Adam Goodes wants to see Indigenous-led companies score more government contracts

It's a journey Adrian Standish, chief executive of Indigenous-led cyber and defence consulting business Arrpwere, is on, having been on both sides of the fence.

Mr Standish's story began 16 years ago when he made the journey from Australia's most northern territory to its capital one.

The Eastern Arrernte man joined the Department of Defence, where he learned many of skills over his nearly six-year stint in the service.

Mr Standish said while initiatives to encourage Indigenous recruitment in the public sector had wavered over the years, it was heartening to him to see the commitment was ongoing.

"It's challenging to maintain a champion for some of those programs [but] the good part is that they keep being re-championed," Mr Standish said.

"It's always going to be challenging simply because the available talent pool to come into senior roles in the government, in the public sector, isn't as large as it possibly could be.

"That's more related to, in my opinion, the lack of educational opportunities for younger [Indigenous] kids."

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Some of the public sector has faced criticism over its inability to also retain young Indigenous talent beyond the lower bands of the workforce.

While Mr Standish acknowledged this could be an issue, he said there were positives too - Indigenous public servants went on to build budding careers in the private sector using their government knowledge and expertise.

"[The public service] makes so much effort to train you and invest in you ... and then you get to a place like Canberra and there are so many opportunities and some of those are outside the public sector," Mr Standish said.

"I don't necessarily see [low Indigenous retention] as a bad thing because I think the public sector is actually breeding entrepreneurs ... and [they're] taking the knowledge and experience that they gained in the public sector into those arenas."

Arrpwere has the backing of Indigenous Defence & Infrastructure Consortium (IDIC) run by AFL superstar-turned-chief-executive Adam Goodes.

Mr Standish's company is one of more than 90 the consortium represents, bridging the shortfall of Indigenous procurement in the private sector as well as the halls of government and the public sector.

It gives young Indigenous people, Mr Goodes said, something to look up to beyond being a superstar sportsperson or artist.

"For me, that's breaking down barriers for Indigenous people in our community [so] that we're no longer just athletes that play the game or artists," Mr Goodes said.

"There's nothing wrong with being an athlete or an artist, but [you] also can be an ICT engineer or architect."

But it was also more than that. Indigenous Australians had passed on knowledge for at least 65,000 and his goal was to continue that tradition in the professional context too.

"Going forward, it's about Indigenous people having the capability and then passing that knowledge on, like we have done for thousands of generations," Mr Goodes said.

"Now, we're doing it in mainstream Australia."

Arrpwere, like other Indigenous companies in the space, offers paid internships to young Indigenous students to give them industry experience and contacts from the outset.

The hope is to give them a strong grounding to launch successful careers Mr Standish hopes will outshine his own.

"I'd love to be able to see a lot more Indigenous young men and women coming through here, working with us," Mr Standish said.

"I'd love to be able to see [our interns] in, you know, 10, 20 years have their own business and be competing with me directly.

"That would be remarkable."