This chapter has argued that the governance of agreements between resource developers and Aboriginal people is a crucial aspect of negotiations, and a critical implementation issue. This suggests that governance capacity (for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal parties to an agreement) should be developed as much as possible well ahead of agreement implementation. Governance needs to be developed and implemented with agreements considered as systems rather than just as aggregates of disconnected entities, relationships and processes. Agreement governance should be understood as intercultural, not as involving interaction between discrete and disconnected Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures: it should not be designed and implemented in cultural enclave terms.

Furthermore, there is a range of governance arenas in agreements, each of which will exhibit different characteristics and require different governance principles for sustainable agreement implementation. In particular, it has been argued, the focus historically has tended to be largely on incorporating Aboriginal diversity and distinctive values into the structures of Aboriginal organisations, while insufficient attention has been paid to the governance of the relationships between these entities and their constituents, clients, or beneficiaries. Finally, and critically, the negotiation, design and implementation of agreements should explicitly take into account the profound transformative processes involving Aboriginal engagement with the institutions of the dominant society and not implicitly be predicated on idealised representations of Aboriginal society and culture.