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Recently, multi-award winning Indigenous “Serial” Businesswoman, Julie Okely set up AFN Awards and took the risk of entering All First Nations into 3 separate National Award categories and has been named as a 3 x Finalist – The Awards recognize women in business, achieving great success in areas such as product development, customer service and digital innovation. “I am a proud Aboriginal woman of Kamilaroi descent – I am a serial Indigipreneur. I have inspired and mentored many Indigenous and non-Indigenous women, during my time as a business owner. Culture and heritage are very important to me, and I’m constantly working to elevate my First Nations community and encourage growth and expansion within the Australian economy. I am an educator and I have trained over 150 employees during my career.” Says Julie when set up the AFN Awards, “I recently crossed over to work in the Consultancy sector where my business and life experience has been in demand through high level Indigenous organisations, such as IBA and Supply Nation. I am the first Canberra-based, Supply Nation Indigenous Business women of the Year Award recipient, and I have many other accolades awarded to me, both Internationally and Nationally.” Now it is time to celebrate our First Nations community with the All First Nations Awards 2024 – and we need your help to make them happen. To check for more information: All First Nations Awards 2024 – Key points of the AFN Awards: Find us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allfirstnations Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allfirstnations/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllFirstNations

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.  *https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/business-indicators/business-conditions-and-sentiments/jun-2022 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