ABSTRACT
In Australia, there has been a shift toward agreement-making as the dominant approach to governing resource developments on Indigenous peoples’ lands and territories. These contemporary governance arrangements regulating relations between industry and Indigenous peoples in Australia can arguably be characterized as neoliberal. We contend in this chapter that the dominant agreement-making tool at play in Australia—Indigenous land use agreements (ILUAs)—are underpinned by neoliberal logic. There is a substantial body of literature demonstrating the problems associated with a focus on agreement-making as the primary governance mechanism for resource access and development on Indigenous lands in Australia. In this chapter, we draw primarily on that literature to develop a note of salutary caution for those Indigenous communities in Norway affected by the growing international interest in Arctic natural resources, the ever-increasing globalization of extractive industries and the recent turn to agreement-making as a solution for securing Indigenous rights. We also draw on trends developing in Sweden regarding agreement-making, and note the challenges associated there.
