When women lead
SESNA 2021 brought together some great minds from the social enterprise space across northern Australia. In a session lead by Liandra Gaykamangu (Founder, Liandra Swim & Co-CEO Enterprise Learning Projects), 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.
“Social enterprise was already happening, a long, long time ago,” Natasha Short (Managing Director, Kimberley Jiyigas) says. “Since 250 years and colonisation, we’ve gone through a turbulent period and we’ve got a lot of issues in our community now that we have to contend with, but our people are rising up and they’re basically helping their own families and communities in everything that they’re doing. They don’t know it as ‘social enterprise’, they wouldn’t term it that way, but that’s precisely what they’re doing every single day. So for us to establish more and more Indigenous businesses, that’s exactly the way that we need to be going for the future.”
It’s this leap that is seen as crucial. First Nations people have been engaging in social enterprise forever, with generosity and sharing at the forefront in life but now, it’s all about taking the knowledge, skills and networks and turning it into businesses that can create revenue that can then be reinvested into communities.
“There’s a mindset among our people that we need to give things away,” Natasha says. “No – we can actually sell all of those things.”
But it’s not just changing the Indigenous mindset around the possibilities of social enterprises – there’s also a huge need for the rest of the social enterprise space to embrace what Indigenous entrepreneurs have to offer, with the right expectations and understanding attached.
Too many people are undervaluing the knowledge that Indigenous entrepreneurs have to share.
“There’s this expectation of: ‘Well, now we’ve arrived, we want to know about these things, so you need to tell us because we don’t know’,” Elena Wangurra (Founder, QueenMode Collective). “But nobody says that out loud – it’s just in the behaviour. Then, when you say ‘Well, these are my fees and this is how we’re going to approach the situation, this is the strategy’ it’s like ‘Mmmm … I’m not really sure if I need that right now.”
At the same time, when First Nations people are invited to be in the room and to share their knowledge, it’s often expected that they will speak on behalf of all First Nations people.
“I’ve been put in that predicament many many times and expected to then be a mouthpiece for everyone,” Ms Flora J Warrior (Founder and Coordinator Mabuiag Island NILS Program). “Sometimes, we just want to be there as women, as ourselves, as an Indigenous woman. I am mindful, when I am put in that predicament, that I have to disclose that I don’t speak on behalf of everyone, that I am here either as myself or from my clan or from my nation of people only.
“There’s always an expectation that if they ask a question, that question has to be answered by me. I see that as quite disappointing. I go in with no expectations of people but there’s a lot of expectation that comes the other way.”
All the women on the panel agreed that the expectations put on them get exhausting very quickly – especially when each day they’re wearing multiple hats in both business and life – and the only way they can continue doing what they do so well is by putting strong boundaries into place. Their advice is to:
Go bush – head out somewhere where there’s no phone reception
Connect with Country
Sit in a place you love and recharge
Say no – and be okay with it!
Embrace reflective time
Turn off phones and close doors when you need to
Take some alone time
Read a book
“I look around and I see people who don’t have the appropriate boundaries and they’re exhausted! They’re an example to me of what not to do,” Natasha says. “I’m here for the next 25 years doing this job and I want to preserve myself, not burn out and be no good to anybody.”
Longevity for the future is a huge factor, and it can come in the form of preparing tomorrow’s leaders to take their place, Flora says.
“It’s very hard to cull back when you’ve got a very small group of people who have the capacity to see things through in the community. You’re always getting called up again and again, even if you’ve taken off that hat, that hat finds its way back to you, somehow. So I make an effort to headhunt young people who show potential in picking up those hats so that I can mentor them to take over, to take a step up, to have a try, to have a go.”
The future of social enterprise is clear to each of the speakers on the panel – it lies with Indigenous communities and, specifically, with women.
“At the end of the day, when you live in an Indigenous community, you do have expectations that are put on you,” Flora reflects. “ I don’t think that’s a bad thing because without those expectations we don’t have that cultural continuity but I teach the women in my entrepreneurship workshops that it is okay to be different. It is okay to be flexible. It is okay to find your own voice. And that is often the first step that I teach them, is to find their own voice, to walk their own journey, to start that journey by themselves. That’s the critical part. Before they even meet people on their journey, they have to be able to find themselves and allow themselves to have a voice to begin that journey.”
“The Aboriginal mindset is ‘we create wealth for community’,” Natasha says. “That’s why the future belongs to Aboriginal women who are in business who are making money because that’s where those changes are going to happen. They’re going to reinvest because the mindset of the woman is kids, community, betterment, empowerment, moving forward and they’ve got all the smarts for it as well.”
“There are multiple different leadership styles and not all of them are going to look the same. It’s important to understand how we can nurture that, whether it’s within our own businesses and with our own staff or whether it’s within other business settings,” Elena says. “A lot of people – particularly women – lead from the back. They lead quietly, it’s not always a loud voice in the room, so there’s multiple angles and strengths that people have when it comes to leadership.”
However you choose to lead, set boundaries and navigate the social enterprise space, the resounding advice from the panel is that if you do a good job, business will find you.
“Do what you love!” Natasha says. “And before you know it, people will come flocking to you, wanting to partner up with you, wanting to use your services, wanting to buy your goods, because it’s absolutely brilliant.”
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