In this edition of the Bulletin’s series celebrating Australian ADR Award recipients and their critical work, we spoke with Damien Barnes, who was honoured with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander ADR Practitioner of the Year award in 2025.

Damien Barnes is Managing Director at YIMBA and an experienced ADR practitioner with a strong focus on the resolution of complex and sensitive disputes involving Indigenous communities, government agencies, and commercial stakeholders. Damien has extensive experience designing and facilitating ADR processes in matters concerning cultural heritage, native title, land access, and stakeholder engagement. His work is characterised by a practical, respectful, and outcomes-focused approach, supporting constructive dialogue and sustainable resolutions across legally, culturally, and commercially complex matters.

In addition to his ADR practice, Damien is actively involved in contributing to the broader ADR profession through leadership, mentorship, and engagement across the public and private sectors.

Our Q&A with Damien Barnes

ADC: Winning the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander ADR Practitioner of the Year award is a significant recognition. How has this acknowledgment influenced your practice, particularly in terms of client confidence, engagement with stakeholders, and the types of matters you are being asked to lead?

DB: Winning the 2025 Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander ADR Practitioner of the Year Award has been transformative. It has strengthened my reputation as an Indigenous leader in dispute resolution and has opened doors to many new opportunities in mediation, facilitation, and Indigenous class actions.

Upon posting the winning of my Award across socials, I received many kind messages of support, congratulations and more opportunities from people across Australia, highlighting the national reach of the Award and the Australian Disputes Centre.

ADC: Your work often involves mediating complex disputes between Indigenous groups, governments, and commercial proponents. What do you see as the most important elements of culturally appropriate ADR, and how do these approaches lead to more sustainable outcomes for all parties involved?

DB: I am committed to ADR between Indigenous groups, project proponents, landowners, government, and other stakeholders. Navigating ADR is challenging and requires significant effort to be aware of and assist in overcoming historical injustice, bridge entrenched positions, find common ground, and identify and enhance mutual benefits between stakeholders. ADR should play a crucial role with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (ATSI). The benefits of ADR include:

  1. Cultural Appropriateness: ADR processes are designed and adapted to respect and incorporate Indigenous cultural practices and values, ensuring that all parties feel respected, heard, and understood.
  2. Relationship Building: By focusing on collaboration and mutual understanding, ADR helps build and maintain positive relationships between Indigenous communities, proponents, and landowners.
  3. Community Involvement: ADR encourages the involvement of the community in the dispute resolution process, which can lead to more inclusive, equitable, and accepted outcomes.
  4. Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) & Empowerment: ADR empowers the communities’ voice, the right to self determination, and the participation in decision-making that affects them.
  5. Flexibility: Other forms of dispute resolution (such as litigation and arbitration) may lack the flexibility of ADR processes which can be specifically tailored to the needs of the parties.
  6. Sustainable Solutions: The collaborative nature of ADR often leads to more sustainable and acceptable solutions for all stakeholders, ensuring that agreements are practical and long-lasting.
  7. Efficiency: ADR often provides a more efficient resolution, when compared to traditional litigation, which can be lengthy and costly. This efficiency is particularly beneficial in time-sensitive land and resource management issues.

ADC: In your experience, what advantages does ADR offer over traditional litigation when resolving disputes involving Indigenous communities, governments, and commercial proponents, particularly in achieving durable and relationship-focused outcomes?

DB: ADR offers Indigenous people a more accessible, culturally sensitive and empowering path to justice than the formal court approach. Unlike traditional litigation, ADR processes like mediation and facilitation can be tailored to respect ATSI customs and values, involve community elders and leaders and focus on healing not just outcomes. This alignment with Indigenous cultural practices, combined with lower costs, greater flexibility, and strong community controls, helps overcome many barriers that ATSI people face in the traditional legal system.

Indigenous ADR is also aligning with principles like Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), ensuring Indigenous communities have the information and time needed to make decisions in mediated agreements and can do so without coercion. This approach is increasingly seen as a best practice standard, especially in resource development and land access negotiations.

ADC: Based on your work across complex and sensitive disputes, how do you see the role of ADR evolving in this space, and what do you consider to be the key priorities for the ADR profession moving forward?

DB: Indigenous ADR across Australia is evolving toward more culturally safe approaches, while the ADR profession is adjusting its priorities to serve better Indigenous communities by increasing Indigenous Participation in ADR. This includes actively recruiting, training, and spotlighting Indigenous mediators as well as mentoring and scholarship initiatives. The Australian Disputes Centre has offered Indigenous scholarships for mediator accreditation and legal aid bodies run training programs in communities.

The priorities moving forward should revolve around making dispute resolution more accessible, culturally competent and Indigenous led. It is also very important that we are enhancing cultural competency for all ADR practitioners. With not every dispute being handled by an Indigenous mediator, the cultural awareness of the broader ADR profession is equally important.