ABSTRACT
The Gawler Ranges Aboriginal Corporation (GRAC) is a registered native title body corporate (RNTBC), a type of Indigenous corporation widely used in Australia among communities of native title holders and the first of two case studies analysed for this book. The legal governance structures and procedures of the GRAC are analysed according to the criteria identified in Chapter 4 for how incorporated Indigenous community organisations facilitate participation in decision-making to obtain prior informed consent and establish mutually agreed terms. The GRAC is incorporated under the Councils (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 as an example of an agent RNTBC, formed to manage and protect the non-exclusive rights and interests of Gawler Ranges Aboriginal people legally recognised as native title holders. RNTBCs are required to be used by groups of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are legally recognised native title holders to facilitate their decisions for proposals which may affect or diminish their native title rights and interests according to codified procedures. The consultation procedures of RNTBC for such decisions involve consideration of traditional decision-making processes for obtaining consent that must be certificated to ensure the legal certainty of agreements which are functions of competent authorities.
