The ISX (www.isx.org.au) began its life with what became known as the Ngunnawal Trading Floor on May 21, 2003. It emerged from the Social Entrepreneurs Network which was formed in the early 2000s as a joint venture of several organisations led principally at that time by Rev. Nic Frances and the Brotherhood of St Laurence in Melbourne.
The theme of the ISX’s first meeting was "Indigenous enterprise". The Aboriginal economy and society was dominated by the public sector and government. It was clearly understood that a private, market economy was very much needed to create more freedom and independence within and across Aboriginal communities.
This simple idea was what fueled the idea of an Aboriginal stock exchange or social venture fund.
For its first ten years the ISX articulated its goal as “helping Aboriginal Australians achieve their dreams by any means available to us - sharing knowledge, raising finance, marketing or one on one support”.
No business idea was too small or too large. Any Aboriginal person wanting to create their own business - commercial, social or cultural - was encouraged to pitch their ideas at potential supporters and investors. Our goal was to build appropriate, strong and growing investments in Indigenous businesses and social and cultural enterprises. Between 2004 and 2009 over 5,000 Indigenous business people, enterprises and communities nationwide used the ISX to post information and to track down investors, supporters and mentors.
The ISX organised trading floors where business ideas were matched with potential mainstream backers. Many times we were told that there were no business ideas in Aboriginal communities, only to find that there were dozens of people with well developed ideas and projects. Why were we able to find these ideas when government agencies could not? One of the principles of ISX operations that it always worked with community elders and representatives.
In this high energy period, ISX "trading floors": Kuku Yalanji (Mossman, Cape York, August, 2003, Yawuru (Goolarri Broome), Yorta Yorta (Rumbalara, Shepparton) and Ngarda (Port Hedland, Roebourne) supported any Aboriginal business idea that came from these local communities and peoples.
Another of the principles of the ISX was that it would be fiercely non bureaucratic. It would not work through committees and would devote a maximum of funds to the business ideas and people rather than to any ISX organisation and would involve minimum meetings for meetings sake.
The ISX proudly eschewed government support. But the early trading floors were relatively expensive to run, a minimum of $20,000 just to provide basic infrastructure such as planning, organising, venue, digital communications, catering etc and large voluntary commitments of labour, time and support. That sum seems peanuts now, especially as we look at the huge public sums that do not even make the grass roots levels of Aboriginal communities; but the ISX was driven by the view of devoting every single dollar to Aboriginal businesses. We reviewed these expenses and were concerned, as every Aboriginal organisation is, with the large sums that needed to be spent on transport and air fares just to hold one meeting of business people and investors.
At the Yorta Yorta trading floor a grand experiment of real time online meetings between London, Los Angeles, Canberra and Shepparton took place.
As time went on the ISX website became a lean way of supporting Aboriginal businesses. Aboriginal people could simply submit ideas and business projects and the ISX would send notice out to over 5000 potential investors and supporters. This modus operandi created a legacy that lasted for over two decades.
Physical "trading floors' - always held in community venues, gave way to the online "trading floor". The online trading floor was a much more economical way to showcase Aboriginal businesses. We also started to run very effective online crowd funding efforts for particular projects Noomool: the Aubrey Tigan Story, Mata Mata and for Stephen "Baamba" Aḻbert with the only ISX expense being the free voluntary support of ISX personnel.
Though the national website and online trading floor the ISX:
For twenty years our online trading floor remains a free place to market ideas and investment opportunities.
After 2008 the ISX focused on North East Arnhem Land and supported several budding business entrepreneurs and homelands. In this period the ISX supported many Aboriginal elders during the last years of their lives including A. Tigan, D. Gurruwiwi, Ms. S.D. Gurruwiwi, Mrs. B. Burarrwanga and Stephen "Bamba" Albert. We called them our Aboriginal national treasures and they remain in our hearts.
Looking back there was something special about the trading floors as physical events that created ongoing networks and lasting long term relationships. There is often some thought that the physical trading floors should be revived and perhaps from the mid 2020s they might be. But they take great energy and funding in themselves and the ISX will need renewed sponsorship and organisational support to allow these things to happen.
As an entity in its own right Aboriginal ownership and management was an important dimension of everything the ISX did. In 2013 Broome Aboriginal Media Association (BAMA) became the official owner of the ISX with the understanding that other Aboriginal organisations might also at some point become owners and partners. However any new partnerships would be predicated by a period of involvement and work with the ISX and like projects.
From the outset the ISX gave itself an enormous challenge and there was much to learn from it. The bottom line for Aboriginal business as well as for Aboriginal human, cultural, social and environmental development is the sheer lack of investment in capacity and infrastructure when compared to mainstream communities over the last 250 plus years of colonisation.
The irony is that when Aboriginal communities were recognised and supported by the Commonwealth after the 1967 Referendum it was welfarism that was the biggest major national investment that was made into communities. In many contexts welfarism eroded the capacity and self reliance and independence of Aboriginal communities.
There have been a number of things that have been learned over the years:
Why is this important? The original understanding that an Aboriginal private sector was essential to ongoing Aboriginal well being remains fundamental. The Federal Government's Closing the Gap strategy 2008-2023 is a contemporary attempt to make up for the enormous deficit that separates Aboriginal Australians from non-Aboriginal Australians. It has predictably failed on a number of fronts because self reliance, prosperity and economic development is a critical dimension to social health. Without these things then Aboriginal development cannot progress.
An Indigenous Stock Exchange is never going to be like a conventional Western financial market place. Over time certain rules and principles have evolved:
For more email voluntary national secretary Peter Botsman at peter@peterbotsman.com