Barayamal Open Letter to Australian Super Funds: What You Need to Know

To all Australian Super Funds,

Barayamal, Australia’s Indigenous business accelerator, calls on you to commit 3% of your annual investments to First Nations businesses, starting now.

The super industry in Australia is intended to grow the retirement savings of Australians, but too often, super funds invest in harmful industries like fossil fuels that are detrimental to the environment.

First Nations people have been innovating across millennia, through countless generations. They have the oldest aquaculture structure in the world (Budj Bim), which was used to farm fish and eels. They engineered thermoplastic resins to create items, and they even started baking first: archaeologists have dated grinding stones in Australia to more than 30,000 years old. Many Indigenous people continue to innovate today, despite the challenges they face. David Unaipon, who appears on our $50 note, is a case in point.

Some Aus Super funds have Reconciliation Action Plans in place, but none have publicly committed to investing directly in Indigenous Australian businesses. It’s time for Aus Super funds to step up their game and make a commitment to investing in Indigenous Australian businesses.

If all the Australian Super funds on our list invested just 3% of their Funds Under Management into Australian Indigenous businesses, it would total $29.4 billion.

Just a small pledge from your fund will have a huge impact, immediately and for the longer term, on your fund, and our nation as a whole. If you have a RAP, the 3% pledge is a natural next step.

By investing directly in Indigenous Australian businesses, Australian Super funds can:

1. Generate stronger, more sustainable returns for investors by investing in organisations that prioritise social and environmental results alongside financial performance.
2. Create culturally appropriate employment opportunities that enable traditionally disadvantaged Indigenous Australians currently trapped in poverty to establish prosperous futures for themselves, their families and their communities.
3. Directly and positively impact Indigenous communities in which these businesses operate, as investment drives business expansion and job creation in regional and remote areas, as well as cities.
4. Support the protection of Australian native environments, as the growth of Indigenous businesses, enables First Nations Australians to sustain traditional lifestyles on country, and as a result, continue land management practices that have been proven over tens of thousands of years to support Australian ecosystems to flourish.
5. Make an enormous contribution towards closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by actively helping to decolonise wealth in Australia.

We hereby call on all Australian Super funds to pledge a 3% investment in Indigenous Australian businesses today.

Sincerely,

Dean Foley

Founder and CEO

Barayamal