Innovatia

more seriously, measuring our impact to se- cure further philanthropic funding and devel- op a strategy that would allow us to compete against the status quo organisations still re- ceiving millions of taxpayer dollars. As soon as I founded Barayamal, one of those government organisations I was frustrated with supposedly bankrolled a non-Indigenous program to run their “Indigenous” program by providing them with $500,000. Our budget at the time was zero, and it hasn’t gotten that much bigger, so we’ve had to be creative and leverage the community support to beat these well-funded government programs. How big is the gap between venture capital funding between Indigenous and non-Indige- nous businesses, and what impact does this have for start-ups? Venture capital is purely focused on a re- turn on investment and making money, which is okay, but they are starting to get pressure from their donors about ethical investing, so their media departments are trying to per- suade people that they help everyone, which often isn’t true. I’ve reached out to a lot of ven- ture capital funds to find out how they help “Indigenous people make up as much as 3 per cent of the population, and yet Indigenous entrepreneurs receive only 0–0.1 per cent of the funding in circulation.”

FUNDING INDIGENOUS ENTREPRENEURSHIP Dean Foley is the founder of the world’s first Indigenous start-up accelerator, Barayamal, or “Black Swan” in the Gamilaraay language. Our editors discussed venture capital, sustainable entrepreneurship and black cladding* in a wide- ranging interview with him.. P rior to the colonisation of Australia,

What were your goals when you first found- ed Barayamal, and how have they changed over time? I started Barayamal because I didn’t believe in the existing system, which was primarily operating from a Western entrepreneurship perspective. I wanted to learn how to run and grow businesses, but I was frustrated with gov- ernment organisations that were supposed to “help” Indigenous people. From that, and just wanting to do “cool” events and programs to support Indigenous entrepreneurship, we’ve had to take things

schoolchildren in Europe were only taught about white swans, while Austral- ia’s First Nations people knew for millennia of the black swan. The “discovery” of the black swan forced Europeans to reconsider and change their perceptions about swans. For Foley, the black swan represents the First Na- tions entrepreneurs who haven’t been recog- nised in the business world because of current perceptions. He hopes Barayamal will show the world that First Nations entrepreneurs ex- ist and can build successful businesses that create a better world for everyone.

INNOVATIA

184

INNOVATIA

| Entrepreneurship

185