Driving change: Indigenous women grab the reins and get down to business

A growing number of social enterprises led by Indigenous women are creating jobs, providing services and bringing communities together. Bawrunga is one of a growing number of social enterprises founded by Indigenous women. Bawrunga is self-sustaining, is set up as a not-for-profit and a social enterprise is defined as a commercially viable business existing to benefit the public and the community, rather than shareholders and owners, which dedicates at least 50% of its profits to its mission. The service employs 43 people and has about seven Aboriginal people working in ancillary services such as reception, Aboriginal health work and building maintenance. “It does bring the community together,” says Reid the chief executive of Bawrunga Aboriginal Medical Service. “It gets rid of that (racial) division there. We are working towards trying to close that social gap,” she says, adding that a lot of the doctors were born overseas. “It is also a very multicultural service.”

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Driving change: Indigenous women grab the reins and get down to business