Centring Our Ways: Speaking back to the social enterprise sector

What we’re learning about First Nations social enterprise

• What does it cost to build a business in a system that wasn’t designed for you? The colonial load of constant advocacy, over-explaining, trust-building with customers, and fitting community-led work into funding applications that demand certainty up front.
• Why is “culturally safe support” so hard to find? Accountants, lawyers and advisers who understand the work are scarce, and the wrong adviser can do real damage at a vulnerable stage of the journey.
• What happens when your sector only shows up in the spotlight moments? The pattern of First Nations enterprises being “rolled out like fine silverware” for big occasions, then going quiet in between.
• Should First Nations enterprises fix the sector or build their own body? The case for investigating a national First Nations enterprise body alongside greater First Nations representation in existing leadership and policy organisations.
• What does a response to a gift of knowledge look like? The group’s clear ask that the sector answer this report, and the open question of what an ethical, relational response could be.

Why this conversation matters

First Nations communities are among the most over-consulted and over-researched in the world, and participants feared this report would join the many that get written and never acted on. The circle surfaced a sector that hasn’t yet benefited First Nations enterprises financially, uses definitions that can gatekeep them out, and leaves many leaders isolated and unsure where to go for support. Getting the response right means moving from extractive consultation to relational accountability, with First Nations people shaping the systems that affect them. Getting it wrong means another report that sits on a shelf.