It's generally accepted that having a stable and supportive home environment can be an important factor in a person's overall well-being and success. A decent home can provide a sense of security and stability and be a supportive and nurturing environment for children to grow and develop.

This is why it's extremely important for all First Nations communities to have access to fair and affordable mortgage financing.

And even with effective strategies for providing financial services to the underbanked and unbanked worldwide, it is still common for First Nations communities to face challenges in accessing credit.

Increasing financial inclusion and access to financial services for unbanked and underbanked populations should be an important goal, as it can help individuals and communities to build financial stability and wealth, as well as access credit and other financial products and services that may be necessary for various purposes, such as starting a business.

Various factors may be at play in making this a reality, such as historical and ongoing discrimination, lack of access to mainstream financial institutions, and lack of understanding of financial products and services by lenders. It's important for policymakers and financial institutions to work to address these issues and ensure that all First Nations communities have access to the financial services and credit they need.

One way is to increase access to financial institutions and services in Indigenous communities, such as banks and credit unions, or to increase the availability of alternative financial products and services.

However, big banks have historically had a poor relationship with First Nations people because of the role they played in colonisation and land theft development.

As such, addressing discriminatory practices or policies to ensure that all individuals and communities have equal access to financial products and services, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or other factors, may be the more effective option in countries like Australia. Since efforts to address discriminatory practices or policies can help to increase financial inclusion for unbanked and underbanked populations.

Access to capital isn't just a problem in Australia; it's an issue facing Indigenous people in many countries who need to access funding from the colonial states.

In the late 1990s the Government Accountability Office in the United States surveyed Indian Country and found that only 91 mortgages had been extended on tribal lands—land in aggregate the size of Utah—for the years 1992 to 1996.

A generation later, an informal survey found about 5,000 reservation mortgages. This is a 50-times increase, but it's still not making a dent…because a 2017 Department of Housing and Urban Development report found a need for an additional 68,000 homes in Indian Country; and some people are estimating that number has likely increased to 100,000 by now because of factors including population growth.

The Native Americans are not alone: when you ask the big banks in Australia how much of their hundreds of billions of dollars in financial investments and lending each year goes to Indigenous people, they deflect the question instead of answering, and give a tokenistic response like they have a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

And as pretty as their rhetoric and public relations may look, for businesses that state their success in mortgage lending, their results in helping close the disparity gaps by helping First Nations people get a home are dismal.

When will our governments, big banks, and other lending institutions offer more than mere lip service to closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people?

Actions speak louder than words.

And their reconciliation efforts should only be based on tangible results – not just on good intentions.

Dean Foley is a Kamilaroi man and founder of Indigenous business accelerator Barayamal