Innovatia

cent of the world’s biodiversity. When think- ing about ethical investing and sustainability, venture capital funds should be investing a lot more in Indigenous innovation. The results from supporting genuine Indigenous entre- preneurship go without saying. Assuming you had a dramatic increase in funding, how would you take Barayamal to the next level? The possibilities are endless. We would in- crease our investments and support of grass- roots Indigenous businesses that are oper- ating from an Indigenous entrepreneurship perspective and are genuinely helping out their communities. They are missing out on support from government and corporate sup- port because they don’t tick their boxes. In addition, we would use the extra funding to

help scale our programs through technology to help more people and increase our posi- tive impact in Australia and around the world through Indigenous entrepreneurship. * Black cladding, while not strictly defined, is when a non-Indigenous businesses “part- ner” access corporate funds or government grants through the Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP) in an unfair or inequitable way with Indigenous businesses. The IPP sets a target of 3 per cent of all government con- tracts to go to Indigenous-owned businesses and awarded $3.5 billion worth of contracts between 2015 and 2020. In black-clad busi- nesses, benefits to Indigenous communities are often limited, while decision-making, supply and resourcing is kept firmly in the hands of the non-Indigenous partner, sub- verting the goal of the program.

First Nations people, but most of them don’t get back to me. Those who do come up with creative stories, but don’t measure that stuff, even though they ask founders about other demographic questions when they invest in them. Based on the information I did collect and my correspondence with venture capital firms, I believe that 0–0.1 per cent of all fund- ing, worth tens of billions of dollars, goes to Indigenous entrepreneurs. This is despite In- digenous people making up 5 per cent of the world and 3 per cent of Australia’s population. How has the conversation around Indige- nous entrepreneurship changed in Australia over the past five years, and where do you think it needs to move towards? It’s changed from “do Indigenous entrepre- neurs actually exist?” to realising Indigenous entrepreneurship was operating a lot longer before colonisation. Now it is gaining momen- tum and support. Unfortunately, a few well-in- tentioned policies have led to a massive in- crease in black cladding and businesses that operate from primarily a Western entrepre- neurship perspective – focused on benefiting individuals/shareholders instead of the greater community – which is only making a few peo- ple rich instead of helping close the disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peo- ple. These problems are gaining more aware- ness and the “tick the box” procurement poli- cies are being pressured to change. You note that Barayamal is the world’s first Indigenous accelerator program, has your model been copied overseas since?

Yes. Someone from New Zealand reached out in 2017 about doing a similar thing there and I know there’s an accelerator in Canada now, too. There were a lot of Indigenous ac- celerators that popped up in Australia also, which was interesting to see. How key is encouraging entrepreneurship in terms of self-determination for Australia’s Indigenous communities? And what are the broader social impacts of Indigenous busi- nesses led by, and run for the benefit of, Indig- enous communities? I think “encouraging” entrepreneurship is missing the point that Indigenous entrepre- neurship has been around for thousands of years, so we don’t need to motivate the com- munity to innovate. The key is to empower In- digenous communities with the right policies and support to see things flourish again. At this stage the government still controls things, and we need them to trust Indigenous com- munities with a proven track record of posi- tive results with direct funding and support to solve their own challenges. Indigenous people only make up 5 per cent of the world’s population but protect 80 per “With a small budget, we’ve had to be creative and leverage the community support to beat larger, well-funded government programs.”

HTTPS://YOUTU.BE/HUOPEMNY0SS?SI=Q6RVVABSWEETI-IQ

VIDEO : The Barayamal Accelerator program is a must for Indigenous entrepreneurs, present and future. Check out this video for a quick snapshot of the event.

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INNOVATIA

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