Creative industries have significance in considerations of regional development because of their potential for both social-cultural and political-economic benefit. This is especially the case in Indigenous communities, given the potential of traditional and contemporary cultural expression for industry development and employment. This research set out to explore and evaluate an action research approach to creative industries development in regional contexts, stimulated by a research initiative of　Queensland's Department of State Development in cooperation with Queensland University of Technology's Creative Industries Research and Applications Centre. It is based on an analysis of seven pilot projects undertaken between 2002 and 2004, most of which involved Indigenous　participation and which gave rise to consideration of the additional value of Indigenist research perspectives. The research found that an action research methodology, informed by Indigenist research values, can assist creative enterprise development in a regional context through the development of new businesses or by value-adding to existing businesses, and the consequent generation and exploitation of new intellectual property. In this process, it found that there is an emerging role for the creative entrepreneur, such a role arising from the practices of community cultural development and social-cultural animation.