Welcome
Yaama.
All First Nations (AFN), an idea that came to me through listening to the feedback, and voices, from my fellow Indigenous and first Nations businesses, services, trades, and product sellers, over the past few years.
I listened to how challenging it had been to pick up after the COVID pandemic and rebuild the momentum back into their businesses after being isolated.
Many had concerns with the rising interest rates, increasing costs to businesses; but mostly, it was about the mental and financial stress of having to pick up again and work through the lack of past sales, lost revenue, and decreased engagement from all customers – the online consumer market, Government procurement or direct through corporation engagement.
And it is an ongoing issue, I have been hearing this narrative for many years, and I decided to do something about it.
Finally, with the support of First Australians Capital, and my AFN team, we have constructed a website, and built it from scratch, to develop a portal designed for everything Indigenous and First Nations – actually, the AFN platform is approximately 7 websites in one. This was the only way we could bring our community together in one common meeting place.
I was lucky to have an organisation’s support, First Australian’s Capital, that could see the merit in this idea, and with the best IT team AFN could find, we have brought it to reality.
Success
The only way AFN can succeed, as an economic community, is by listing every indigenous seller, service, business, product, artist, and trade as a vendor, where you can all be found on this Marketplace and Directory in 1.
Most current statistics provided* state that on 30 June 2022, there were 2,569,900 actively trading businesses in the Australian economy.
- Almost a third of employing businesses (31%) are having difficulty finding suitable staff.
- Nearly half (46%) of all businesses experienced increases in their operating expenses.
- More than two in five businesses (41%) faced supply chain disruptions. This has remained steady since it peaked in January 2022 (47%).
AFN aims to reach the broader market by reaching these business and consumer networks, to increase the exposure and ease for all online customers that are wanting to buy direct from our First Nations vendors, and find authentic First Nations products that are made with the culture and heritage of the First Nations peoples.
We now know that by seeing the FN trademark displayed proudly on the item, product, service, or business, showing that it is authentically from a First Nations source. It cannot be used by a non-indigenous source.
Register on AFN
I am calling for all First Nations vendors to sign up, and become a part of the AFN community, where we can deliver quality, and authentic First Nations offerings to our National, and Global community.
AFN Editor and AFN Founder
Julie Okely