The brief
33 Creative, together with Dr Michelle Evans of the MURRA Indigenous Business Master Class Program and Leesa Watego of Iscariot Media, led another successful Indigenous Business Month in the month of October of 2021.
The theme for the 7th Indigenous Business Month was “Powering the Indigenous Economy” selected in recognition of changing ways to working and operating a business in a pandemic, and the need to signal the economic contribution made by Indigenous businesses, individuals and organisations – the power of the Indigenous Economy.
Recognising this power, celebrating and promoting Indigenous businesses is what the month was about. It’s where, each year, we highlight business success, innovation and entrepreneurial activities, calling on everyone to reflect on how they can continue to support Indigenous businesses in the future.
In 2021, we introduced a new award category, the Regional Business Award highlighting regional Indigenous businesses impacting the local communities and economies they work in. We also proudly continued our existing award categories including the I2I award, celebrating collaborative Indigenous business practice, the Indigenous Digital Inventiveness Award that reflects cultural creativity, business nous and technology, and the Indigenous Ingenuity Award that reflects mob-led applications that solve challenging community issues.
IBM 2021 Award Winners
Transferring safe driving skills and education to Indigenous youth and disadvantaged sectors of the community at a subsidised cost.
I2I Award Winner: Jessie Lloyd Music Pty Ltd
Connecting Indigenous women musicians or Songwomen into the professional arts industry and opportunities.
Indigenous Digital Inventiveness Award: BuyingBlack, Jetzak Pty Ltd
An online portal for the Indigenous Business Sector, their supporters and customers, helping businesses enter the digital marketplace.
Indigenous Ingenuity Award: Pipeline Talent Pty Ltd
Ingeniously establishing itself to act as a corporate vehicle to address the social issue of executive employment of Indigenous Australians.
PwC Australia partnered with the MURRA Indigenous Business Program Master Class Program to lead their dedicated award category, the PwC Murra Boost Initiative, whereby the winner is paired with specialist skills and expertise of PwC Australia to the value of $30,000, to support a specific part of their business growth.
This year the PwC Murra Boost Initiative was Cedrent Enterprises, a vehicle hire company working across a number of communities but continuing to grow with increasing market demand.
33 Creative worked with our designers and social media strategists along with agency, Iscariot Media, to produce resources to support individuals and businesses to engage with Indigenous Business Month. The result was online engagement with Indigenous Business Month platforms that doubled during and in the lead up to October. Everyone is really getting behind #IndigBizMonth and we were excited to spur the movement with design assets that allowed for allies to share their support amongst their networks, helping to promote Indigenous businesses to thrive and address the needs of our communities.
Media
33 Creative also facilitated numerous media interviews with Indigenous Business Month co-founders, as well as a number of individual Indigenous Businesses on platforms such as SBS/NITV, National Indigenous Radio Service, Welcome to Country and other broadcasters who continue to have a strong interest in sharing the good news stories during Indigenous Business Month.
The interest from media outlets continues to grow, with special mention to SBS NITV for their Indigenous business segment focus this year, as well as National Indigenous Radio and other outlets such as Torres Strait Islander Media Association who are all helping to fuel the conversations about the significance of powering the Indigenous economy.
