A group of Indigenous business people has graduated from a unique university course designed to bring more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into the wider corporate world.
The Indigenous small business operators and professionals have undertaken courses offered in a standard Masters of Business Administration in a program tailored to help participants meet the challenges faced by Indigenous businesses .
The MURRA Aboriginal Masterclass project also hopes to create the foundations for an Australia-wide network of Indigenous business professionals.
The Melbourne Business School and Victoria's Aboriginal Chamber of Commerce, Kinaway, built the program in response to research showing Australian Indigenous entrepreneurs have few fellow Indigenous role-models in business.
The research found the lack of business networks and networking opportunities causes social, cultural and physical isolation.
The MURRA Aboriginal Masterclass project director, Michelle Evans, says the reasons there are few Indigenous people in the business world are complex.
She says Indigenous enterprises are mostly micro or small businesses, often run by people with little formal business training.
Ms Evans says Indigenous people don't have the same access to the business world, either as employees or as suppliers, because they're not perceived as having business acumen.
That's where mainstream business training comes in, and Michelle Evans says once Indigenous entrepreneurs have the basics, their businesses can flourish.
"As we know, small business in Australia is a very difficult thing to do. Most small businesses fail within the first three to five years. In Indigenous business, however, that success rate in the first three to five years is actually doubled."
Michelle Evans says Indigenous businesses tend to operate somewhat differently to mainstream businesses.
"They've got the same business issues that every other small business has: cash, people, power of negotiation, all of those main things. But when I start to listen to Aboriginal business people talk about growing their capacity, and businesses being business, they're also still thinking about their role in the community and how they can personally give back to the community and how they are part of that. And it's not just building their own business, or their own success, financial success, but they're also thinking about what does this do for the community, and I think that's quite different."
One of the participants in the MURRA program, Karen Milward, is the owner of a consultancy service that assesses government-funded programs for Aboriginal communities.
Ms Milward says Indigenous businesses face issues not faced by mainstream organisations.
"I think it's needing to be able to be as competitive as you possibly can. But it's also clients needing to see you as a valued business, so trying to remove the Aboriginal tag sometimes because we can sometimes be seen differently to mainstream. You have to justify yourself a bit more. There's an expectation by some clients that because you're Aboriginal and they want to give you this business you'll reduce your costs."
MURRA program director Michelle Evans says better regulatory frameworks are being put in place that assist Indigenous small businesses.
She says large corporations that have adopted reconciliation action plans are starting to look beyond their normal supply chain to Indigenous businesses that can provide goods and services they need.
Ms Evans says it's all part of a long, slow process of bringing Indigenous business into the mainstream while acknowledging their difference.
"Aboriginality has perhaps been put alongside poverty, and so as Aboriginal people become middle class, or successful in business, or successful in employment, people may see them as less Aboriginal. But that's not necessarily the case, of course. Identity isn't related to your cash status in society, it's about your identity and who you are, your family and connection to country. But there is this kind of public debate and discourse that's going on about Aboriginality, and what I think these Indigenous business people are doing is really showing some really diverse ways that Aboriginal people can be in society."
Karen Milward says the wider community needs to understand the cultural aspects that go with an Aboriginal business.
"I think it's just understanding our family, understanding where the Aboriginal businesses come from, what their values are. The type of services they provide could be Aboriginal-specific, but we also have many Aboriginal people in businesses who provide services that aren't Aboriginal-specific, they just happen to be Aboriginal."
One of the methods the MURRA program has explored to bring more Indigenous people into mainstream business has been through mentoring.
Another participant, Sean Armistead the Indigenous Employment Program Director for Melbourne's Crown casino, has a background in human resources.
His mentor is a successful property developer.
Mr Armistead says mentors don't need to be from a similar business background, they just need a willingness to share ideas.
"It's all about how we can connect the relationships that we have and the networks that we have to produce outcomes. So he's given me some strategy with business, which has been great, especially on my decision-making process, about the opportunities that are out there and also the career pathway that I need to build."
Sean Armistead says he's benefited professionally from his contact with what he's found to be a high-calibre group of Indigenous professional people.
He says they've learnt a lot from each other about ways of succeeding in the business world.
"We're being educated on certain business aspects and points. And then it's all about telling stories of our own experiences and the business experiences that we have. So we have people who have consultancy businesses, people who run not-for-profits, people who work in corporate (sector), people who have design companies, and every workshop that we do you know, you're learning about people's business and the mistakes or lessons that they've learnt. So we are educating one another in that respect."
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