Indigenising Enterprise Structures

This subject introduces students to the breadth of Indigenous enterprise structures operating across the First Peoples economic landscape contributing to economic self-determination. Enterprise structure and its associated business model is at the core of understanding Indigenous business leadership, as it denotes the commercial considerations and practical interactions between Indigenous entrepreneurs and the economy. Commencing with the debunking of the notion that being in business is entirely Western and un-Aboriginal, the subject introduces interface theory, extended to commercial market exchanges, captured as the ‘The Collide-oscope’, providing a lens to make sense of how First Peoples Founders straddle the tensions of ‘working in two worlds’. The subject examines a range of commercial structures starting with the emergence of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and collective sovereign membership entities to sole traders, partnerships, small to medium and large enterprises. Further structures such as joint ventures, trusts, and the role of intellectual property in the ownership, control and management of Indigenous enterprises are discussed. Collaboration with Indigenous Economic Development Agencies as enablers of the Indigenous estate linked to preferential procurement policies is further deliberated linked to enterprise structures including the surfacing of ‘black cladding’.