Maintaining Responsibility to Place: Indigenous Place Values in Statutory Land-Use Planning

Abstract

The difficulties involved with incorporating multiple people-place values in statutory land-use planning influenced by powerful political ideals and mechanisms have been acknowledged since the early 1970s. Collaboration, community engagement and communicative rationality have been posited as a way forward on these. However, these processes can also be severely impacted by dominant political philosophies and their associated structures. This can be problematic when these political structures influence Western statutory planning obligation to protect local values about place. This research seeks to understand how values of the political context impact Western state and local government land-use planning processes, negotiations and outcomes and the ability to incorporate and consider people’s values. It focuses on Australian Aboriginal Peoples’ values to Country as a critical case to explore this relationship. The research asks the following question: Using Aboriginal values to Country as a critical case, understand whether underpinning political elite values impact statutory land-use planning and it’s ability to include and consider people’s values to place and, if so, how?