“Law and culture is what makes governance strong. It comes first. We come together to keep us strong and then we can look after the organisation.”

REFOCUS is governed under the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations. Governance is a critical part of REFOCUS’s operation and effectiveness of legally formalised and registered incorporation.  REFOCUS Rule book specifies that there must be a majority of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander individuals and professionals on the board.  This allows for REFOCUS to have non-indigenous individuals with a profession to sit on the board of REFOCUS with skills that advance the organisation in its business practices but is not to be the majority of the board.

Governance is governance but what makes it REFOCUS’s Indigenous governance is the role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and philosophical systems, cultural values, traditions, rules and beliefs play in the governance of:

  • processes—how things are done
  • structures—the ways people organise themselves and relate to each other
  • institutions—the rules for how things should be done.

REFOCUS prides itself in achieving all Organisation and Financial accountability, audits and licensing