A Land Rights News article
Few newly-elected Central Land Council delegates get through their first council meeting without a peek in the how-to-manual for being a council member.
Each table has copies of the illustrated booklet Governance at the Central Land Council and many members like to look them up when they have questions.
They usually have lots of them: 'Why do we check if we have a quorum and what is a quorum anyway?'
'How do I know if I've got a conflict of interest and what do I do about it?'
'What is a proxy and why might I need one?'
The CLC's good governance guide has all the answers because it is based on years of feedback from CLC members.
It has been around for almost two decades, but the third edition is the best one yet.
So good, in fact, that Helen Wilson from the Lajamanu-based Northern Tanami Rangers has asked to take copies back to her community.
"I would like to have a book like that for all the rangers," she said. "So we can learn about governance too and about how the CLC works. There's no big words in the book, so it's all plain English. They broke it down so it's good to read. I might read it to my kids and teach them."
"I think this book is really good - what governance means to us. It will bring a lot of learning and teaching to the younger ones, like my age, and everyone else."
The lead ranger has been thinking on and off about representing her community on the council someday, once she moves on from ranger work.
When she visited the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park on other business in April she attended parts of the CLC's induction and governance training day and started to leaf through the guide.
"The writing is all right, not too long and not too short. The pictures in the book are of local people, so that's good."
Another fan of the guide is governance trainer Maggie Kavanagh who ran the council induction during the first meeting of the CLC's 2025-28 council term.
Ms Kavanagh has followed the development of the guide for many years and believes the latest edition shows that the council is taking governance support seriously.
"It is comprehensive, user friendly, has great graphics and is a terrific hands-on resource for council members to learn about their job," she said.
Read the digital copy of Governance at the Central Land Council
