Reimagining Leadership with First Nations Perspectives

The One Basin CRC Leadership Development Compass, described in this manual, gains deeper meaning when viewed through Aboriginal ways of knowing.

Aunty Mary Graham teaches that relationships are at the heart of Aboriginal philosophy—first with Country, then with people. Country is not just land; it is sentient, shapes identity, and is the source of law. Leadership, in this view, is not about authority or entitlement but responsibility and reciprocity. Leaders must first attune themselves to Country, which guides how they relate, decide, and remain accountable.

This shifts the framing from a top-down model of leadership to one of distributed custodianship. The Compass, then, can be seen not as a linear path of skills, but as a cyclical map of obligations and relational accountability. Leadership becomes about listening, sensing, and acting with care for the interconnected cultural, ecological, and social systems that make up Country. As Aunty Mary reminds us, “Country is not only a place, it is a way of being.”

Dr Karen Martin expands on this with her framework of three interconnected and dynamic concepts -Being, Knowing, and Doing:

Being means understanding identity as embedded in relationships—with kin, Country, and community. It acknowledges that leadership is not a title but a set of responsibilities that emerge from one’s role in the collective story of place.

Knowing is relational and holistic—knowledge is not owned but shared with permission and care. It comes through story, ceremony, practice, and connection. Leadership in this frame is about holding and activating knowledge in ways that honour its origins, protect its integrity, and make it useful for the collective good.

Doing is action grounded in these relationships. One acts not from entitlement but out of obligation to people, Country, and knowledge. In the One Basin CRC, this means designing and enacting leadership that is not only technically proficient but spiritually, culturally, and ecologically accountable.

When these Aboriginal philosophies are centred within the Leadership Development Compass, they reconfigure leadership as a deeply relational and moral undertaking. They invite leaders to recalibrate their sense of purpose—not as agents of control or innovation alone, but as custodians of relational harmony. The Compass becomes not a tool of individual ascent, but a guide for collective flourishing, where Country is teacher, obligation is driver, and balance is the enduring aim. This, ultimately, is what sustainability requires—not just new technologies or policies, but new (and ancient) ways of being with each other and with the world.