The Big Why - It's Time to Listen and to Walk Together

First Nations people were and always will be the first traders on Earth. 

They have been practising “Business for Good” for thousands of years. 

Much like social enterprises, First Nations businesses trade like any other business, but they exist specifically to benefit community and country.  

Whether or not the referendum in Australia passes on 14 October, there’s no better time to truly listen to First Nations social entrepreneurs, and centre their voices in the Business for Good movement.

The Te Waka Project does just that.    

It is a digital storytelling campaign and storytelling platform created for and with the Business for Good movement and supported by First Nations social entrepreneurs. 

In its first chapter, we will platform stories created in collaboration with First Nations social entrepreneurs in Australia and New Zealand. In its second chapter, the story will broaden to non-indigenous Business for Good stories from the region. 

The stories, seen together, will feed a rich narrative experience highlighting the vibrancy, impact and values by which Australian indigenous and non-indigenous social enterprises will seed transformation of the broader economy.

With the upcoming 2023 Social Enterprise World Forum in Amsterdam, we can begin to launch these stories on a global scale.

In return for your support, we will share inspiring stories with you, help build your network with First Nations social entrepreneurs and provide education on ethical impact storytelling.

The full story in video (4 mins): 

The project comprises: 

• A series of short documentary films exploring:
• The Te Waka story and its purpose. How it can represent the Business for Good movement in Australia and New Zealand.
• Highlighting existing “First Traders” social enterprise stories, leadership and values.
• Capturing, producing and amplifying the story of the First Nations-led trip to the 2023 Social Enterprise World Forum to Amsterdam -- the main work we are seeking funding for.
• A follow up story on the evolution of the Business for Good movement since the Social Enterprise World Forum in Brisbane, starting with First Nations perspectives. 
• An interactive Impact Story Map platform created by project supporters and backers that invites them to share their stories, and lives on beyond the Social Enterprise World Forum 2023 in Amsterdam. A prototype version of this featuring First Nations voices will be created in time for the forum.  
• Education of Ethical Storytelling practices for story holders of the project, within Our Race’s Transformational Ethical Story Telling (TEST) principles. To ensure that storytelling practices move beyond extractive colonial models of storytelling, story holders and participants will be invited to be educated on Our Race's TEST principles.

The Ask:

We now seek assistance from the Australian and New Zealand Business for Good community, to support us to bring the project together and especially the post-production of content. Funds will be used to complete the films, deliver ethical and impact storytelling workshops as well as complete development of the Impact Story Map platform.

How will you use the money? 

First Nations Social Enterprise Leadership Story (65% of the funds) - We’ve invested both personally and professionally into filming the majority of the content, however we need to solve for the last mile -- post-production to get the filmed stories across the line in time. Post-production is often one of the hardest and most technical parts of the film-making process. For years, Digital Storytellers has produced stories from across the Business for Good movement for clients, but this project is deeply personal and meaningful as a story we deeply believe in and has no ‘client’ per se — this is a story we want to produce by and for the community. 

UPDATE 16/10 - We are proud to present a preview cut of this story! Thanks to some extra discovered resources for the campaign, we were able to do the production work earlier than expected for the initial story. Great news!  

Storytelling Platform (25% of the funds) - an interactive map of project supporters, networks and participants. This will assist the work necessary to create an interactive space where impact stories can be explored and built around particular impact themes. We’ll feature our Australian participants first, with the intent to take it global at SEWF. 

Ethical Impact Storytelling Workshop Delivery (10%) - In partnership with Our Race, a series of workshops will be delivered before the end of 2023, helping ensure the that project supporters are also building their ethical and impact storytelling practices.

Stretch Goal - if we raise $30,000

Business For Good Movement Film - Building on the First Nations stories of the social enterprise movement, we’ll also produce another short film featuring stories from Australia and New Zealand's “Business for Good” network. This will support network actors to help amplify their work and show the vibrancy of the movement, while supporting them to develop their own ethical impact stories for the story platform. 

The Backstory of Te Waka

Te Waka or "The Canoe", was sculpted for the Christchurch Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF), held back in 2017. It was created as a koha (a gift), from Maori people to the global social enterprise movement and has since travelled to Scotland, Ethiopia and Canada before coming to Australia.  

If we think of the Social Enterprise World Forum as the Olympics of social enterprise, then Te Waka is its torch. We like to regard it as a totemic object, one whose purpose and artistry asks us to collect and amplify the stories of the Business for Good movement. As it travels, new people can join Te Waka physically or digitally and share their stories with the project. 

Greg Hodgkinson from First Innovators and Mikey Leung from Digital Storytellers came into stewardship of Te Waka with the support of Luke Terry from White Box Enterprises who hosted SEWF Brisbane, and also the support of Matt Pfahlert and Mary-Anne Scully from the Australian Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship. 

So far Te Waka has travelled to every state and territory of Australia, where we’ve invited First Nations social enterprise leaders in each place to contribute to the project. In Amsterdam, Te Waka will be given to Social Enterprise Netherlands, who are hosting this year's SEWF, while our storytelling project will continue to maintain its Australian and New Zealand focus.  

Can you help?

As the clock ticks closer to SEWF Amsterdam, the Te Waka project and its story now need your support to reach completion.

As we weave the various story threads together -- Australian and New Zealand First Nations leadership and the building of a Business for Good movement -- we can crystallise this story to share at Amsterdam and beyond.

Your contribution to the project will help us weave these stories together through the platform into short films. It will support us to continue working on this project sustainably -- we've invested approximately $15K in hard costs so far for travel and much more in terms of time and care.

The project also helps support the First Nations social entrepreneurs by highlighting their impact stories and once we are back from Amsterdam, we will invite broader participation by all working in the Business For Good movement.  

Lastly, we are walking the walk, by applying Ethical Storytelling principles with project partner Our Race and will help you build your storytelling practices along the way.