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New Delhi: Impact assessments have a patchy history of effectively engaging Indigenous communities and providing positive outcomes for their aspirations – University of Otago research is providing a starting point to improve the situation.
Used to identify future environmental, social, cultural and other consequences of a current or proposed action, impact assessments provide support to decision-makers on what might happen if a proposed policy or project is implemented. Indigenous impact assessment is an emerging field in this area and has an underdeveloped theoretical foundation.
Lead author Dyanna Jolly, Otago PhD candidate in the School of Geography, says Indigenous communities face a conundrum when preparing impact assessments. “The impact assessment context for Indigenous groups cannot be dissected into environmental, social or cultural. Rather, Indigenous worlds and approaches comprise seamless interconnections of a multitude of domains. These communities face the challenge of navigating the constraints of non-Indigenous planning systems and their own interconnected worldview.”