by RACHELLE TOWART

When COVID-19 hit, a lot of people ended up with more time to think.

Paradoxically, the greatest disruption to the Australian economy and Australian society in a generation is also turning out to be the best time to grow within, with a rash of new employment and education opportunities for Indigenous Australians.

It comes as no surprise then that Monash has decided to establish a Master of Indigenous Business Leadership – a qualification that would have been unthinkable 50 years ago, unsellable 25 years ago – but a qualification which now has found its’ time.

Perhaps it’s the contemplation time in lock-down, or simply a coalescence of momentum that has been building, but there are more jobs for Aboriginal leaders now than at any time I can remember, in a lifetime of training and now recruiting Indigenous leaders for senior roles.

There are a couple of palpable differences in the lives of Indigenous leaders, which we have noticed through the university sector and in many other industries.

First, there is a growth in recognition of the value of Indigenous knowledge and culture. Our 60 000 years of habitation on this continent is no longer distilled into a dot painting on a souvenir boomerang. As we have worked with universities to recruit Aboriginal staff, there is a recognition that higher education institutions must begin to formally recognise the knowledge and potential contribution that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture can make.

There are still some appointments that appear to be token but increasingly universities are making an effort to formally recognise Indigenous culture and some are even starting to talk about it beyond the narrow horizons of the PVC(I)’s org chart.

Second, there is a recognition that Indigenous leaders may not have all the same qualifications or the blue chip networks of other Australians, but they often bring a resilience, knowledge and practical commitment to effecting change that has been hard won through experiences of racism, dispossession and dysfunction.

When we put a candidate forward for a leadership role, we insist that candidates are appointed on merit – and the fact that they are Aboriginal is a bonus. There is a creeping recognition that Indigenous candidates can bring a range of perspectives and character attributes that other candidates simply can’t match.

The Indigenous business sector is growing rapidly, supported by Supply Nation, but this course is a recognition that Indigenous business leaders have a role in all businesses.

For years, we had known that Australia’s top 200 ASX companies had precisely zero Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander executives.

We had also seen the Federal Government invest billions in well-intended programmes that had still failed to level the employment playing field for Indigenous Australians.

But over the past 18 months, thousands of Indigenous leaders have been recruited to new roles, because of who they are, and who they can be.

A masters degree isn’t the only pathway to greatness for Indigenous leaders, but it is a valuable move in momentum, helping to cement Indigenous executives into consideration for mainstream leadership roles in Australian business.

The boom will be a challenge for universities, with just 1 per cent of the national workforce being Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander – with most staff filling professional roles. Recruiting talented Indigenous leaders to the higher ed sector has definitely just got harder, following the introduction of new courses designed to propel leaders into a new world of business.

Rachelle Towart AO trained more than 5000 Indigenous leaders as CEO of the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre and now runs Pipeline Talent, Australia’s first Indigenous executive recruitment agency