Cairns, Qld: Nine years ago, when he was 20, Jesse Martin sat down in a Cairns shopping centre with an officer from ORIC and incorporated the Streets Movement Indigenous Corporation (TSM). He was relaxed, confident and dressed like most young people in Cairns at the time—baseball cap backwards and baggy rapper-style clothes.

Move forward ten years and Jesse is now as comfortable in a suit and the corporate boardrooms of Sydney as he is in a gym. And now he is taking his model of helping young people doing it tough around Australia and the world.

Taree, New South Wales: A few months ago, Biripi Aboriginal Corporation Medical Centre opened the doors to a stunning new building that operates as a hub for community wellbeing. It was the culmination of a long-held dream of the members and directors to join up its buildings and revamp the old baby health clinic in a way that respected its heritage value.

Biripi Clinic and its welcoming front door

Case study: Winnam Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Corporation

WINNAM A WINNER IN SOCIAL SERVICE

It started 25 years ago on the back of a $100 donation. A group of concerned local Aboriginal volunteers got together to establish a corporation. The aim was to help provide affordable housing for the local community. A quarter of a century later, Winnam is a thriving concern with over $22 million in assets.

When a determination recognising native title is made by the Federal Court, the Native Title Act 1993 requires traditional owners to establish a corporation to represent them and their interests. These organisations are prescribed for the purposes of the native title determination and referred to as prescribed bodies corporate (PBCs). Once a determination is made and registered on the National Native Title Register the corporation then becomes a registered native title body corporate (RNTBC).

This section examines the various sources of income for corporations registered under the CATSI Act. Information gathered from audited financial statements submitted between 2007–08 and 2014–15 by the top 20 corporations is provided in table 6 and figure 25. The total income of individual corporations in the top 20 in 2014–15 ranged from $16.4 million to $88.9 million. As a combined group their income amounted to $586,488,630.