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Over 200 delegates to the Indigenous Business, Enterprise and Corporations Conference at The University of Western Australia last month attended a Conference dinner hosted by Channel 10 newsreader Narelda Jacobs and featuring filmmaker and director Warwick Thornton.

Attendees were welcomed by UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Johnson, who said the conference was particularly topical given that Western Australia's mining boom had resulted in WA leading the way in Indigenous business and procurement.

Indigenous film director Warwick Thornton, whose film Samson & Delilah won the Camera d'Or for best first feature film at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, told attendees that reinvention and adaptation is critical to the future-both in business and in cinema.

"The worst thing you can do is be completely blinkered in business or cinema or anything," Thornton said. Using the example of an upcoming project, Thornton told attendees that to practice effective story telling, he had been forced to consider expanding into mediums such as theatre and multimedia.

Thornton recounted how he began his filmmaking career, saying he was grateful to those who had assisted him.

"I've had a lot of doors opened for me by people and thankfully I was smart enough to walk through those doors," he said. "We just have to be open and make other people's dreams come true."

The evening included a performance of Shakespeare sonnets in the Noongar language from Aboriginal theatre company, Yirra Yaakin.

The Indigenous Business, Enterprise and Corporations Conference, convened by the Centre for Social Impac t at the UWA Business School, was held in December 2012.

Media references

Verity Chia (UWA Business School)  (+61 8) 6488 1346
Tammy Solonec (Indigenous Media Consultant)  (+61 4) 57 877 308
Fiona Allan (Conference Manager)  (+61 4) 08 645 634