Indigenous Stock Exchange (ISX)

The ISX has 2 parts: a national Australian website and communications organisation which publishes investment proposals in commercial, social, and cultural enterprises from around the country, and regional branches which champion their own local enterprises and facilitate investment, support, and ongoing coaching and networking.

Specifically, ISX's online "trading floor" presents major employment and investment opportunities from across Indigenous Australia. Green field, that is, burgeoning enterprises, register on the ISX website - through a free process - to participate in the trading floor. The online form asks for such information as type of mentoring required, amount and type of investment sought, and subject manner and regional focus of the proposed business. Once a listing is accepted a network of over 5,000 investors is alerted to the new investment proposal.

The ISX website provides a number of additional interactive features designed to foster communication and information/idea exchange among the community of Indigenous entrepreneurs. To cite a few examples of the forums offered: a summary of news for Aboriginal communities in remote and regional areas, Indigenous Arts & Cultural Livelihoods Business, Indigenous Enterprise, IT & Multi-media, and Young Indigenous Leaders ("Here we want to provide ideas and inspiration to young Indigenous people who aspire to leading towards greater prosperity, independence and cultural strength.") In addition, those with an opportunity to share may complete an online form to request posting within the Opportunity Marketplace, which highlights requests for participation, jobs, scholarships, Indigenous products, contacts, support, information, exchanges, ideas, and the like.

ISX began by hosting online trading floors that were hosted in Aboriginal communities and that featured video conferencing with Australia's financial districts. Later, a central online trading floor, which runs on the basis of pro bono support from professional supporters and the Sydney-based communications company alpha.net.au, emerged. The national website focuses on a particular region for up to 2 years. From 2009 to 2011, the ISX is focusing on Indigenous enterprises from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

The advanced and ongoing development work occurs at regional levels. For example, the BAMA ISX contributes to BAMA's goal of supporting Indigenous commercial and social business development in Broome, the Kimberley, and throughout Western Australia. BAMA ISX works in close association with BAMA's operational arm Goolarri Media Enterprises.

Economic Development.

The ISX was initially inspired by Mohammad Yunus' Grameen Bank.

Western Australia's Broome region operated a multi-racial economy that was, according to organisers, outside of the norm of Australia's dominant European culture for much of the twentieth century. According to ISX, only after 1967 were the majority of Aboriginal people in Australia allowed to own their own economic assets and businesses. For the 200 years of European settlement Aboriginal people were not considered legitimate citizens of their own lands and were dominated by the church, philanthropic, and government sectors with few mainstream rights.

BAMA ISX is described as contributing to BAMA's goal of supporting Indigenous commercial and social business development in Western Australia. BAMA ISX works in close association with BAMA's operational arm Goolarri Media Enterprises; it is intended that the ownership of the BAMA ISX will be shared with national Indigenous communities.

BAMA ISX indicates that its trading floors are "a mobile meeting place for Indigenous people to link up with investors and supporters. At each trading floor we literally see Indigenous businesses emerge...[W]e track the success and failures of those businesses and derive lessons learned from them and then share those lessons learned with the community. It is imperative for us to re-design and re-hash how trading floors are set-up and followed-up on and the lessons learned and tracking process enables that."

In November 2004, the ISX was made a laureate of Silicon Valley's Tech Museum. The ISX was recognised in a field of 321 from 60 countries. In 2005 the ISX was shortlisted for Scandinavia's Stockholm Prize in the field of innovation and economic development.

Editor's note: we heard from ISX late on Friday, July 23 2010, of the development of BAMA-ISX into YSEA-ISX. YSEA stands for Yawuru Social Enterprise Alliance and it is the first regional attempt to create Aboriginal businesses using the resources of the recently settled Native Title claim for Broome. We will gather further information as it becomes available and will update this summary as needed.