What is Indigenous Business Month and its 2025 theme?
Indigenous Business Month is a month-long celebration and showcase of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses, highlighting their innovation, excellence, economic independence and self-determination. The celebration is an opportunity to highlight the work that Aboriginal businesses are doing as well as some of the ways we work that make First Nations business so special.
Each year the team over at Indigenous Business Month announces a theme. The 2025 theme is Strength through Collaboration. This theme celebrates the power of First Nations businesses working together, and with allies, across Country, culture and continents.
Collaboration is not new to mob. It is a cultural practice within our communities that fosters collective knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. Collaboration encourages building trust, reducing risk and generating creative solutions through meaningful partnerships and shared goals. It also recognises that many First Nations enterprises are creating change not just within their own businesses but across the broader business and economic landscape.
Why does collaboration matter in First Nations business?
There is no doubt that Wingaru is stronger for our collaborations, whether it be a formal partnership resulting in the development of strong education resources or informal collaborations of support. This year’s Indigenous Business month theme has given me the opportunity to reflect on the collaborations we have.
The collaborations we have with knowledge holders and artists in the development of lesson plan content or product development are integral to ensuring our school resources continue to be high quality, truth-based and diverse in the knowledge they share with students and teachers.
These collaborations contribute to the shared knowledge base at the core of Wingaru’s mission as well as supporting economic development in Aboriginal communities as we provide avenues for employment, skill development and partnerships that foster innovation.
How is Wingaru building stronger education through partnerships?
Wingaru’s booth at EduTech Australia 2025, showcasing First Nations education games, classroom resources, and digital learning platforms.
This year we partnered with Edutech, Australia’s largest conference and exhibition for educators to bring a diverse range of Aboriginal educators and thought leaders together and share their work with educators from around Australia and New Zealand. We are working on next year’s speaker list and are excited to be connecting mob from all across the continent to share their knowledge to support teachers to bring authentic First Nations education to their classrooms.
Free Decoding the Universe resources: a Teacher’s Guide for classrooms and a guide for exploring First Nations science outside the classroom, created by Wingaru, Deadly Science and Australia Post.
Beyond our core products, we’re proud to collaborate with deadly organisations like Deadly Science and Australia Post, bringing together our strengths, knowledge and skills to create resources that make First Nations science accessible in classrooms while providing opportunities for communities to share knowledge in their own ways. Partnerships with SBS Learn also create space for important stories to be shared, stories that would not be possible without strong, respectful collaboration. And through our work with NintiOne and ACER on the Preschool Outcomes Measures Project, Aboriginal perspectives have, for the first time, been embedded in an assessment tool.
Free 'Dharug Ngurra' resource by Wingaru and SBS Learn, introducing students to the Dharug language and exploring culture, identity and connection to Country through engaging literacy and numeracy activities.
Our workplace education programs have connected us with some amazing ally organisations that not only support Wingaru but also First Nations communities across the continent. While many of these relationships begin as simple service engagements, they quickly grow into something much deeper. These organisations walk alongside us, creating space, amplifying First Nations voices and offering genuine support that makes a lasting difference.
What impact do wholesale and retail collaborations have?
Wingaru’s First Nations education games and resources available at Taronga Zoo Sydney, The Parliament House Shop, and the Australian Museum.
Our wholesale partnerships with retailers, including both First Nations businesses and ally organisations, have helped us reach people well beyond the school space. When you buy a Wingaru product from one of our First Nations stockists, you’re supporting more than just one community. You’re supporting our team, the artists and knowledge holders who share their knowledge through our resources, and the communities of the stockists themselves. Each purchase might feel small, but together these contributions add up to help build strong, self-sustaining Blak economies that are driving real change. Our stockists play an important role in amplifying voices, sharing knowledge and creating opportunities for more people to engage in cultural learning.
Lesley and Deb celebrating Riley Callie Resources receiving the Indigenous Business Month I2I Award in 2024.
How do ally organisations and communities grow stronger together?
We’re lucky to work with organisations that genuinely prioritise cultural safety, choose to engage First Nations suppliers, and see relationships as more than just box-ticking. These partnerships are built on respect and trust, giving us the chance to connect them with First Nations people in their industries so voices are meaningfully included in the work they do. These connections are at the core of the way we work, and together they create a ripple effect of understanding and better ways of working across the country.
Aboriginal ways of doing naturally embed working together. Collaborating and working in partnership comes naturally to most Aboriginal businesses. It makes us, and the people we work with, stronger. I love that this year Indigenous Business Month is creating space to reflect on these important collaborations and sharing story about such an important way of working.
Who do you work with and how do those relationships make you stronger?