Doing business on Country

This webinar explores key questions for social enterprise leaders, including:

• Do First Nations’ worldviews of business differ and why?
• What does it mean to do business on Country?
• What is your relationship and your business's relationship to Country?
• How do you engage with your communities with the correct protocols?

Show notes and quotes

Some powerful reflections and calls to action from this learning gift:

Madonna Thomson: In terms of business, the fundamental principle is self-determination…self-determination comes back to Country. Our businesses are very Country-based, Country-centric when it comes to how we choose to operate…what we do, we do for Country or we do from Country, because she is the asset base - and that's a principle for anyone.  The next [principle] is taking care of people. I'm not the only one. I don't live in isolation… The value proposition for us as Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander people is people…The way that we conduct our business with one another takes priority over money.

Adam Byrne “I think people that go into the space of social enterprise, they have that fire in their belly…I think it's in your DNA, it's your dreaming, your songline. Our dreaming path has already been created by our old people…and we live our dreaming every day…so, if we choose to take that path that they've created, which is that responsibility for people in our community and creating space and creating generational wealth or creating different pathways so they can heal certain areas in communities and families, then it's our responsibility to not only take that path but take everything that comes along with that path in that daily responsibility.”

Birdy Bird: “what we bring to business is who we are. We bring our politics, our resources, our past, our future, our family, our community... the thing that we bring to business that we may not be aware of is a worldview. The whole person and its relationship to community is going into business…that relationship is a business to community relationship as well as a person to community relationship.”

Explore more

For those who are keen to dive deeper and do differently, here are some links to learnings and resources related to the open learning topic.

• The Land Back Foundation - Small business information kits.
• The Prescribed Body Corporate (PBC) website provides information and resources for native title groups and corporations.
• From Bush to Bowl: sowing the seeds of generosity.
• Jagera Daran Community and Heritage Solutions.

Madonna Thomson

Indigenous cultural integrity and governance specialist (Goori society & south east Queensland ecosystems)

 

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Madonna is a member of the Jagera People and a grand-niece of the late Senator Neville Bonner. She has worked extensively for more than 20 years in native title, cultural heritage and natural resource management, and was instrumental in developing a regional engagement framework in consultation with Traditional Owner groups of south east Queensland. Madonna is an experienced founding operator of a successful and respected Queensland Indigenous cultural heritage business and co-owner and director of Nyanda Cultural Tours. She is a founding member of the Independent Indigenous Tourism Operators of Qld and chair of the University of Queensland Indigenous Enterprise Group (comprised of Indigenous native food business across Australia), working with chemical engineering students and food scientists in the ethical research of Australian native foods.

Adam Byrne

Co-founder and co-owner of Bush to Bowl

 

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Adam is a Garigal (Garu) descendent living on Kamay Country on the northern beaches of NSW. He is passionate about connecting mob to their traditional foodways as a form of healing. Adam is a qualified landscaper and designer who is inspired by food sovereignty and traditional land management. He is a co-founder and co-owner of Bush to Bowl - a social enterprise that connects First Nations people to Country and traditional foodways.

Birdy Bird

Co-Founder and CEO of The Land Back Foundation

 

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Birdy is an entrepreneur and architect with a background in community arts, social enterprise and Indigenous community development. Their experience as a fifth-generation colonial-settler descendent whose family’s intergenerational wealth started on a dairy farm on the Mid North Coast of NSW inspired them to start a movement to fundraise via voluntary reparations more than $200 million in the next two generations. They say: “The story I tell myself is, that my family has gained wealth, health, education and opportunity because of our ability to own land, at the expense of First Nations people. I am giving land back."