At last week's Chief Executive Women's Leadership Summit - Tomorrow Needs Everyone in Naarm, a panel of leading First Nations women called for a fundamental rethink of feminism and leadership in Australia to better encompass First Nations women, many of who have long been excluded from traditional systems.
Speaking to this masthead after the event, Wiradjuri woman and JBWere Director of Philanthropic Services Jayde Ward said true equality for Indigenous women requires transforming systems, not simply diversifying them.
"It's not just about adding black to a white feminism agenda," Ms Ward said. "It's about creating real inclusion."
The panel, which also featured Kate Russell, Nareen Young, and Tanya Hosch, and was hosted by journalist Narelda Jacobs, explored what it means to lead from a First Nations perspective - through deep listening, collective wisdom, and cultural understanding, rather than traditional corporate hierarchies.
It was noted genuine inclusion requires strategy, alignment of cultural values, and a willingness to share power - not token gestures.
"Inclusion isn't about adding colour to a white feminist agenda," Ms Ward said. Instead, she argued it is about "reshaping the agenda".
"So, when you add colour without changing the structure, all you do is decorate the same system that excluded us in the first place."
She said the discussion focused on moving from "performative inclusion" to "structural inclusion," by embedding Indigenous people in "leadership roles and decision-making roles," and ensuring they have real authority rather than symbolic visibility.
"We did speak about, quite truthfully, the barriers around First Nations leaders and what they face in accessing corporate and financial systems," Ms Ward said. She noted dismantling systems doesn't necessarily mean tearing them down completely, but rather, redesigning them "so more people can belong".
"I think for CEOs, it's about asking questions around power," she argued. "Who defines what leadership looks like? Who decides what success means? And who gets to fail and still be supported?"
Ms Ward said while mainstream feminism often centres issues like pay and gender inequity, First Nations women face "an extra layer" of challenges rooted in colonisation and systemic racism.
"When you talk about child removal, when you talk about employment, when you talk about barriers to leadership, we've got this extra layer of complexity across some of those issues that mainstream white feminism doesn't address," she said.
Having worked in both government and the private sector - including with NSW's Department of Communities and Justice - she argued Aboriginal women have historically led "from the margins" - often without the privileges others take for granted.
"Aboriginal women don't [have privilege], so we don't come with that," Ms Ward said. "But what we've done is kept communities together, held culture, and really adapted through every disruption imaginable."
She says this form of cultural leadership - grounded in persistence, community and care - is what organisations should be investing in.
"That kind of leadership around the cultural elements, around deep listening, deep communication or deep collaborative consultation and decision making - that's the kind of leadership that we know is sustainable and works," she said.
Ms Ward said First Nations women are often excluded from established "boardroom networks" and "intergenerational wealth," leaving them outside the structures of influence.
"We've been excluded from all of that," she said. "Colonisation and patriarchy have worked together to kind of exclude First Nations women. I think there's a lot of lessons to be learned from black feminism that are really important."
By rethinking leadership and power, Ms Ward says Australia has the opportunity to move beyond just representation, and towards genuine inclusion and shared authority for First Nations women - both in leadership, and across the board.
