Naomi Anstess's opinion piece in the Indigenous Business Review, "Let's get this right: An likely unwanted opinion I am going to give anyway", is a passionate call for greater recognition of, and support for, Indigenous businesses.

However, in making her point, Naomi makes several inaccurate and unfair statements about Supply Nation that require correction.

Her statement that "Their members are not Blak businesses, they are non-Indigenous corporates" ignores the almost 6000 Indigenous businesses that are registered or certified with us.

We have both non-Indigenous members and Indigenous suppliers as part of the Supply Nation family because we recognise that the Indigenous economy needs markets to grow.

In Australia, those markets and buyers are most likely to be found amongst large corporations, government departments (federal, state, territory and local) and SMEs that believe in our principles, ideals and value-add.

Contrary to one of Naomi's other claims, Supply Nation does not "sell" our database to corporates. Indigenous Business Direct is an open directory available to anyone to search and identify verified Indigenous-owned businesses with the products or services they are seeking.

Naomi's comment that "too many genuine Blak businesses are left out" is also very far from the mark. In fact, joining Supply Nation is open to any Indigenous business in Australia.

We make no apologies for having a stringent verification process to weed out Black cladding. But if you're a genuine Indigenous business, you can join Supply Nation and unlike other organisations, we won't charge Indigenous businesses an annual fee to do so.

The growth of the Indigenous business sector is one of this country's genuine success stories, with the Indigenous Business Review recently reporting that Supply Nation's member organisations spent almost $6 billion in procurement spend with our verified suppliers during the last financial year.

That creates jobs, builds skills and innovation, and contributes significantly to the national economy and the prosperity of all Australians.

But much more still needs to be done if we're to secure genuine economic self-determination for our people.

We won't get there by cheap shots and false claims.

Only by working together with mutual respect and cooperation will we provide the best support to the many thousands of Indigenous businesses who appreciate the support of Supply Nation, its members, the State and Territory Chambers and other non-profit organisations to help build their business growth and success.

Proud Awabakal woman Kate Russell is CEO of Supply Nation.