Barayamal Centre of Entrepreneurship to open in Brisbane to support Indigenous businesses

Indigenous entrepreneurship organisation Barayamal is set to open the Barayamal Centre of Entrepreneurship (BCE) in Brisbane next month to foster the growth of First Nations businesses.

Along with an event space and meeting room, the BCE will offer coworking space for up to 30 entrepreneurs.

Dean Foley, founder and managing director of Barayamal, said the space aims to provide support to “budding entrepreneurs and future leaders” from across Australia.

“First Nations entrepreneurship is the high-growth, high-impact solution to help close the disparity and opportunity gap for First Nations people in Australia,” Foley said.

“So the ultimate mission of BCE is to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people build and manage wealth in their communities through business and property ventures.”

Foley has been looking to help Indigenous entrepreneurs through various initiatives since founding Barayamal in 2016.

Barayamal first launched as a pre-accelerator program following Foley’s organising of Australia’s first Indigenous Startup Weekend in 2016.

With 80 Indigenous Australians coming together in Brisbane for the hackathon event, Foley saw an accelerator as a natural progression and Barayamal launched with support from Slingshot.

Barayamal has since worked with CoderDojo First Nations to run coding programs for Indigenous students, run the charity hackathon ‘Give Backathon’, worked with Fishburners to run the Budding Entrepreneurs Program, and is set to run the First Nations Youth Summit in Melbourne later this month.

With over 50 percent of Australia’s First Nations population under 25 years old, Foley sees entrepreneurship as a key opportunity for Indigenous youth to achieve success.

“By achieving economic independence, First Nations people can give back to their communities and strengthen our connection to the land. Providing support to new Indigenous businesses is a critical piece of that puzzle,” he said.

Startup Daily - 15 June 2018