Indigenous Community Governance Project Understanding, Building and Sustaining Effective Governance in Rural, Remote and Urban Indigenous Communities Changing forms of governance in central Cape York Peninsula   Benjamin Smith This proposed case study aims to document and analyse current governance arrangements in central Cape York Peninsula. In particular, it focusses on the township of Coen and surrounding outstations/homelands, and examines the involvement of local Aboriginal people within developing forms of governance. These new arrangements in both local and regional governance, as well as the development of new partnership arrangements between various government agencies and local and regional Aboriginal organisations, have grown out of local and governmental concern for the socio-economic disadvantage faced by Aboriginal people living on Cape York Peninsula. The township of Coen, the principal settlement of central Cape York Peninsula, and the surrounding outstations/homelands are located some 600 km north of Cairns. The homelands include Chuula (Wenlock River), Punthimu, and Langi. Coen and the surrounding outstations have a total population of around 350 people, the majority of whom are Indigenous, including Ayapathu, Northern Kaanju, Southern Kaanju, Mungkanhu and Lamalama people. Outstation populations range from three or four key residents to populations of twenty or more people. There is constant movement of the local Aboriginal population between Coen, the region’s outstations and other regional settlements, particularly during the dry season. The status of the land on which Aboriginal outstations are located varies, and includes Aboriginal freehold land, national parks and pastoral leases. With local government located in Cooktown, several hundred kilometres south of Coen, a number of local and regional services are administered by the Coen Regional Aboriginal Corporation (CRAC), which administers the local CDEP scheme. The key governing bodies proposed for the case study include CRAC and the Coen Justice Group (an advisory body). The project also aims to study the local involvement of organisations including Queensland and Commonwealth government departments and agencies (e.g. Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Community Services), a number of Cairns-based regional Aboriginal organisations (e.g. Cape York Partnerships), and local ‘grassroots’ organisations, including Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation, established as a focus for governance arrangements on traditional homelands.    Preliminary work on this project began in 2005—when an initial negotiation phase and scoping trip were carried out—and is continuing.   Papers by Ben Smith arising from this research include: —2004a. 'The social underpinnings of an “outstation movement” in Cape York Peninsula, Australia', in J. Taylor & M. Bell (eds), Population Mobility and Indigenous Peoples in Australasia and North America, pp. 239-61, Routledge, London. —2004b. 'Transforming states: Problematisation, development and governance in central Cape York Peninsula', Paper presented in the CAEPR Seminar Series, CAEPR, ANU, 27 October. —2005. '“We got our own management”: Local knowledge, government and development in Cape York Peninsula', Australian Aboriginal Studies 2005/2.