Recalibrating intercultural governance in Australian Indigenous organisations: the case of Aboriginal community controlled health

Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) have a
strong track record of delivering comprehensive primary health
care in Australia, but the sector also suffers from governance
challenges. This article argues that a combination of settler-state
dominance of governance arrangements and inadequate
conceptualisation of governance in the sector have led to the risk
of ‘controlled communities’–either quasi-government control of
organisations or the control of individual ACCHSs by a small
cohort of members. In response, we deploy a political rather than
technical approach to governance to consider the contested and
intercultural nature of ACCHSs governance alongside recent
governance initiatives in Southeast Queensland that signal the
value of disaggregating and delineating different forms of
governance in the sector. Key conceptual steps and a matrix for
recalibrating intercultural governance are presented to support
further research, to clarify lines of jurisdiction, and inform
governance reform in and around ACCHSs.