ABORIGINAL ENTREPRENEURS SAY BLACKFISHIING NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED

Aboriginal entrepreneurs across Australia say some non-Aboriginal businesses are tricking consumers as “Aboriginal enterprises”.

The group Trading Blak is educating consumers and businesses about black fishing.

Blackfishing describes the phenomenon of non-Black public figures pretending to be black.

The term was coined by hip hop journalist Wanna Thompson after a controversy surrounding a Scandanavian influencer who was caught in a social media controversy for presenting as black online.

For Menang Gnudju Noongar artist and entrepreneur Kiya Watt, uses the term black fishing as a way to describe non-Aboriginal businesses marketing and misleading consumers to believe they are an Aboriginal owned and led business. 

Larajarri owner pictured with daugther and grandmother (Source: Rikki Dank)

Trading Blak is a business, but also a philosophy. The collective was created as a place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creatives to sell online and promote ethical consumer decision-making.  

Now the group has over 52.6 thousand followers and wants more Aboriginal business owners to join the collective to give more Indigenous businesses who may not have the platform, a platform to sell online. 

Watt started Trading Blak with a group of nine Indigenous business owners from across Australia to promote black-owned and run businesses. 

An outspoken advocate for Indigenous issues, Watt says the current law does not protect Indigenous businesses and artists efficiently.

“Copyrights are assigned to the employer, and we are not protected that way,

‘Our art holds our storylines and holds such great significance to us and our culture”.

LARAJARRI FOUNDER SAYS INDIGENOUS PEOPLE HAVE TO WORK HARD IN A ‘PREDOMINATELY WHITE MALE INDUSTRY”

Larajarri is an art gallery that sells Northern Territory Indigenous artworks from artists in regional NT in Dubai.

Founder Rikki Dank started the gallery after falling in love with Dubai on a solo trip she took there two years ago.

Since then, Dank has taken Dubai by storm and has even met the members of the Royal family.

As a successful entrepreneur, she says people overseas tend to value artwork a lot as they understand there is the collective knowledge that communities and groups that are gained over 60 000 years.

“They see the value in that, in the stories, they see the value of that person coming from a family with 60 000 years of history”.

Dank is against black fishing and feels it is disrespectful when they do it on purpose, especially when entrepreneurs often have to code-switch in places.