On 19-20 August 2026, attendees at the Symposium heard about the fundamental link between economic power and self-determination. So, the question for philanthropy is not simply, what are we willing to fund? It is: what are we willing to risk?

By Michelle Steele, Chief First Nations Officer at the Paul Ramsay Foundation

Philanthropy has built its wealth within an economy that excluded First Nations people. So, within philanthropy, I grapple with how we move beyond simply giving back, towards restoring what was never equitably shared.

If this transition provides an avenue for wealth creation, how can philanthropy act in support of First Nations peoples and communities owning a meaningful share of that wealth?

There is already enormous capability, ambition and knowledge. We have heard from many people in this room yesterday and today. There are mob already leading, and others who are just starting out. This tells me that the challenge is not that the ideas do not exist.

The challenge, as I see it, is whether our systems of capital, finance, policy and investment are prepared to back them.

We often seek out organisations that are already “investment ready”. But from a risk lens, it can feel as though we have already determined that our people are the risk. What would it truly mean to make the investment system ready for First Nations ownership?

This is where philanthropy can play a role.

Philanthropy does not have to provide all the capital — nor can it, or should it. But we can provide the capital that takes risks others can’t or won’t take. We can invest early. We can invest before the perfect plan is in place or all the risks have been removed. We can support organisational and community capability and leadership, and we can provide patient capital — much like we at PRF are doing through the Ngardara microgrid project.

We can also help de-risk opportunities so that government investment and other pools of capital can flow. But we also have to look within at our own operating approaches. We need to reconsider our funding processes, timeframes, due diligence and how we prioritise our capital – how we measure from a First Nations lens.

Philanthropy needs to build the trust and relationships that allow us to understand what communities want to invest in, rather than constantly asking communities to fit within our systems. If our ambition is ownership, then we need to change the investment systems that determine who gets access to capital — including philanthropy.

So my question is: what could philanthropy do differently with its capital to unlock larger pools of capital, and enable genuine First Nations ownership through the clean energy transition? Because the measure of success shouldn’t merely be how many of us participate. It should be how much wealth, ownership and economic power remains with First Nations people.