• Almost a year since the Black Lives Matter movement led to calls to “support Blak business”, what’s actually changed for Indigenous-owned businesses?
• Business Insider Australia spoke to a range of First Nations business owners, as well as those involved in advocating for and promoting Blak businesses.
• “I think the lasting impact is greater awareness,” owner of advocacy platform Blak Business Olivia Williams said.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

It’s been almost a year since protests were ignited in the US city of Minneapolis, spreading across the world and to Australia.

In the weeks following the murder of George Floyd and the reckoning over Black deaths and systemic racism, Australian corporations, media and brands scrambled to meet the moment.

Many posted the now infamous black square on Instagram, and rushed to increase the Indigenous faces represented online and across social media, as the Black Lives Matter movement took centre stage.

Along with this was a call to action to “support Indigenous businesses”, as well as Indigenous social justice organisations.

The frenzy of activity highlighted a cognitive dissonance pervasive in Australia, between public consciousness around American social justice, and awareness and action on systemic racism here.

“We’ve had over 430 Blak deaths in custody and this is happening on our doorstep as well,” Laura Thompson, founder of activist clothing brand Clothing the Gaps told Business Insider Australia.

“And there have been no convictions for those Blak deaths in this country.”

As the 12 month anniversary of those protests approaches, Business Insider Australia asked a range of First Nations business owners, as well as those involved in advocating for and promoting Blak businesses, to reflect on the impact it has had on their company, what has actually changed, and what they want to see happen still.

‘There’s a big push for Blak business’

“I doubled my instagram following,” Tahnee Edwards, who runs fashion label Gammin Threads told Business Insider Australia via email, of what she saw in May of 2020.

She says that from May to July she was doing triple her usual sales, “but then it died back down and has plateaued since then.”

Denni Francisco, owner of fashion brand Ngali told Business Insider Australia the main change for her business was the uptick in interest from magazines and publications.

“Ngali got a lot more exposure, in terms of being featured more,” Francisco said.

Fiona Harrison runs Chocolate on Purpose, a company based on Wiradjuri Country in central NSW that sells chocolate that uses native botanical ingredients.

She told Business Insider Australia she immediately noticed a change in behaviour in May.

Harrison said that in the section on her enquiry page that asks how people found the business “more and more I started to get comments like ‘I searched for Indigenous businesses,’” she said.

Natasha Kaiser, owner of Wurrumay Collective, a company that sells art, home and body products using native ingredients, told Business Insider Australia the movement has created “a lot of space for Blak business,” including hers, and highlighted yoga brand Jarin Street, which is the first Indigenous-owned business to have a store in shopping mall Westfield.

Thompson said Clothing the Gaps also saw the financial benefits of the movement.

“It definitely impacted on our business in a positive way,” she said. “We definitely saw an increase in sales.”

She says from conversations she’s had, other Aboriginal businesses have enjoyed the financial rewards too.

However there was also a sense of frustration within the community that it took a movement out of the US to place attention on Indigenous issues.

“I think when we had this flood of business, we also thought ‘wow where were these people before?’”

For Clothing the Gaps, which sees its activism as a core element of its business model, a benefit was having people visiting their platforms to buy stuff, while also “educating themselves about Aboriginal issues and causes,” Thompson said.

Last year the brand created a resource that came with every purchase to encourage customers to consider these. As Thompson says, it’s “great you bought a tee and you went to a black lives matter movement. What now?”

Since the protests in May of 2020, Thompson said the brand was also able to increase its database and following so it could “continue to feed the community information along the way around different topics that we want to share.”

“[We’re] really trying to have a conversation with communities about ‘what does decolonising your wardrobe look like?’”

“If you want to practice true allyship, that has to not be [just] around significant events — or tragedy — to really help…Aboriginal economic futures in this space. Investing and buying from Blak businesses all the time is a change they could make habitual and a change they can make in their life.”

‘People are speaking’

Harrison said something she’s noticed more widely since last May is openness for perspectives from the Indigenous community to be given space.

“Now because people are connecting and people are speaking, there’s not so much reticence about speaking out and being shut down,” she explained.

Harrison gave the example of a recent competition run by lingerie brand Berlei to create a design for an upcoming Mother’s Day campaign where the winning print, by a non-Indigenous artist, featured Aboriginal symbols.

On social media, an indigenous artist called the company out.

“At the start Berlei didn’t know what to do, which is really a lesson for corporate Australia, because they have all these reconciliation plans — but a lot of it is just box-ticking,” Harrison said.

After about three days the company issued a formal apology and rescinded the prize.

“What’s been happening with Black Lives Matter has caused Indigenous people to speak out more and to feel safer to speak up and speak out,” she said.

“I just think that that is a real indication of the fact that to date, Australians haven’t really seen what’s going on. But this has caused a groundswell and people want to be educated.”

Olivia Williams runs Blak Business, a platform that brings together information, knowledge and resources to facilitate broader learning and discussion about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander topics.

She also has a popular Instagram page that promotes Indigenous-owned businesses, and jointly curated Guardian Australia’s Christmas gift guide last year.

“I think this led people to realise that there are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses in Australia, and for them to consider in what ways they can support those businesses,” Williams said.

“Since the peak of Black Lives Matter in 2020, of course, I’ve seen engagement drop a bit, but I think the overwhelming majority have stayed engaged in the conversation.”

‘Seek out community’

Model, creative director and designer Nathan McGuire works with many of Australia’s biggest fashion brands. He told Business Insider Australia that many of the companies he works with are taking the right steps, but that this kind of change “can’t be done within a year.”

“I work with some of the best clients in Australia,” McGuire said.

“The difference is now they ask what my perspective is and how they can change. I don’t have all the answers, but my experience growing up as an Aboriginal man, being an Aboriginal model in the Australian fashion industry…I can offer my professional opinion,” he said.

McGuire gave the example of recent work with Country Road, where “on every level they worked to be more inclusive,” with elders doing a Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony before the shoot.

“There was a non-indigenous model on set. She had that experience and she got really emotional when she was like, ‘this is amazing, I can’t believe I’ve never had this on a shoot before,’” he said.

“With the industry, we’re always shooting in different locations, so to be aware of acknowledging that country you’re on — that’s another step brands can take.”

Kaiser said there’s “a fine line between tokenistic and genuine” when it came to highlighting and including Indigenous products and brands.

“For example, [influencer] Tammy Hembrow on the Gold Coast, she’s got millions of followers and last year when it sort of kicked off she just shared a black square and that was it,” she said.

“That was tokenistic. Because if you really believe Blak lives matter or Aboriginal businesses matter, then you need to support us every day; not just one day of the year or whenever it’s on-trend,” Kaiser said.

She said even in the past year she’s experienced people following her Instagram page or supporting her, during NAIDOC week for example — “and then a week later they unfollow me when they’ve shared my business.”

“I’ve even had non-Indigenous influencers come and share my artwork on their page without asking me.”

“That’s not supporting me, that’s just sharing my art without permission.”

What does it mean to be an ally?

Williams said part of the growing awareness has been “the labour being invested” in creating resources and educating non-Indigenous people — part of the reason she created her platform as a place Indigenous people can direct those wanting to learn.

“I recognised the labour being invested in creating these resources and so reshared things on the Blak Business Instagram story.”

Thompson echoed this sentiment.

‘I think at the heart of every resource we create on our page, we create these resources for Indigenous people, to reduce the burden of educating on them.”

As for what comes next, almost everyone Business Insider Australia spoke to said that the impact of BLM for them and their businesses had had a more profound impact than they would have expected year ago.

“I would love to see more Aboriginal-owned businesses come into the mainstream,” Kaiser said.

McGuire said he is already seeing signs this is happening in fashion.

“There’s an influx of Indigenous labels being embraced,” he said, including a showcase at the upcoming Australian Fashion Week in Sydney. “There’s lots of great stuff happening there and it’s great to be part of that wave.”

For Thompson, something she’s noticed “has to do with the word allyship and how non-indigenous people have questioned themselves on how they can be a good ally.”

“Once we started to label our product ‘ally-friendly’ and ‘mob only’ we saw a spike in sales.”

“It was phenomenal actually,” she said. “They were almost waiting for permission, for us to say, ‘you are allowed to wear this stuff, we want you to wear it’.”

“I think the lasting impact is greater awareness,” Williams said. “People, either consciously or unconsciously, were sheltered from the reality of police violence and Aboriginal deaths in custody in this country.”

Kaiser said she thinks a consequence of BLM in Australia is people starting to understand that “sharing a black square on Instagram is not actually going to achieve anything.”

“But I do think we are somewhat moving in the right direction and the support and allyship we have built with Blak businesses and the support I’m seeing from non-Indigenous people is just incredible.”

Thompson said she wants to be having more of the conversations she’s having with the growing community at Clothing the Gaps.

“Something I’m quite proud of is that when I step onto the street, especially in the ‘Brunswick Bubble,’ I’m starting to see so much Clothing the Gaps on just an ordinary day.

“That’s the change that we want to see.”

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