First Nations people in the ACT should be handed the power to decide how Indigenous heritage sites are protected and recognised, the ACT government has been told.
But the territory needs to resolve which Aboriginal groups in the ACT had the cultural authority to make heritage decisions.
The government should co-design an Aboriginal cultural heritage body with Indigenous people in the ACT and consider what law changes are needed to set up the body.
"It is considered that developing this detail is best achieved by a co-design process with the Aboriginal community. This will allow the new arrangements to be designed to fit with the capacity of the Aboriginal community to participate in those arrangements," the second phase of the review said.
The government would also need a process to determine the composition of the cultural heritage body.
"This process should be based on apical ancestry and align with expectations of the Native Title claimant evidence process as well as the expectations of all Aboriginal groups claiming cultural authority in the ACT," the review said.
The government needs to strengthen the link between heritage and planning decisions and deploy extra resources to resolve ACT Heritage's backlog of advice requests.
"Resolving this issue is an important step towards rebuilding community confidence and trust in the work of the ACT Heritage Unit and the Heritage Council," the review said.
Heritage Minister Rebecca Vassarotti, who commissioned the review, said community feedback since the release of the ACT Heritage jurisdictional review last year showed the reforms were on track.
"The government is now actively working with the ACT Heritage Council to plan the approach, resources required and priorities to implement key recommendations," Ms Vassarotti said.
Ms Vassarotti also released the government's response to a Legislative Assembly inquiry which examined the territory's heritage system after Ms Vassarotti was prompted by a damning review to sack the heritage council in December 2022.
The parliamentary inquiry found the ACT's heritage system was "no longer fit for purpose" and needed significant changes and extra resources to meet community expectations.
Ms Vassarotti said: "The government's response to the Inquiry notes that the recommendations are strongly aligned with the reforms identified in the Jurisdictional Review, in particular the need for a more cohesive governance and policy framework, improved roles and responsibilities, and more support for Aboriginal organisations."
The government response said many recommendations had been noted because its own reform program was not yet complete; it did not disagree with any recommendations.
The government agreed with a recommendation to develop an ACT heritage strategy, first flagged in 2016 but never completed.
"Such a strategy would set the vision, champion the value of heritage, recognise its diversity and need for long term protection, while celebrating our special places and the stories that underpin them," the government's response said.
"The objectives of the Strategy will need to carefully consider resource implications and competing priorities of the government and progress these through future budget processes priorities."
