrable approaches to native title land management. 

Here we have explained why you should be thinking about your own spatial strategy, how it relates to Native Title organisations, and why it is so important.

Why would you consider having a spatial strategy? 

The primary objective of spatial strategy is to optimise long term land protection of natural and cultural assets for future generations, so we often see these strategies associated with increased industrial pressure and sustainability planning. 

As the consequences associated with mining, industry, environmental risks, and resource scarcity become more apparent, the need for spatial strategies and strategic planning is heightened. 

These industries have a wide-reaching impact. As a consequence, we see the spatial planning process become intertwined with sociopolitics and multi-layered objectives. When you consider global factors, such as environmental impacts, decision makers will take into account the spatial relationships for employment, leisure, homes and traditional land use as they develop their wider strategic plan. 

In the Native Title industry, this same framework of considerations should be applied.

Spatial strategy and Native Title

Native Title organisations maintain land tenure and cultural heritage sites, and recognise the traditional rights and interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Spatial strategy in Native Title is important because it increases the efficiency of planning and encourages collaboration through public participation. 

As Native Title organisations generate data through knowledge exchange with Traditional Owners, having an efficient and collaborative process for decision making is imperative. The active participation of Elders is at the heart of Native Title work, and the mapping of significant cultural sites guided by their knowledge should contribute to the foundation of a spatial strategy for that location. 

Data generated from knowledge exchanges is used to recognise and safeguard cultural heritage sites with both tangible and intangible significance. As Native Title organisations collect this unmatched and often unrecorded knowledge of Country, a clear and locally produced spatial strategy will ensure that future land use decisions incorporate Traditional Owners’ objectives as closely as possible.

As well as incorporating a spatial strategy in Native Title management , practicing data governance and data ownership is equally as important for successful Native Title determined groups such as Prescribed Body Corporates (PBC).

Let’s say for example you work within a PBC and you have been approached by a private company that would like to develop your land. Your PBC will require tailored workflows for each internal unit to work collaboratively. For example, these units may include Native Title management, Indigenous Ranger Groups and those involved with the processes of heritage management. 

Each of these units have their own processes and objectives, and a spatial strategy introducing tailored workflows ensures each unit can pull from the same pool data while achieving their own specific goals. 

Do you need help creating a spatial strategy for your Native Title business? 

Winyama understands Indigenous communities, their organisations and the sensitivities that are related to cultural protocols and engagement. We believe that all organisations benefit from making data driven decisions.

If you have a Native Title project that you would like to discuss, our team would love to hear from you.