Don’t Hire Me
If there is an Indigenous business able to provide the same service, hire them.
October is Indigenous Business Month (theme: Actions Today. Impact Tomorrow). And so, I wanted to talk about the Elephant in the Room, which has been getting a lot of air time lately, and for good reason.
Which Elephant?
At the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) in Brisbane recently (which – full disclosure – I unfortunately couldn’t attend), there was a session about shifting power and making space for Indigenous enterprises and moving beyond a juvenile approach to inclusion.
Specifically, the Elephant is that there are a lot of non-Indigenous businesses, investors and organisations using Indigenous knowledges inappropriately or profiting off Indigenous culture. The Elephant is also about non-Indigenous bodies knowing their role in the First Nations economy and stepping back to support and amplify Indigenous voices, rather than to lead.
Apparently, people walked out of the session. Surprising for what must be a ‘woke’ audience (if a SEWF attendee can’t handle that message, then imagine the uphill battle with mainstream audiences..).
Three Conversations
I have had three related conversations recently with experienced Indigenous colleagues who work in a similar space to me and who I collaborate with in different ways.
Here’s what those conversations were about:
How large not-for-profit organisations leverage their size, reach and power to muscle in and monopolise tenders for significant contracts to deliver social services in remote regions, taking those opportunities away from local Indigenous community-based organisations
How even reputable, well-meaning non-Indigenous social enterprises and impact-first organisations strategically position themselves as having authority and credibility vis-à-vis Indigenous issues by hiring a few token black people, in typically junior positions, rather than making genuine structural change or – better yet – getting out of the way and making space for a First Nations organisation to step forward
A trend towards middle-class, tertiary-qualified, leftist, white women (who should know better) taking roles that should be filled by Indigenous people, and their either lack of awareness, or self-serving conspiratorial silence in failing to call this out as problematic
Reflections
Following those conversations, I carefully unpacked the extent to which I could unwittingly be carrying out these blunders. After all, I work largely with Indigenous communities. I am a white, middle-class, tertiary-qualified, left-of-centre woman. And I run a for-purpose company that is designed to be profitable and, therefore, I am driven to make decisions to optimise revenue through products and services.
Am I taking up space that an Indigenous person or business could fill?
Are the clients I serve benefiting from our arrangement just as much as me?
If I hire Indigenous staff to increase the cultural competency of the services I deliver, am I just trying to make what is white appear black?
Who wins and who loses if I step aside?
To coincide with Indigenous Business Month, I’m compelled to make a public declaration of sorts to share where I’ve landed after reflecting on this.
Make Sure You’re Wanted
First, it is imperative that practitioners working with Indigenous groups are only ever invited to be there. Communities should be given choice about who they would like to work with.
Don’t Hire Me
If there is an Indigenous business or organisation that could deliver the project and is actively competing for the job, don’t hire me. Reminiscent of Patagonia’s famous New York Times ad campaign, “Don’t Buy This Jacket”, it is time for non-Indigenous businesses like mine to be courageous and address the Elephant in the Room head on. I’ll be encouraging clients to think twice about who they engage.
Get Out Of The Way
I’m going to put myself out of business. How? In 2023, my focus will gradually start to shift from direct service delivery to training. By 2027, my new goal is to have trained 200 Indigenous practitioners in how to develop nature-based enterprises with communities in conservation areas. Within five years the pool of trained practitioners should mean I can (and should) close the service delivery side of my business and make space for Indigenous businesses to fill that niche.
