Many businesses don’t have the opportunity to hire Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders into their workforce, but there’s a way to support Indigenous economic development by using suppliers that are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-owned businesses. This is called Indigenous supplier diversity.
It encourages the use of suppliers from traditionally under-utilised groups such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-owned, woman-owned, minority-owned, LGBT-owned, disability-owned or certified, small to medium-sized enterprises. In Australia, we’re lucky: there are two easy ways to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-owned businesses:
- Find an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-owned business that provides products or services that you need;
- Find another business who can provide products or services from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-owned business for you.
There is also a specialised business dedicated to helping match businesses with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-owned suppliers called Supply Nation (www.supplynation.org.au).