This comprehensive document captures the key discussions and outcomes from our 2024 Reconciliation Week events, designed for those eager to support Aboriginal business owners in the Northern Territory. It includes insights on trust-based partnerships and the unique challenges faced by Indigenous businesses in remote areas.

The Australian Government's Social Enterprise Development Initiative (SEDI) allocates $11.6 million to boost the social enterprise sector's impact, including grants for capability enhancement and resources for sector-wide capacity building. CEO Alexie Seller of Impact North welcomes this initiative, aiming to ensure remote Northern Australian entrepreneurs can access funding and educational tools seamlessly through collaborations with Impact Investing Australia and Social Enterprise Australia.

Together with the The Yunus Centre Griffith University, Impact North has today released Insights from the 2021 Social Enterprise Summit Northern Australia (SESNA). The report is available for download now from the Impact North website and distils the learnings from the Summit event. 

At SESNA 2021 we heard from Gulkula Mining and Mayi Harvests as they showed us how there is so much opportunity in the agricultural and mining industries – and beyond – to not only include Indigenous voices but have those voices driving the industries and to uphold Indigenous values, ensuring the longevity of the environment, all while pouring benefits back into their communities.

There are so many factors that brought me here in my personal journey into leadership in the social sector. What stands out to me as having the most impact on my career so far is my peers. If it weren’t for the co-founders I discovered early on, I wouldn’t have had the courage to keep going. How can we perform at our best when we’ve got no one to share the load with?

First Nations peoples – both in Australia and all over the world – have been engaging in social enterprise activities for a long time, long before the term social enterprise was thrown into our vocabulary. For too long, however, they have been left out of the conversation at all levels. Now that awareness around the social enterprise sector is growing closer to home, it’s all about getting Indigenous voices heard in the conversation.

At SESNA 2021, some of the region’s leading female entrepreneurs came together to share their insights on leadership, self-care and the future of social enterprises. 

One thing that is abundantly clear is that these women are simply picking up the baton that has been carried by generations before them, even if the term ‘social enterprise’ is a relatively new one.