A PILOT program that aims to bring respect and economic benefits to Indigenous culture while bringing returns to business has been launched.
The program involves Western Australian-based national Aboriginal corporation the Songman Circle of Wisdom, plant-derived beauty product maker Mount Romance and international cosmetics and beauty products company Aveda.
Called the Songman Protocol, the program has also drawn the attention of international Indigenous groups with Native American leaders visiting WA to find out more about it.
It has even been recognised by the United Nations as a potential way businesses can operate with environmental and community sustainability.
The protocol acts as a supply chain management tool for the product in Australia, in this case sandalwood, showing the wood has been handled sustainably from its harvest through to its sale as Aveda products.
It also ensures the contribution of the Aboriginal community the resource was sourced from is recognised and rewarded. In the case of the pilot program that is the Wiluna Aboriginal community.
Songman chairman Richard Walley said the protocol had been driven by Aboriginal people from across WA.
“In a lot of cases there has been no benefit back to the Aboriginal people through intellectual property or intellectual rights,” Dr Walley said.
“What we’re doing here is a small pilot that has international repercussions.”
Dr Walley said the program was relying on the triple bottom line reporting approach some companies had been taking.
“I believe it will be up to the public to decide if this program is successful,” he said.
“People who are aware of what they are putting on themselves can have a choice to choose the product that has been produced ethically without social or environmental impacts or the product that hasn’t.”
Dr Walley said besides the interest from other Indigenous groups, the Songman program was also drawing interest from other companies.
“I can see it extending into many different directions but at the moment we’re predominantly focussed on cosmetics,” he said.
Aveda president Dominic Conseil admitted the protocol offered a marketing opportunity for the company but said it also tied in with the sustainability ethos it had operated with for the 26 years it has been in business.
“We’ve accepted the risk to make mistakes and be criticised,” he said.
“This is a business system that gives back to the communities.”
The Songman project is not Aveda’s first effort at assisting indigenous communities.
It created its own cosmetic range Indigenous with proceeds going back to Indigenous communities.
While sales of the product were starting to grow strongly, the very indigenous peoples it was designed to help asked for it to be stopped.
“I was not ashamed that we launched the products. We thought it was the right thing to do just as shutting them down was the right thing to do,” Mr Conseil said.
