Revisioning bureaucracy through First Nations Public Servant Stewardship

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have participated in Australia’s national or federal government bureaucracy, the Australian Public Service, for more than half a century. In that period, national employment in the public administration sector has grown substantially and is now second highest in the nation. Growth of this workforce has been hard won and a range of difficulties are now well established in the literature and a significant churn of employees has been an ongoing concern. Much government policy has sought to address employment challenges by focusing on improving the ‘capability’ of Indigenous public servants themselves rather than considering the role of bureaucratic culture in employment outcomes. This paper inverts the prevailing narrative to instead consider First Nations employees as offering enormous value to the project of improving bureaucracy. Utilising duGay’s idea that bureaucratic work involves ‘bureaucratic ethos’ the paper considers the potential value of ‘Indigenous bureaucratic ethos’ in refashioning bureaucracies to make them fit for purpose in both Indigenous contexts and more broadly. The concept of stewardship is featured to highlight the value of First Nations perspectives and experiences within bureaucracy that foregrounds for example both a longer-term approach to bureaucratic work and an elevated sense of custodianship. The concept of Indigenous stewardship is a reminder that First Nations perspectives are a vital requirement within any project of re-imagining bureaucracy to reach for forms and practices that better reflect and serve the visions of First Nations people, that support the flourishing of First Nations organisations and communities whilst also offering opportunities for improving bureaucracy for all citizens.