Indigenous Small Business Owners: Exploring the Practice of Support

Abstract

In Australia, there are agencies funded by the government to provide support to Indigenous peoples wishing to start a business and to provide ongoing support for their businesses. In this chapter, we highlight the government-funded agencies mentioned by Indigenous small business owners and provide insights into their experiences. Informing this chapter are 36 interviews with 30 Indigenous small business owners and 6 Indigenous business stakeholders from urban, rural, and remote areas of Australia. We explore the practice of support from an axio-onto-epistemological perspective. We use the theory of practice architectures lens to analyse the data, identifying how the practice of support is enabling and constraining Indigenous small business owners. Next, we share how these government-funded agencies are understood to be used according to Indigenous stakeholders. Last, we recommend improvements that may further support and sustain Indigenous small businesses.

Citation

Blue, L.E., Hunt, D., Bodle, K., Frazer, L., Brimble, M. and Weaven, S. (2023), "Indigenous Small Business Owners: Exploring the Practice of Support", Researching Practices Across and Within Diverse Educational Sites: Onto-epistemological Considerations, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 141-162. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-871-520231007