Planning has many complicities, incongruities and prospects when it comes to recognising and protecting Indigenous rights in Planning.  Some recent developments are presenting an opportunity for Planning to address these matters comprehensively.

This paper discusses Planning's complicities in the alienation and dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from their traditional lands; Planning's incongruities in contemporary planning and planning education by analysing the extent to which Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples' rights and interests are recognised and protected in the primary planning statutes in each jurisdiction around Australia and Planning education's Indigenous content (or lack thereof); and Planning's prospects for a future where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' rights and interests will be respectfully recognised and protected through land use and environmental planning processes and planners will be better skilled through their education and training. 

In particular, recent developments in Queensland are presenting some exciting opportunities and the Planning Institute's review of its planning education accreditation policy is also providing some new opportunities.  The paper concludes that the reforms being introduced in Queensland need to be carefully managed and that if Planning education continues to lack appropriate Indigenous content, then the Planning profession in Australia will continue to be fundamentally out of step with international developments and with the expectations of contemporary Indigenous communities within Australia as well as around the World.

Biography:

Ed Wensing FPIA FHEA is a PhD Scholar at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Geography with Honours in Political Science from the Australian National University.  Ed is an experienced urban and regional planner and policy analyst with over 40 years' experience.  He has worked extensively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities, principally on land tenure, native title rights and interests, urban and regional planning, and natural and cultural resource management matters.  He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the College of Marine and Environmental Sciences at James Cook University in Cairns, a Visiting fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra, and a Visiting Lecturer in the Urban and Regional Planning Program at the University of Canberra.  Ed is Director of his own consultancy practice, Planning Integration Consultants Pty Ltd which has been in operation since 2000 and an Associate with SGS Economics and Planning since 2008.