Polycentric self-governance and Indigenous knowledge

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54337/ojs.bess.v5i1.8138

Keywords:

environmental wellbeing, First Law, Indigenous knowledge, minority voices, polycentric self-governance

Abstract

This article's main aim is to discuss research exploring how the self-governing practices found in Indigenous societies, biota and modern organisations can be embedded into the constitutions of legal entities to protect and share the wellbeing of humanity, biota and the planet. In this paper, we explore how Australian Indigenous knowledge and practices can be embedded into organisational entities and discuss how this can be achieved by reformatting Ostrom's design principles to be incorporated into corporate constitutions following an ecological form of governance practised by Indigenous Australians. This form of polycentric self-governance can aggregate the voices of minorities representing local environments up to a global level. We use case studies, system science and biomimicry to explore polycentric self-governance and how organisations can adopt it to focus on the wellbeing of all stakeholders. In particular, the paper highlights how Indigenous knowledge can contribute globally to achieving societal sustainability.

Author Biographies

Dr Shann Turnbull, International Institute for Self-governance

Dr Shann Turnbull is the founding principal of the International Institute for Self-governance and a Founding Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, responsible for including the provisions for divisional self-governance in AICD’s constitution. After a Harvard MBA, Shann became a serial entrepreneur, establishing over a dozen firms, including two public mutual funds and three publicly traded corporations. He became a founding author/presenter of the first educational qualification in the world for company directors. The United Nations published a summary of his 1975 book Democratising the Wealth of Nations. He was invited to Prague in 1990-91 and Beijing in 1991 to advise on stakeholder privatisation. He authored Australian Parliamentary reports on Aboriginal self-determination in 1977-78. His 2001 PhD from Macquarie University created a methodology to establish the science of governance of any specie and introduced the self-governing concept of Tensegrity. Dr Turnbull is a prolific author on using the self-governing practices of biota to reform the theories and practices of capitalism.

Prof Natalie P. Stoianoff, University of Technology Sydney

Prof Natalie P. Stoianoff is the Director of the Intellectual Property Program at the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. She is the Chair of the Indigenous Knowledge Forum Committee, a member of the College of Experts of the Australian Research Council (ARC) and member of the UTS Commercialisation Advisory Panel. Natalie is also Co-convenor of the UTS Technology and Intellectual Property Research Cluster, a Chartered Tax Adviser of The Taxation Institute and was a member of the NSW Board of the Australia China Business Council for 15 terms, including as Vice President and Chair of the Education Sub-Committee. Her international leadership both academically and professionally has resulted in her election as the current President of the Asian Pacific Copyright Association, and appointment as Editor-in-Chief of Computers & Law, the Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Societies for Computers and the Law. Natalie's interdisciplinary research is concerned with new technologies including the legal, ethical and commercial aspects of biotechnology with research interests ranging from Protecting Traditional/Indigenous Knowledge and Culture to Environmental Taxation and Climate Change. She is the author of numerous publications, editor and author in the multidisciplinary book, Accessing Biological Resources, Complying with the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the managing editor of the newly formed Lexis Nexis series for the Indigenous Knowledge Forum.

Prof Anne Poelina, The University of Notre Dame

Prof Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa woman from the Kimberley region of Western Australia, Chair of Indigenous Knowledges, Nulungu Institute of Research, University of Notre Dame, Broome, Western Australia, Chair of Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council. This research is part of a consortium of the University of Notre Dame Australia, Edith Cowan University, Millennium Kids, Pandanus Park Community, the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council, Madjulla Inc, the WA Museum and the Water Corporation of Western Australia. It is financially supported (partially) by the following organisations: the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Linkage Projects funding scheme (project LP210301390); the Water Corporation’s Research and Development Program; Millennium Kids Enviro Fund; and the WA Museum.

Cover image for Turnbull et al.

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Published

24-11-2023

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2023): Journal of Behavioural Economics and Social Systems

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2023 Dr Shann Turnbull, Prof Natalie P. Stoianoff, Prof Anne Poelina

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