1. Can development transform conflict
in Indigenous communities?
Development Futures Conference, Sydney
20 - 21 November 2013
Sophia Close, PhD Candidate
ANU National Centre for Indigenous Studies
National Centre for Indigenous Studies

2. Key research question
Can Indigenous
communities better
engage with
development
systems to transform
conflict and create
self-determining
development?
National Centre for Indigenous Studies
Source: Close 2010

3. Development-related Conflict
Indigenous peoples
experience peace
and conflict in
multiple ways; my
research focuses on
conflict that is
exacerbated or
triggered by
development.
National Centre for Indigenous Studies
Source: Close 2010

4. Initial Field Results: Timor-Leste
• Timing and
sustainability
• Culture and language
• Leadership and elites
• Duplication and gaps
• Poor donor
coordination
• Many layers of
existing conflict
National Centre for Indigenous Studies
Source: Close 2010

5. Relationships
“Relationship
is
paramount.”
International Development Practitioner
2009: Interview
Source: Close 2010
National Centre for Indigenous Studies

6. Consent / Choice
Free prior and informed
consent is a decisionmaking process that
does not involve
coercion, is made before
interventions begin and
includes understanding
the full range of potential
impacts.
National Centre for Indigenous Studies
Source: Close 2013

7. “Capacity Building”
“We are driven by
models which do not
apply here. When
people do it
themselves they do it
better”.
Timorese Development Practitioner 2010:
Interview
National Centre for Indigenous Studies
Source: Close 2010

8. Self-determined Development
“Self-determination is
also about the right to
development…the
right to make
decisions that
determine the path
development should
take”.
(Nuttall 2008)
National Centre for Indigenous Studies
Source: Close 2010

9. Thank you
E-mail: sophia.close@anu.edu.au
National Centre for Indigenous Studies

10. Thank you
E-mail: sophia.close@anu.edu.au
National Centre for Indigenous Studies