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With the Indigenous Business Month scheduled for October, PwC has again launched its MURRA Boost Initiative.

Applications for the sixth edition of the PwC MURRA Boost Initiative, which aims to strengthen indigenous companies, are now open. During Indigenous Business Month in October – which this year has the motto “Powering the Indigenous Economy” – the selected participant will be teamed up with specialists from PwC and supported to tackle a specific, growth-oriented business topic worth 30,000 US dollars.

“We are determined to work together and use our combined skills to create new opportunities for indigenous people and grow the indigenous business sector,” said Tom Seymour, CEO of PwC. “We recognize that First Nation businesses are more likely to employ Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, which can help fuel continued economic development and wealth creation for the benefit of all Australians.”

Indigenous Business Month was inaugurated in 2015 and is an initiative of the Alumni of the MURRA Indigenous Business Master Class Program at Melbourne Business School – which takes its name from the word for “fishing net” in the Woi Wurrung language of the Wurundjeri in Melbourne. The event aims to bring together members and allies of the indigenous business community to showcase their economic contribution.

“The visibility of our economic contributions needs to go beyond the narrow framework of GDP statistics, which measure the value of the goods and services traded,” said Michelle Evans, founder of the MURRA program. “In practice, indigenous businesses offer more than that – they are an important source of innovation, mentoring, leadership, cultural knowledge and practices, community and cultural kinship, unpaid childcare and volunteering.”

Amid a record number of applications, the NSW-based family company GWS Engineering & Construction, which offers materials and services for the construction and mechanical engineering industries, was selected as the MURRA Boost recipient last year. Past winners include Kakadu Aboriginal clothing and art store, Tiny Tots, and BlackCard, a Queensland cultural consultancy.

“Working with PwC has given us the opportunity to scale quickly and sustainably and to increase our impact and strengthen our resilience as a company,” said BlackCard founder Mundanara Bayles about her experience. “The mentoring and business development to ensure BlackCard was able to move our business model to a digital environment has been of great value, and the authenticity and skill of the PwC team has been absolutely amazing.”

Applications for this year’s MURRA Boost are open to all majority-owned indigenous companies and close on October 4th. A virtual awards night is scheduled for later this month. “Partnering with PwC Murra Boost is critical to enabling indigenous entrepreneurs to meet these challenges while expanding their capacities,” concluded Evans. “We encourage all companies facing a specific business growth or capacity challenge to apply.”