“We’ve got billions of dollars pumped into our communities, our businesses and organisations by government and Native Title combination, and we don’t have enough people in these roles to make the final call on where that money goes." - Shelley cable
Noongar woman, Shelley Cable will advocate for Indigenous participation in accounting to a global audience of more than 6000 people gathered at the 2018 World Accountants Congress (WCOA) in Sydney later this year.
She’ll join a line-up of more than 100 high profile speakers, including former UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon; martial arts gold medallist Nadine Champion; whistle-blower, Sylvain Mansotte; Kenyan anti-corruption champion, Professor PLO Lumumba among others.
Though she's an accomplished speaker having spoken at some of the most prestigious stages including the United Nations, Shelley Cable felt humbled to discover she’d been selected as the poster child of WCOA alongside the former UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon.
“When I saw my photograph alongside Ban Ki-Moon I couldn’t believe it. I pinched myself and called my mum. It is a huge privilege to be alongside those kinds of people.”
She will talk about the importance of financial literacy as a tool for self and community empowerment. The stage will also be an opportunity to share her passion and strategies for ensuring Indigenous and young people are well represented in the future of accounting.
Shelley believes accounting is more than just numbers and money.
"How do you account for happiness? How do you account for things like social change? How can accounting help us as indigenous people express our human rights? And as a young person, what has accounting got to offer us?”
Currently there are only 39 accountants in Australia who self-identity as Indigenous. This number is very low considering the size of Indigenous contribution to the Australian economy estimated to hover between $2.2 billion and $6.6 billion per year.
“We’ve got billions of dollars pumped into our communities, our businesses and organizations by government and Native Title combination, and we don’t have enough people in these roles to make the final call on where that money goes," Shelley Cable says.
She also explains historical reasons for the lack of Indigenous accountants.
“It is a consequence of the Stolen Generations, the stolen wages and other historical factors. Indigenous people were denied the right to manage their own money.”
But the future looks bright. There are currently between 40 and 50 Indigenous students in accounting, including Shelly Cable, who are set to job market within the next few years.
