The prospect of large-scale renewable energy projects being developed on lands over which Traditional Owners hold rights and interests is likely to present risks in the distribution of socio-economic and environmental impacts, as well as opportunities for Aboriginal benefit, through partnerships, equity and ownership, employment, training, sustainable income generation, and potentially through improved access to affordable energy.

Modular in design, renewable energy technologies have a diverse range of possible applications, and the opportunities for Aboriginal leadership, participation and benefit are undoubtedly greater, more varied and across a wider number of scales than the limited number of case studies examined here.

Projects may be developed unilaterally by Aboriginal communities and PBCs for discrete aims of community development, household energy security and enterprise development; others may be undertaken in alliance with private sector developers or the state and progressed through agreement making processes.

This paper proposes that while the benefits and risks of specific projects are likely best assessed on a case-by case basis, a number of common themes- such as the efficacy of genuine FPIC processes- are of utility across scales of development, from small to large.

The extent to which Aboriginal decision-making is at the centre, rather than periphery, of renewable energy policy and project development remains the key to socially sustainable project development, as well as to any estimate of the success of the renewable energy transition currently underway in the North-West.

Author: Brad Riley in Nulungu Research Papers, The University of Notre Dame Australia (2021)

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Free prior informed consent (FPIC) is frequently cited as a legal standard for the development of extractives projects which impact Indigenous groups. The basic concept is that mining impacts should not occur without the group’s FPIC, but that simplicity hides domestic complexity.

This paper outlines the current state of FPIC at the international level, examines some common difficulties, and then describes Australian domestic law regarding these issues.

Author: John Southalan, “The FPIC Fixation: Indigenous - Mining Law, Internationally and Australia”, International Mining and Oil & Gas Law, Development, and Investment 22A-1 (Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, 2019)

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The front page image used in the report is from here.

Australian law recognises that First Nations people have rights and interests in the land and sea under their traditional laws and customs - that they are Traditional Owners. As highlighted in this factsheet by AIATSIS, any engagement processes needs to be based on the principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) that recognise the critical decision making role of Traditional Owners. 

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Free Prior and Informed Consent is a specific right that pertains to Indigenous Peoples and is recognised in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

This excellent FPIC manual was developed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation for people, organisations, companies and institutions wanting to incorporate FPIC into project design and implementation.

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Principles of self-determination and free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) with respect to what happens on First Nations land, is key to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Australia is a signatory to the Declaration, a legally non-binding global agreement that delineates and defines the individual and collective rights of Indigenous peoples, including their ownership rights to cultural and ceremonial expression, identity, language, employment, health, education, and other issues. Their ownership also extends to the protection of their intellectual and cultural property. 

Read the Declaration here