First Nations Business and Innovation Hub

Initiative 1: Improving Advisory Models for Enterprising Indigenous Families and Community Collectives

Introduction

In Australia, the majority of Indigenous business intermediation and advisory services are funded by the government and philanthropy, with a focus on supporting individual entrepreneurs, accelerating transactions, and scaling businesses.  We believe this leaves a gap in adapting relational and collective advisory approaches that prioritise, steward, and value relationships, rights, and intergenerational aspirations as legitimate components of economic development—not as “soft” extras.  Significant barriers persist for enterprising First Nations families and community collectives—including distrust of external advisors due to historical trauma, lack of culturally grounded governance models, and limited access in remote regions. 

Recognising these unique contextual challenges, many advisors in the current system have adapted, taking on the role of ‘armchair’ psychologists and conflict mediators.  However, this often occurs with little real support, guidance, or supervision from professionals with formal qualifications or real-life experience. Working from the ‘ground up’ with enterprising leaders and the advisors who support them, this project aims to raise awareness of the sheer complexity of the role of Indigenous business advisory services and the need for clear boundaries of expertise. Our ambition is to catalyse the development and adoption of new advisory approaches, resources, and ‘train-the-trainer’ initiatives to improve the quality of advice and outcomes for enterprising Indigenous families and communities, particularly those working in remote Northern Australia.
 

How Family Business Advisory Differs

Globally, the rise in Ultra-High-Net-Wealth Individuals (UHNWIs) and generational wealth transfers has led to a thriving global practice in family business intermediation, often provided as part of a comprehensive Family Office management strategy. The market size for the services provided by Family Offices (e.g., financial planning, investment management, legacy and planning management) is in the tens of billions of US dollars. Unlike mainstream enterprise consulting, which focuses on short-term, transactional goals, high-net-wealth family business advisory adopts a multi-generational lens. These business advisory and intermediaries integrate emotional dynamics, ownership structures, and legacy preservation, requiring longer timeframes and broader stakeholder engagement. 

Advisors often facilitate family councils, governance charters, and next-generation leadership programs, striking a balance between business performance and family harmony. Approaches to support and advice emphasise trust-building, conflict mediation, and alignment of family values with strategic objectives, contrasting sharply with the efficiency-driven, individual-centric approach typical of conventional business support.   This project seeks to address the question: If these approaches are the UHNWI ‘gold standard,’ why are they not also being applied in Indigenous community contexts, where business and enterprise are also vehicles for the protection and transmission of priceless cultural heritage knowledge, language, and ways of knowing and being?

What we intend to do

Our project aims to make a meaningful contribution to the Indigenous entrepreneurial ecosystem, improving the capacity of Indigenous enterprise advisors to elevate the emotional and relational dimensions of Indigenous family enterprising.  These dimensions of enterprise should be afforded the same time and support as working on the mechanics of a specific market or enterprise opportunity. 

Our initial step has been to consult with a multidisciplinary team of Indigenous business, capital, and social enterprise intermediaries with experience in the NT, as well as experts in Indigenous Leadership, Narrative, and Family Systems Therapy.     

Our next steps are:

1. Facilitate dialogues to explore intermediation practice models that tap into the ‘human and cultural’ architecture that truly drives success for Indigenous businesses, especially family and collective enterprises. The purpose of these gatherings is to explore methods and approaches for relational work, including business visioning, integrating cultural values, intergenerational storytelling, trust-building, and assessing skills/capacity.  
    
2. Drawing directly from the experiences of Leaders and in strict accordance with the CDU Intellectual Property Policy (Section 4:  First Nations Knowledges and IP), make sense of what we learn in our dialogues and share it with the broader Indigenous entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Project Leadership 

Dr Cindy Reese Mitchell joined the Faculty of Arts and Society at CDU as a Lecturer in Business in 2025. She is an experienced field builder and a leader in regional economic development. Over the past 20 years, she has worked as a business and capital advisor in the Canberra Innovation Network, starting with Epicorp Limited and Lighthouse Innovations.  

In 2016, Dr Mitchell led the establishment of Mill House Ventures as a public-private partnership between the University of Canberra and SERVICE ONE Credit Union, now Bendigo Bank.  Mill House is the ACT Region’s only dedicated social enterprise intermediary. Cindy completed her PhD in 2024 on the entrepreneurial process of Kimberley Aboriginal women who are part of the Maganda Makers Business Club. 

Call for Collaborators and Funders

We invite entrepreneurs, Indigenous businesses, capital ecosystem intermediaries, and other advisors to collaborate with us in developing the Enterprising Indigenous Families initiative. If you are interested in partnering with us or funding our work, please contact Dr Cindy Reese Mitchell, Project Leader | Enterprising Indigenous Families, directly at cindy.mitchell@cdu.edu.au.