Increase risk appetite to grow Indigenous economy

Sometimes you need to take risks… to make difficult decisions. Do you continue along the familiar well-worn path you have always taken or do you take a gamble and try something new?

Listening to speakers at this week’s Indigenous Economic Development forum in Darwin, I was struck by how the Australian government is caught in this co-dependent relationship with Indigenous Australians; where it cannot bear to consider it may not be needed and the status quo needs to change.

One of the delegates asked a government speaker what they meant by the word ’empowerment’ — and the speaker’s response was “informed decision making.” Then a New Zealand Maori woman got up and explained what real empowerment is.

It is so much more than just having the capacity to decide between two different options — especially when those options are a Clayton’s choice — as they so often are for Indigenous Australians. ‘Do I agree to the government controlling the head lease over my community in exchange for new housing, or do I make do with existing dilapidated social housing?’

The Maori woman explained how her tribe, the Ngai Tahu, had reconstructed their relationship with the New Zealand government following treaty settlement negotiations. Instead of having ‘options’ imposed on them by government, they were developing their own opportunities — moving away from dependence on government to a self-sustainable future where their business enterprises were funding social and education programs for their people.

Here in Australia, the chances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders being provided with the opportunity for such independence is a still long way off.  The Aboriginal Benefit Account — which consists of funds generated from mining royalties in the Northern Territory — is administered by the federal government, not by the communities themselves.

Allowing local Indigenous people control over their own money is considered too risky.  But isn’t it time to take a gamble? Until the Australian government is ready to cut the apron strings and the red tape restricting Indigenous land use and resources, Indigenous Australians are unlikely to experience real empowerment.