“The Indigenous Strategy will remain focussed on equal opportunity and self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples” (UA Indigenous Strategy 2022-25, p. 17).

UA’s Indigenous Strategy sets commitments for universities to achieve in supporting Indigenous self-determination. In particular, the Strategy seeks,

“in partnership with Indigenous university leaders – to move beyond aspiration to implementation, ensuring that commitment to principles translates consistently into concrete actions and outcomes. This requires a sharper focus on universities’ commitment and responsibility, both at an institutional level and across the sector, to ensure those responsible are  delivering on the commitments, and that indicators and evidence show how they deliver and whether they have reached their goals” (p. 17).

In the context of Indigenous economic self-determination, universities can be valuable facilitators for enabling and promoting Indigenous businesses, financial and economic awareness and generating partnerships with other organisations.

Universities have a social mandate to respond to community needs and encourage participation in university and post-university life through high-quality education, community activities and partnership opportunities within Australia and beyond.

Many universities have a range of policies and programs in place that have been co-designed or led by Indigenous leaders. One example is Western Sydney University’s development of a training program for Indigenous businesses that facilitates the development of Indigenous businesses from inception through to supporting evaluation of supply chains. Such activities are supported by Indigenous Procurement Guides which seek to support a university’s engagement with Indigenous businesses.

Accordingly, UA has developed, in partnership with Indigenous leaders and senior staff in universities, a set of principles and guidelines to inform Indigenous Procurement and Employment activities within universities, recognising the valuable social, economic and cultural pride Indigenous businesses bring to universities and their wider communities. These core principles could be leveraged more broadly to achieve a similar impact on Indigenous economic self-determination across the nation, building on the successes for existing  Indigenous entrepreneurs, whose contributions to Australia are already significant.

A report by the Dilin Duwe Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership demonstrates that, by supporting Indigenous economic self-determination, the Australian Government would facilitate $16.096 billion in revenue and employ over 116,000 people in over 13,000 businesses. Entities like Supply Nation – a national database and linkage platform for verified Indigenous businesses – together with procurement and engagement guides could help drive further economic self-determination for Indigenous Australians.

Recommendations

• Leverage the Guiding Principles of UA’s Indigenous Procurement and Employment Guidelines to support sustainable Indigenous economic self-determination.
• Support increased and improved access to education opportunities for Indigenous people.