I Built Business from Deep, Generational Knowledge Systems

I didn’t grow up around business owners.

I grew up around women who held people.

Women who knew who was grieving, who was tired, who needed a meal left at their door, who needed a lift, who needed space, who needed to be pulled in closer.

That was my first form of governance.

Before I knew words like strategy, governance, networks, wealth creation,
I knew responsibility, reciprocity, belonging, permission, respect, who holds authority, who holds care.

Not on a whiteboard, not in a meeting.

At kitchen tables.
At funerals.
After sport.
In tough conversations whispered outside the house so kids couldn’t hear.



Business schools don’t call that a “knowledge system”.
But that’s exactly what it is.

I used to be scared to say:

I built my companies using first nations knowledge systems.

Because I thought:

“People will think I’m making it a cultural business.”
“People will think it’s only for First Nations women.”
“People will think I’m unqualified.”

But what I now know is:

I don’t run businesses about culture.
I build from cultural principles that have shaped how communities connect, organise, lead and sustain value for thousands of years.

Through:

• Kinship, not hierarchy.
• Reciprocity, not extraction.
• Shared authority, not "top-down".
• Story, not slogan.
• Connection, not transaction.

It’s funny.

Western business calls these “innovative ideas”.
In my world, this has always been the starting point.

And if I’m honest, for years I worried I was being boxed in.
The “First Nations Representation, The Female Founder”.
I felt people assumed I was only “allowed” to build in certain lanes.

But here is my truth:

My skin, culture, heritage, they’re woven into everything I build. And the world is lucky to have it.
But I am not here to build only for one group.
My kinship extends to women of ALL backgrounds who are trying to build without leaving parts of themselves behind.

It’s not cultural business.
It’s business built with cultural intelligence.

And every woman I’ve worked with, from the islands, to Sydney, in community settings to corporate, understands this at a heart level:

• We are hungry for different ways of building.
• Ways that don’t burn us out or leave us behind.
• Ways we can feel proud to hand down.

I didn’t leave my culture to build business.
I used my upbringing to design a better way of doing business.

And if that feels like something you’ve been trying to name,
you may already be part of Female First.

With Love,

Libb