‘Philanthropic paternalism’ stifling Indigenous opportunity

Philanthropists must break away from their “paternalism” to seize a looming opportunity to unlock a billion dollars a year in economic benefit by helping Indigenous Australians achieve parity in higher education, the authors of a new report argue.

The report, by the University of Newcastle and fundraising advisory firm Noble Ambition, says the impact of tens of millions of dollars in annual donations is being blunted by the “well-intentioned” attitudes of donors with “pre-determined ideas about where their funding goes”.

While data on philanthropy are hard to come by, survey evidence suggests that about 40 per cent of the money donated to benefit Indigenous Australia goes to organisations and projects that are not led or controlled by Indigenous Australians.

Newcastle’s deputy vice-chancellor for engagement and equity, Nathan Towney, said the issue evoked an era when Aborigines “weren’t trusted with money”. He cited archival records showing that his Indigenous grandparents’ wages had been withheld and they had received vouchers instead.

The Aboriginal Protection Board of New South Wales had refused written requests for the elders to be paid in money rather than rations like flour and sugar. “We had no ability to save money or generate any type of wealth for future generations – not only because we were removed from our lands, but because even when we worked, our wages were controlled by others,” Towney said.

“Our people’s relationship with money has been shaped by generations of exclusion from wealth, and that history still influences how we approach philanthropy today.”

Kelvin Kong, a professor in Newcastle’s School of Medicine and Public Health, said funding for Indigenous advancement was “given with strings attached, often muffling the very voices it seeks to uplift”.

“This is not a path to true equity,” said Kong, the first Aboriginal fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. “True equity requires a fundamental shift from giving to us to investing with us.”

The report says some A$5.4 trillion (£2.9 trillion) is expected to change hands over the next two decades, in the largest “intergenerational wealth transfer” in Australia’s history. Meanwhile, “legacy models” of small-scale, grass-roots fundraising are giving way to “more sophisticated and ambitious” major gifts campaigns.

This heralds opportunities for the Indigenous community, as more Australians show a willingness to “create legacies outside their own families according to their interests and values”, the paper argues. But independent “experts” are often enlisted to determine “the terms of engagement and measures of success, instead of listening to communities about their priorities and what success looks like for them”.

Newcastle’s pro vice-chancellor for Indigenous strategy and leadership, Loren Collyer, said universities were “in a unique position to model best practice” by fostering more direct collaboration between donors and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

“When funders invest in Indigenous-led initiatives, they are supporting more than access to learning,” Collyer said. “They are enabling communities to lead their own futures, define success on their own terms and generate solutions with far-reaching social and economic impact.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com