The destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters by Rio Tinto in 2020 exposed a systemic failure of corporate and regulatory leadership to recognise place as an ethical, cultural and governance imperative. The Australian Government’s formal response, identifies the problem as structural. Which include: Deficient heritage law. Unequal bargaining power in historic agreements. Inadequate First Nations participation, and commitments to co-designed reform and stronger protections (Australian Government, 2022). Rio Tinto and the traditional owners of the land, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people, have agreed to reset relationship after the Juukan Gorge disaster with new co-management and funding agreement designed to rebuild trust and protect cultural heritage. This case enables an examination of how leaders can use place to build organisational capability. And whether non Western, place based leadership paradigms are better suited in this context.
A Prioritisation of Procedural and Financial Solutions
The Australian Government’s response is institutional reform and co-design through law reform, joint working groups, and staged engagement with First Nations bodies, including a A$150 million funding package (Australian Government, 2022). This addresses reputational risk by tightening systems and allocating capital. Demonstrating a sensemaking process that prioritises procedural and financial solutions (Aktas et al., 2016). It is inherently a top down, transcational model of reconciliation, where leadership is demonstrated through the execution of a major deal. A common feature of Western leadership approaches (Javidan et al., 2006). In contrast, Indigenous Australian leadership fundamentally centres in relational accountability to kin, community, and Country (Evans & Sinclair, 2016). From this perspective, Rio Tinto need to embody a sense of personal responsibility to the PKKP people as relatives of the destroyed Ancestor, Juukan Gorge.
Place based leadership theory argues that place is produced through social relations, which highlights procedural fixes alone are insufficient (Massey, 1994). Therefore, leadership must recognise place as relational, embodied and historically constituted. Embodied leadership similarly emphasises the ways landscapes and built environments shape identity and ethical obligations (Ropo et al., 2013).
Leadership of Place
Leading in this context requires an embodied connection to the pain of this Place. It demands a leadership that is visible on Country, that participates in mourning, and that feels a responsibility for the healing of both the people and the land itself (Ropo et al., 2013). A signed agreement and a financial package, negotiated in boardrooms, is a disconnected response to a deeply interconnected tragedy. This highlights how the material and emotional reality of place must shape leadership actions.
Recommendations
Effective leadership requires Rio Tinto to exercise deep cultural humility (Fraser‐Nash & Sowcik, 2023). Acknowledging that its Western corporate worldview is limited and that it must defer to the PKKP’s ancient knowledge system to truly understand the place in which it operates. This is a humbling process that challenges the very foundations of corporate authority. And is essential for accurate sensemaking in this cross cultural context.
First Nation Led Forums
Implement regular forums led by First Nations knowledge holders. Combined with training in deep listening and observation for leaders (King’s Business School, 2020a; King’s Business School, 2020b). These practices improve real time interpretation of local signals and reduce biases and retrospective failures (Weick et al., 2005).
Revise Old Agreements
Rio Tinto must proactively revise old agreements to recognise co-decision rights with Indigenous stakeholders over culturally sensitive sites. With binding dispute resolution that privileges cultural heritage thresholds. This addresses the root power imbalance identified by the parliamentary inquiry (Australian Government, 2022).
Heterarchical Governance Bodies
Create heterarchical governance bodies (organisation representatives, Traditional Owners, independent cultural monitors) empowered to halt operations where identifying breaches in cultural thresholds. This operationalises ensemble leadership and achieves faster, place sensitive sensemaking (Rosile et al., 2018).
Co-Design Healing Country Innitiatives
Acknowledge that the damage requires active healing by partnering with the PKKP to co-design a Healing Country initiative. Resourced from the A$150 million fund and controlled by the PKKP, dedicated to cultural and ecological restoration projects across their estate.
Place is a Capability Forming Imperative
Juukan Gorge demonstrates that recognising place is not symbolic but a capability forming imperative. While Western legal and hierarchical remedies are necessary, they are not sufficient. By critiquing this response through non Western paradigms, this analysis has demonstrated that the Place of Juukan Gorge is not a passive backdrop. But an active agent that must fundamentally reshape leadership and organisational capability.
References – Leadership of Place
• Aktas, M., Gelfand, M. J., & Hanges, P. J. (2016). Cultural tightness–looseness and perceptions of effective leadership. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 47(2), 296–313. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022115606802
• Australian Government. (2022). Australian Government response to the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia’s “A way forward.” Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/australian-response-to-destruction-of-juukan-gorge.pdf
• Evans, M., & Sinclair, A. (2016). Containing, contesting, creating spaces: Leadership and cultural identity work among Australian Indigenous arts leaders. Leadership, 12(3), 270–292. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715015620463
• Fraser-Nash, J., & Sowcik, M. (2023). Developing cultural humility in leadership education programs to promote community leadership. Journal of Leadership Studies, 17(2), 66–74. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21855
• Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W., Sully de Luque, M., & House, R. J. (2006). In the eye of the beholder: Cross-cultural lessons in leadership from Project GLOBE. Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(1), 67–90. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2006.19873410
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• King’s Business School. (2020a). Deep listening: Sensemaking practical course [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrZWPiQxXxI
• King's Business School. (2020b). The power of observation: Sensemaking practical course [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/qlftLLGUjv4?si=_zlwWnsF02uoC2hx
• Massey, D. (1994). Space, place, and gender. University of Minnesota Press
• Ropo, A., Sauer, E., & Salovaara, P. (2013). Embodiment of leadership through material place. Leadership, 9(3), 349–372. http://doi.org/10.1177/1742715013485858
• Rosile, G. A., Boje, D. M., & Claw, C. M. (2018). Ensemble leadership theory: Collectivist, relational, and heterarchical roots from indigenous contexts. Leadership, 14(3), 307–328. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715016652933
• Weick, K. E., Sutcliffe, K. M., & Obstfeld, D. (2005). Organizing and the process of sensemaking. Organization Science, 16(4), 409–421. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1050.0133
This was written in October 2025 in response to the leadership process for the Rio Tinto Juukan Gorge incident as described in the article: Australian Government response to the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia’s: A Way Forward.
Juukan Gorge, Place and Leadership through a Non Western Lens
Australian Government. (2022). Australian Government response to the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia’s: A Way Forward. DCCEEW.
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