Working alongside Indigenous communities, CSI 91色情片 is exploring how business advice can be tailored to reflect local knowledge and lived experience.
Successful business advice requires more than technical expertise. To be effective across different communities and regional areas, business support needs to reflect the cultural and place-based contexts in which businesses operate.
At the Centre for Social Impact 91色情片, Senior Lecturer Dr Alessandro Bressan is collaborating with Dr Mattia Anesa (The University of Queensland) and Dr Tarunna Sebastian (The University of Sydney) to understand how business advice can better support Indigenous entrepreneurs. Working alongside local organisations across the Kimberley, the research explores how business support can reflect Indigenous knowledge, lived experience and local ways of doing business.
"Business advice isn't just about helping someone meet their tax obligations. It's about building relationships and understanding the communities people come from. When advice reflects that context, it becomes far more valuable," said Dr Bressan.
For many business owners, advice on taxation, compliance and regulation is one of the first interactions they have with professional advisers. For Indigenous entrepreneurs, accessing professional support that understands their cultural and community obligation and experiences can be an additional challenge.
"There simply aren't enough Indigenous accountants to support the growing number of Indigenous businesses. With just over 100 registered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander accountants across Australia, many Indigenous entrepreneurs rely on professional support from people who may have limited understanding of Indigenous practices and community obligations."
"Technical expertise and cultural understanding should go hand in hand. By understanding these as complementary capabilities , advisers can build stronger relationships and deliver advice that is more effective," said Dr Bressan.
Business resources can present similar challenges. Tax information, business guides and regulatory advice are often written for a broad audience, using language, terminology and assumptions that may not always be accessible to Indigenous entrepreneurs.
"The challenge isn't that the information doesn't exist, it's making sure the information is designed for the people who need it. Something as simple as a Business Activity Statement can become a barrier if the language and supporting resources aren't easy to understand."
Designing better business support starts with understanding how Indigenous entrepreneurs experience existing systems. Through the in the Kimberley region, part of the , Dr Bressan and his team see first-hand how people engage with Australia's tax system.
"We've heard small businesses tell us they can't complete basic tax obligations because they don't understand the forms or the supporting information. Stories like these help us identify where the system creates barriers, and where better support can make a real difference."
"If we can improve cultural understanding across organisations that support businesses every day, we have an opportunity to make advice more accessible and more relevant," said Dr Bressan.
Working alongside Indigenous communities is central to the research. The project has been developed in discussion with Kimberley organisations including , , , and the .
"Working alongside Indigenous communities means we're not making assumptions about what support is needed, we are hearing it directly from the people who use it. The Indigenous Business Forum in Broome was developed because the community wanted to bring people together, share knowledge and strengthen business networks. When support is designed from within and with the people it serves, it has the potential to create more sustainable, long-term outcomes," said Dr Bressan.
Dr Alessandro Bressan and Natasha Short from Maganda Makers
Neville Poelina from Kook Koo's own Bush Remedies with Dr Alessandro Bressan