Launch: Indigenous Youth Research

First Nations Foundation today announced the launch of their Indigenous youth research project, ‘The Financial Economy and Indigenous Young People in Australia’ with their research partner the UNSW Centre for Social Impact. The paper explores how Indigenous young people navigate the mainstream economy and is an important first step in understanding how Indigenous young people are positioned financially compared to non-Indigenous young people.

Amanda Young, CEO, First Nations Foundation said, “We need to drive down the high rate of financial exclusion in the Indigenous community (43 per cent). The First Nations Foundation did this research to gain a clearer picture on when the exclusion begins, and discovered it begins early, at the youth cohort 15-24 years.”

Ms. Young added, “The report tells us that Indigenous young people are participating in unpaid work at a higher rate than non-Indigenous young people. We also know from ‘Closing the Gap’, that employment and wage gaps are increasing. The seeds are sown early for a lack of prosperity. For example, superannuation balances will be lower and Indigenous young people are highly likely to experience a poor quality of life at retirement.”

Sally Loane, CEO of the Financial Services Council and cause alliance partner with FNF said, “This is important research which will assist the financial services sector and broader community to gain an insight into the issues driving financial exclusion of Indigenous young people.”

Ms. Loane added, “While the overall Australian population is aging, the Indigenous population is still young with 63 per cent under 30. Closing the wages gap for the Indigenous population as soon as possible will make a significant difference to savings in retirement.”

Professor Kristy Muir, Director of Research at CSI agreed that the research has shown how economic disparity starts young and continues through life.

“One of the recurring themes of this research was that we saw that there are many more considerations for Indigenous young people than non-Indigenous young people when looking to secure full time employment or to continue on to further education and training”, said Ms. Muir.

She added, “the importance of maintaining a strong social and cultural identity throughout a young Indigenous person’s journey from school, to post-school studies, through to employment, is therefore essential. We hope that this research helps shed some light on where further resources are needed.”

Ms. Young continued “The vision of First Nations Foundation is economic freedom for First Australians. We want our Indigenous young people to imagine and achieve a world where they are financially free. Now we understand more about how to do that.”

The full report and a summary are available on the First Nations Foundation website.

-ENDS-