Realising the Principle of Free Prior Informed Consent: Building Indigenous Institutional Capacity

Indigenous people in Australia and Papua New Guinea are keenly aware of the potential role of the principle of Free Prior Informed Consent in achieving their goals in relation to large-scale resource projects. To realise this potential, they must build appropriate governance institutions to engage with corporations and the state and perform the ‘internal governance’ tasks arising from large-scale resource development. Powerful and resilient governance institutions exist in contemporary Indigenous societies in both countries, but they face problems in dealing with large extractive projects, for instance because the cultural values they represent are often not recognised or regarded as legitimate by developers and state authorities. This paper examines two attempts to create ‘hybrid’ institutions that draw on both Indigenous and western modes of governance, the first involving a proposed Liquefied Natural Gas Precinct in Western Australia, the second plans to reopen the Panguna copper mine in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.