Issue 12 | Barayamal Digest

Telstan Sibley said he was eager to visit Townsville and get a haircut, see an accountant and take his family shopping for warm clothes. He said it has been tough running a small business during the pandemic due to the high cost of shipping goods to the island. “Our freight, we went from $200 a week to nearly $800, $900 a week,” he said. ABC News

As Bundjalung woman Valerie Linow has said of her experiences of slavery in the 1950s: ” What if your wages got stolen? Honestly, wouldn’t you like to have your wages back? Honestly. I think it should be owed to the ones who were slave labour. “We got up and worked from dawn to dusk … We lost everything – family, everything. You cannot go stealing our lousy little sixpence. We have got to have money back. You have got to give something back after all this country did to the Aboriginal people. You cannot keep stealing off us”. SBS

We all know that the injustice faced by First Nations people is real. But what we don’t necessarily know is how to make meaningful reparations. What can we do once we’ve listened, read and rallied? Badaboom… we can buy stuff. Here are 7 Indigenous businesses selling stuff we want to buy. You might want to buy it too. Pedestrian TV

Slavery, indentured work and stolen wages aren’t just an ugly part of Australia’s history — they’re the basis of much of our early economic growth. Crikey

The most common claims filed against Tribes and Tribal enterprises are those by federal government agencies, especially the Department of Labor — often for wage and hour violations as well as workplace safety issues. The great majority of those claims stem from employer misclassification of workers. Native Business

Change Labs is stepping in to assist Native small businesses, vendors or artists ineligible for COVID-19 aid or PPP loans. Assistance is available for small business owners who reside on or near the Navajo and Hopi Nations and are facing challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic. Native-owned business hub Change Labs is offering zero-interest loans of up to $5,000 with no credit check to Native entrepreneurs. Native Business

Prairie Band suit is corroborated by a recent Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development report that reveals Treasury relied on a population data series that produces “arbitrary and capricious” representations of Tribes’ enrolled citizens to calculate the dispersal of CARES Act funds. Native Business