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Organisers of Blak Loungeroom, a historic Indigenous-led philanthropy conference held in Melbourne last week, have hailed the gathering as a huge success and a landmark moment for the future of First Nations philanthropy.

“The conference was wildly successful,” said convener John Harding, CEO of charity Barmal Bijiril. “People I don’t even know are writing A4 pages on LinkedIn about what they learned and how incredibly historic it was, and these are non-Aboriginal people.

“All these important people are saying how they felt so honoured to be a guest in the Blak loungeroom and that was the whole point, because it’s the first time in 125 years of philanthropy in Australia that First Nations people have controlled a conference, curated it, and then invited those non-Aboriginal people into the room. It wasn’t about trying to get money out of them, it was about educating them about our priorities,” he told the Community Advocate.

The conference got off to a fast start with Charities Minister Andrew Leigh speaking of the need to develop a genuine First Nations philanthropic collaboration, as outlined by the Productivity Commission, with the goal of grounding philanthropy in First Nations self-determination.

“First, we need to encourage philanthropic organisations to partner with First Nations peoples in order to be more culturally safe and responsive when they work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations,” Minister Leigh told the conference.

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The idea of the conference was to bring First Nations people into the philanthropic sector, but also for the philanthropic sector to spend time and meet and hear deep listening to First Nations communities, their issues and their priorities, and really just to start forging connections," Mr Harding told National Indigenous Times at the gathering.

He said plenty of the Indigenous organisations in the room had some experience securing one-off or patchy philanthropic funding, without the foundations for ongoing relationships.

Other elements creating what can be felt as a "power imbalance", if not barrier, sometimes cultural, get in the way.

An organisation doing their work in a community, in a regional area, can't just put an ad in the paper and hope for widespread attention for example, Mr Harding said.

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Right across the country, a powerful series of conversations and gatherings is reshaping the way philanthropy listens to and works with First Nations communities.

From the emerging Blak Loungeroom conversations to the upcoming Common Threads First Nations Summit, a shared theme is clear. First Nations leadership is expanding, and philanthropy is being invited to step into a new kind of partnership. One that is grounded in respect, learning and accountability.

Blak Loungeroom Conference

The Blak Loungeroom National Philanthropy Held on 7–9 April in Melbourne, will feature voices of cultural practitioners and community leaders, creating a space where philanthropy can sit alongside First Nations voices in a genuine spirit of collaboration. The intention is to bring funders and First Nations leaders into the same room to explore what shared leadership can look like in practice.

“First Nations people should not be sitting in isolation. Philanthropy needs to sit alongside us, because we all have a role in shaping this system,” said John Harding, a Ku Ku Yimidir man from Far North Queensland and an Erub, Darnley Island man from the Torres Strait, and CEO of Barmal Bijiril Foundation.

“The work ahead cannot be done by government alone. Progress requires philanthropy to join First Nations communities at the table and to take part in shaping a more just and culturally grounded approach to investment and decision making.”

Philanthropy Australia’s Executive Director Policy & Sector Development Krystian Seibert will be one of the more than 20 speakers at the Blak Loung Room Conference, sharing insights from the Productivity Commission’s philanthropy inquiry.

Created by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working across philanthropy, community investment, and social change, the conference offers a rare opportunity to come together in a culturally grounded, empowering space
where Blak voices lead every conversation.
For event founder John Harding it is an event about bringing together people to
share ideas and to work together to align the world of Indigenous philanthropy.

“In the Australian philanthropy sector, over the last few years, a visible, dramatic change has occurred in the efforts being made to authentically engage with First Nations people across a wide range of issues,” John told First Nations
News.

“Sadly,due to the lack of engagement to date, few voices can represent the views of grassroots First Nations people, currently strategically placed in the sector to help lead this movement for change.

John says the traditional approach is slow and fragmented.

“Those of us already working within the sector need to support each other, as well as encourage the sector to employ more First Nations people, and provide opportunities for First Nations people to sit on Boards within the sector.”

Hosted by the Barmal Bijiril Foundation, the Blak Loungeroom Conference invites
participants to “slow down, connect deeply, and engage in meaningful dialogue about the future of First Nations-led giving.”

The event, says John, is designed to nurture relationships, strengthen networks, and amplify the leadership of First Nations people across the philanthropic ecosystem.

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John Harding was living in Sydney, applying his trade as an actor, director and playwright, when he returned to Melbourne, looking for a new challenge. He wasn’t particularly interested in full-time work until he saw an advertisement at the Koorie Heritage Trust for a philanthropic intern. As John remembers it, that was the first time he became aware of a role for an Indigenous person to become involved in philanthropy.

John believed his family experience informed the philanthropic impulse behind his interest. “It was actually just the way I was brought up,’’ he said. “My mother [Eleanor Harding] was quite prominent in the social sector in Victoria and eventually became important at a national level: and she always brought us up with the ethos…[that] anyone who was homeless she would basically just bring them in to the house on to the lounge room floor or into our beds and we’d sleep on the floor.’’

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