Selling her weaving led to running Indigenous Business Expo

The award-winning Illawarra Indigenous Business Expo will return to Novotel Wollongong Northbeach for its fourth year next month, bringing together a huge range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entrepreneurs, tradespeople and creatives from across the region.

The expo is about creating genuine opportunities for Indigenous businesses while bringing the wider community along, says organiser Maiquilla Brown.

"We want people to come along, meet the incredible business owners behind these enterprises, discover something new and spend their money with local Indigenous businesses. It's a really positive way for the community to show their support." 

Maiquilla stepped into the role after experiencing the power of the expo firsthand. The proud Yuin Walbunja woman, founder of Bimbala Collective, attended last year’s expo as a stallholder with her weaving business, Njurgun Nangamai.

“I’d only had my business up and running for about eight months,” she says.

“I’ve been weaving for 15 years or so, and I’d never thought about making it into a business. But going to the expo in the past and seeing what everybody else was doing in that creative space, I decided I’d give it a go.

“I’d only done like three workshops through my business at that point and two market stalls. I went to the business expo, and it was just a great opportunity. I met a lot of people, which was probably the most fun part about it. I was able to sell a lot of my jewellery, but it was the connections that I made.” 

The community-led expo is the product of dozens of businesses and organisations looking to give back and facilitate connection. Supported by major partners including Curijo, Illawarra Aboriginal Corporation, Wollongong City Council and Novotel Wollongong Northbeach, alongside Community Champion Partners Indigenous Business Australia, Wollongong Strata Management, Yilbara, Projeble, BlueScope and Big Fat Smile.

Maiquilla says that the expo’s core strength lies in its ability to foster spontaneous, supportive connections among business owners.

“Last year, the retail manager from Blak Cede, the social enterprise down in Nowra through Waminda – she was there walking around looking at all the stallholders,” she says. 

“She was like, 'Wow, I love your stuff, you need to come in, we want to stock your stuff at Blak Seed and you can come and sell with us, and we can help you get your stuff out there.' That was one of my highlights, and that was before the Expo even started! That was just in the 30 minutes before, when everybody finished setting up and got to walk around and have a yarn.” 

Visitors can expect to find everything from plumbers, electricians and project management experts to a dairy owner with his own supply chain, alongside seamstresses, painters and cultural practitioners. The expo offers everybody an opportunity to connect and collaborate with First Nations-owned businesses of all kinds.

"What we're doing with expo is a really special thing, and it's kind of one of its kind across the country right now," Maiquilla says.

“Up in Sydney and the CBD, they have so many opportunities and a lot more businesses that can employ them and give them contracts, whereas down here we’ve got a really limited number of big corporations who want to invest and create those economic opportunities.

"So this space is really where we're trying to show off our local heroes and our little businesses, because they don't have that same opportunity and that same privilege. You just come and you get to promote your small business to the wider community." 

Running from 10:30am to 2pm on October 23, with free entry, the event gives residents a chance to pick up handcrafted gifts ahead of the holiday season.

"Every year it's really fun to go and see what everybody else is selling, and what I can buy for myself and my friends and my family," Maiquilla says.

“I remember for Christmas [the first year], I was able to buy [my son] a whole bunch of local children’s Dreaming stories, books by Coomaditchie.

"[The expo is] a reminder that Indigenous business is about more than commerce. It is also about community, culture, connection and creating opportunities for one another." 

Looking to the future, the organisers hope to expand the event’s impact even further. 

"I personally would love to see it grow into a bigger social procurement and economic opportunity for local Aboriginal businesses," Maiquilla says. 

"To keep building on it and making it bigger and brighter, and attracting more people... panels, guest speakers, more opportunities for people to learn about blak businesses and our diversity, and platforming that level of excellence that we're kind of striving for."