At the Australian Sustainable Finance Summit held in Sydney on Gadigal land, Rekeesha Fry from the First Nations Projects Group called out longstanding barriers preventing Indigenous Australians from achieving equity in major projects.
Speaking as part of a panel, Ms Fry highlighted the finance sector's hesitation around Indigenous equity stakes, despite freely backing high-risk ventures elsewhere, particularly in tech.
For Indigenous communities, she argued, equity is more than a financial position—it's about being able to shape projects on their own land and gain a genuine seat at the table.
"We've been locked out of conversations for a long time because we haven't been able to access capital and grow those traditional skill sets," Ms Fry said.
"With Indigenous communities across Australia regaining rights to their lands, they are facing an influx of proponents proposing complex projects, often bringing highly technical, contractual questions with them."
"The equity conversation allows us to be in the room," Ms Fry said, underscoring the importance of Indigenous Australians moving from "passive stakeholders" to empowered partners.
"We're not just some passive stakeholder over here. That's our backyard. We haven't moved; we've lived in the same spot for 60,000 years," she said.
Ms Fry said achieving genuine equity requires more than just a seat at the table.
Indigenous groups often face a power imbalance when negotiating with corporations, particularly without ready access to specialised financial, legal, and technical expertise.
"There's a huge power imbalance that needs to be taken into account," Ms Fry said, calling on proponents to cover the cost of this essential advice.
"You should be paying as a proponent to make sure that the power imbalance is not too much there, and that we can access informed advice at the right time."
Ms Fry challenged the sector's tendency to view Indigenous projects as high-risk, drawing a comparison to the venture capital sector, which routinely backs uncertain tech ventures.
"If the words Indigenous, First Nations or Aboriginal come across anyone's screens in the financial sector, it's like red flag, risk," she said, questioning why this bias exists.
In industries such as gas, which Ms Fry describes as "settled science," Indigenous groups still struggle to access funding for equity, even when the sector has a long track record.
Access to capital, Ms Fry argued, is critical for Indigenous people to move from transactional to long-term partners in these projects.
She reminded the audience if financial barriers continue domestically, Indigenous groups may look to the international market for capital.
"We actually can't wait around for too long, and if we can't access funding here… we'll go overseas, we'll go to where we can access capital," she explained, adding that the preference is still to work within Australia if the support becomes available.