The Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme represents a major adaptation of the Australian welfare system to the particular social and economic circumstances of indigenous people. Part I contains overview papers which place the CDEP program in its wider cultural, sociopolitical and economic contexts. The contributions in Part II address policy and policy-related issues which impact directly, or indirectly, on the structure and function of the CDEP scheme as a whole or of individual projects. Part III represents research based case-studies of particular CDEP projects and Part IV consists of short case studies from the perspective of the participants themselves.