Indigenous accountants: more needed

The profession of accounting has been an unpopular career choice for indigenous Australians, with less than 30, of approximately 200,000 Australian accountants, currently self-identified as Indigenous.

However, researchers at Deakin Business School have found that accounting can offer a powerful tool to re-empowerment for Indigenous communities.

According to Dr Luisa Lombardi, a senior lecturer in the Deakin Business School, there has been a general lack of awareness of the usefulness of accounting within Indigenous communities, shaped by the traditional role that money has played in their communities.

Dr Lombardi recently completed her PhD on the role of accounting in the financial capacity building of Indigenous Australians.

Together with Professor Barry J Cooper,  Associate Dean, Industry Engagement and Partnerships, Dr Lombardi also recently organised the Deakin Business School’s inaugural “Indigenous Accounting and Business Conference”  that brought together more than 100 academics, business leaders, Indigenous organisations, and accounting professionals, to identify ways to encourage Indigenous Australians to consider accounting and business as a career.

"Greater take-up of accounting studies by Indigenous peoples means re-empowering individuals and entire communities to regain control of their money,” Dr Lombardi said.

“Research has shown that for many Indigenous people, money has been viewed as welfare, and the business of money has been seen as a non-Indigenous field. However, through my research I have found that it is possible to move to a place where accounting in the hands of Indigenous peoples for Indigenous peoples can be a tool of empowerment.”

The conference featured two high profile keynote speakers: Professor Marcia Langton, foundation chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, and Russell Taylor, Principal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).

International Indigenous speakers from Canada, the United States and New Zealand also presented, sharing their experiences of bolstering the numbers of Indigenous people studying accounting.

Dr Lombardi explained that more Indigenous students are enrolling in university courses such as medicine, law, education and nursing, but accounting has arguably failed to attract interest.

Indigenous accountant Christian Lugnan, Regional Manager from the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations, who spoke at the conference, said that he had witnessed great success in community and for-profit organisations where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have accounting and business skills.

“They tend to get it right, as they are able to balance the cultural, social and economic priorities of community. These skills enable greater influence in decision making and governance practices,” Mr Lugnan said.

In addition to her PhD studies and her role in the Indigenous conference, Dr Lombardi, with Professor Cooper, recently released their research report that investigated the role of educators, employers and the accounting profession in providing opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to enter the field of accounting.

The research, sponsored by CPA Australia, provided the impetus to organise the “Indigenous Accounting and Business Conference,” as it considered the key barriers that have resulted in the virtual exclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from the Australian accounting profession and provided recommendations on strategies to address the identified barriers.

The conference, at which over 80 per cent of the more than 30 panel speakers were Indigenous peoples, aimed at providing a means of better understanding the barriers identified in the research project. Also, the research is assisting CPA Australia in developing and implementing a strategy to be more inclusive in supporting Indigenous peoples to enter the Australian accounting profession.