Current Issues in Aboriginal SMEs

This chapter firstly provides a brief overview of Aboriginal small business over the last twenty years incorporating relevant research. We also look at the rise of the Indigenous Chambers of Commerce and their community needs. The chapter then discusses issues that confuse the identification of what is an Aboriginal business based on percentage rhetoric with a comparison of Maori viewpoints as to what is a Maori business. Based on nineteen random interviews of Indigenous Chamber of Commerce members, the concept of what is an Indigenous business is discussed which follows on from the workshop held at the 2013 SEAANZ conference. Finally, this chapter provides a robust and defendable definition and justification of an Indigenous business for effective policy outcomes and facilitating business prosperity.