Towards: A community of practice

Since the 2013 AIATSIS national native title conference in Alice Springs, a group of us, energised by the synchronicity of our presentations, have been holding regular teleconferences. These teleconferences are aimed at building a community of practice in native title engagement and community development processes which are reflective and participatory, and which acknowledge the impact that processes have on outcomes. We are interested in 'how' things are done: how people are engaged in the first place to participate; how their intentions are identified; how their emotional, procedural and substantive interests are accounted for; how relationships are built and sustained; how agendas are developed and issues are explored and communicated; and how decisions are made and disputes managed to ensure outcomes are reality checked and owned.