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This chapter is concerned with the question that is indigeneity, and its situation within literary and juridical imaginaries. As a persistently unsettling presence, indigeneity appears outside the law, before the law and beyond the law – indeed, in Derrida's terms, as an evocation of the unconditional. Whereas the law determines indigeneity to recognise it, I propose that its expression in Indigenous literature evokes a Derridean unconditional to which the law must perpetually, if momentarily, respond. This chapter elaborates a conception of indigeneity, as expressed in Indigenous literature, as disruptive and deconstructive of non-Indigenous law, opening its narratives to transformation.

In recent years, Australian minerals companies have increasingly considered Aboriginal communities to be “stakeholders”, suggesting that new practices of respect have superseded past colonial practices of dispossession, and apparently challenging neoliberal ideology. The increasing pervasiveness of the term “community engagement” exemplifies this apparent transformation. However, in common with the similar interdiscursive notions, “sustainable development” and “corporate social responsibility” (CSR), the meaning of “community engagement” may be contestable. In this case study of a minerals‐processing site in eastern Australia, discourses of “community engagement” among company staff and local indigenous community members are critically compared. The overall aim is to illuminate discursive tensions and multiple subjectivities among participants' assumptions and worldviews.

Broadly speaking, the paper uses a discourse analytic approach to demonstrate how apparently rational processes are contestable, unstable and discursively constructed. Using transcripts of interviews with 12 indigenous community members, and five company staff, the study firstly describes participants' conceptual relationships and identifies the discursive formations from which participants draw. Using closer textual analysis, it then investigates how participants' meanings and worldviews are constituted through discursively produced texts.

The paper finds that both company and community participants interdiscursively draw on competing discourses, but sometimes they do so in different ways. Most notably, company participants implicitly see indigeneity as static, non‐negotiable and non‐problematic, while community participants view indigeneity as inextricably bound up in identity, land and respect. Furthermore, participants have competing understandings of notions such as development, industry and money.

Concepts such as “sustainable development”, “CSR” and now “community engagement” are often cited as evidence that corporations are responding adequately to criticisms regarding their historical misdemeanours. The implicit assumption is that the contemporary capitalism can satisfactorily address social concerns. Yet, this study suggests that it does so by internalising antithetical discourses, thereby neutralising opposition, and maintaining both capitalism's legitimacy and colonialism's power relations. Thus, the capacity to challenge assumptions underlying the colonial‐capitalist project may be constrained by historical relations of power.

Indigenous entrepreneurship and hybrid venture creation represents a significant opportunity for Indigenous peoples to build vibrant Indigenous-led economies that support sustainable economic development and well-being. It is a means by which they can assert their rights to design, develop and maintain Indigenous-centric political, economic and social systems and institutions. In order to develop an integrated and comprehensive understanding of the intersection between Indigenous entrepreneurship and hybrid ventures, this chapter adopts a case study approach to examining Indigenous entrepreneurship and the underlying global trends that have influenced the design, structure and mission of Indigenous hybrid ventures. The cases present how Indigenous entrepreneurial ventures are, first and foremost, hybrid ventures that are responsive to community needs, values, cultures and traditions. They demonstrate that Indigenous entrepreneurship and hybrid ventures are more successful when the rights of Indigenous peoples are addressed and when these initiatives are led by or engage Indigenous communities. The chapter concludes with a conceptual model that can be applied to generate insights into the complex interrelationships and interdependencies that influence the formation of Indigenous hybrid ventures and value creation strategies according to three dimensions: (i) the overarching dimension of indigeneity and Indigenous rights; (ii) indigenous community orientations and (iii) indigenous hybrid venture creation considerations.

Indonesia is one of the world’s “megadiverse” countries, providing ecosystem services that accrue at the global scale. However, control over access to and use of natural resources has historically been a source of tension between the central government and local communities, with the latter usually being marginalized by the former. Since the fall of the authoritarian Suharto regime in 1998, however, a grassroots movement supports the revitalization of customary communities and their traditional systems of social organization (adat). A major part of this quest for legitimacy is the portrayal of indigenous people as environmentally benign. This chapter describes how indigenous systems have been influenced by political processes over time. We then describe how the changing political–administrative landscape has given rise to a national indigenous rights movement. We also analyze international factors that have contributed to the emergence of the indigenous movement before discussing potential challenges facing the movement in the future. This chapter seeks to get beyond the simplistic conflation of indigenous peoples and environmentalism by understanding the strategic articulation of indigeneity and environmentalism.

This paper aims to address the notion that the relationship between being indigenous and business success is inconclusive because there are tensions between indigenous values and business success. The research questions are: How do indigenous entrepreneurs define success? Does the third space create a different meaning of success in the indigenous context?

A qualitative approach was adopted for this study because the ability to define success requires subjective meanings. Participants’ lived experiences and stories were the main sources of information. Open conversational-style interviews were used because they allow participants to freely share their stories.

A defining line is that not all indigenous entrepreneurs have the same view of success. The homogeneity that emanates from sharing indigeneity does not equal unity in views, but shows that people from the same group can view success differently. However, the meaning and views formed are also connected to the wider community, relationships and predominant values that characterise the social cultural context of the entrepreneur.

This study focuses on one indigenous group; more studies need to be conducted to gain wider variation on the meaning of success in indigenous entrepreneurship and how indigenous subculture alters these meanings.

The findings of this study show that success for indigenous entrepreneurs should be defined based on individual philosophy. Hence, practitioners should endeavour to clarify what success means from the initial stage of the business to avoid misconception and make this clear to others that are connected to the business.

This paper suggests a different view of success in an indigenous context using the hybridity viewpoint to explain why success can be perceived using the in-between space without opposite binary.

The subject of leadership in Africa is an increasingly pertinent one that has been approached from various stand-points. Mainstream theoretical perspectives have shaped contemporary learning interventions on the continent, but are increasingly challenged by African renaissance views that critique this approach as a form of western ideological hegemony and an extension of the colonial project. However, alongside this debate, the issue of how to effectively address the issue of leadership “under-development” in African organisations remains salient. Moving beyond renaissance criticisms of western hegemonic thought formations, the purpose of this paper is to broaden the discourse by exploring several relevant options for a more pragmatic approach to leadership capacity building in contemporary African organisations.

This is a conceptual paper that takes a critical look at the existing debate on leadership development in Africa. In this, it examines two separate existing knowledge frameworks and considers the implications of each of these for praxis in context. The analysis presented here focuses on means of navigating between these thought formations in a much more circumspect and critical manner that leaders can learn from.

This paper highlights the important relationship between context, mainstream theory and indigenous knowledge. Its critical analyses suggest that engaging carefully with indigeneity in an experimental hybrid space may enable creative adaptation and appropriation through contextualisation, leading to more reflexive organisational practice. It subsequently proposes a conceptual model for constructive engagement with leadership development in practice.

The paper makes an important conceptual contribution to the debate by moving a step beyond the important theoretical criticisms and counter-criticisms that have so far shaped the discourse and more crucially, focusing on the salient practical question of “where we go from here” with respect to leadership capacity building in African organisations.

The aim of producing Bah Luj Production, four folk tales books accompanied by a compact disc of its narration, dialogs and music is to revitalize the folk tales, music and cultural heritage of the indigenous Semai by condensing them into an innovative resource package, tailored to appeal to the current generation’s consumer interests and lifestyles. The targeted audiences for the product are Malaysians, in particular the Semai community, as well as other local and international consumers. The purpose of this paper is to examine a practice-led approach toward considering the empowerment of selected culture bearers assisted by the intervention of researchers from the academia in facilitating the sustainability of indigenous cultural traditions in Malaysia.

This approach is practice-led – Bah Luj Production was developed based on action, reflection, review and revision. This paper provides visibility to the research process, enabling readers to understand the issues, challenges and decision-making processes. The practice-led approach that was used for this project provides a realistic practical guide, bridging the gap between theory and practice. In the conclusion, the authors also bring forth ideas for improvement through reflection, on suggested approaches in ways this research did not manage to pursue.

This paper proposes three approaches in advocating for cultural sustainability through innovation: collaboration between selected culture bearers and researchers in the academia; indigeneity of cultural expressions and illustrations; and adaptability and relevance to current interests of indigenous people and consumers of indigenous music and literature. This paper argues that it is important for the researcher to navigate research with relevance to the context and situation.

While many articles focus on presenting the outcomes of a research project, this paper guides the reader toward understanding the limitations, constraints and negotiations made by the research team during the research and production stages. Transparency in the process of decision making will enlighten readers on realistic, practical approaches as opposed to idealistic theoretical methods.

This paper argues for sustainability through innovation and posits that cultural heritage practices that continue to be performed are those that are adaptable, flexible to change and open to innovation – therefore maintaining relevance to time, context and consumers. This paper posits that researchers should be flexible and practical in their research actions and avoid generalizations that come out of recent and popular critical theories as the most, or only suitable, approaches for diverse communities.

The development of an alternate approach, theory/concept and guidelines toward sustainability through innovation make this study the first of its kind. This approach integrates tradition with creation.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the success factors for retention of first year special entry Aboriginal students at an Australian metropolitan university. A retention model is proposed for minority students.

A grounded theory approach was taken to a longitudinal study of the first year experience of 12 indigenous tertiary students, the majority being second generation undergraduates. A qualitative methodology features in‐depth interviews conducted three times over one year to ascertain impacts of schooling, teaching and learning, life experience, career aspirations, relationships and racial identity on academic success.

Positive or negative prior life experience had little impact on first year academic performance. Indigenous students as an equity group were found to have similar learning and life issues to non‐indigenous students such as studying to improve job prospects and needing part‐time employment to survive. They did not see themselves as different, and had no close relationship to indigenous knowledge or culture. Yet factors influencing academic success were related to indigeneity. Such as close friendships and dependence on each other, mentoring care of staff, and rewards of giving back through mentoring local indigenous school students. Private schools provided a dominant pipeline to university. Participants had a very early career focus but little career support. Students adopted both indigenous and non‐indigenous world perspectives and displayed robust resilience in the face of challenging family and educational experiences. In‐depth interviews across the year well demonstrated student evolutions. Further longitudinal study of student progress will extend this first Australian study.

This is the first in‐depth analysis and benchmark model for development of success factors for retaining special entry indigenous Australian students in higher education. It provides a one‐year baseline for a unique longitudinal assessment of student success. The paper newly explores the role of career and indigeneity as well as life and academic support systems in student retention. Findings apply to minority retention programs.

The purpose of this paper is to operationalize context in diversity management research.

A case analysis provides an example of the influences of context at macro, meso and micro levels. Country context (macro) and professional and organization contexts (meso) are analysed in relation to the micro individual experiences of gender and indigeneity at work.

Tensions and inconsistencies at macro and meso levels impact on diversity management at a micro level. The authors demonstrate how power and context are intertwined in the biopolitical positioning of subjects in terms of gender and indigeneity. The contested legacy of indigenous-colonial relations and societal gender dynamics are “played out” in a case from the accounting profession.

Within critical diversity studies context and power are linked in a reciprocal relationship; analysis of both is mandatory to strengthen theory and practice. The multi-level analytical framework provides a useful tool to understand advances and lack of progress for diversity groups within specific organizations.

While many diversity scholars agree that the analysis of context is important, hitherto its application has been vague. The authors conduct a multi-level analysis of context, connecting the power dynamics between the levels. The authors draw out implications within one profession in a specific country socio-politics. Multi-level analyses of context and power have the potential to enhance the theory and practice of diversity management.

This chapter serves as the introduction to the edited collection, calling into focus the diverse ways in which ‘Australia’ is asserted in the spaces, scenes and practices of Australian heavy metal. This chapter responds to earlier quandaries in the sparse research on Australian metal which question if there is anything definitively ‘Australian’ about the characteristics, themes and narratives demonstrated within Australian heavy metal scenes. In response to this challenge, the author uses this chapter to establish critical foundations for addressing how Australianness has been represented ‘Downunderground’ (Phillipov, 2008, p. 215) – historically, musically and geographically, as work in this collection affirms. This introduction foregrounds the concerns of the edited collection at large, which addresses how national identity has been imagined and constructed in ways which can at once celebrate problematic patriarchal nationalist symbolism, yet also call into focus the resistant and subversive ways in which metal scenes have deconstructed, critiqued and renegotiated the parameters of what it means to be ‘Australian’. This chapter asserts that any interrogation of the ‘Australianness’ of Australian metal must problematise the notion of a singularly ‘Australian’ identity in the first instance. Here the author argues that ‘Australian metal’ as a consolidated signifier must be problematised to instead come to an understanding of the multisited ways in which ‘Australianness’ is experienced within scenes. In doing so the author establishes the critical trajectories for the edited collection at large – to track the genealogies of Australian metal as a component in a wider global scene, and consider the plurality of its contemporary manifestations.