Program

Facilitated by Karen Milward, Co-Chair Victorian Aboriginal Economic Board

Victorian Aboriginal Organisations with an interest in developing tourism are encouraged to attend the ‘Tourism for Aboriginal Organisations’ forum.

The session will draw on the experiences of Aboriginal organisations from around Australia who have succeeded in tourism or are intending to have tourism be a major contributor to their communities.

Damein Bell – CEO, Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (Budj Bim, VIC)
Vince Coulthard and Craig Wallace, Director, Ikara Wilpena Enterprises (Wilpena Pound Resort, SA)
Jacob Cassady, Managing Director of the Mungalla Aboriginal Business Corporation

Jamie Lowe
Karen Milward

Take a break with complimentary refreshments.

A panel of Victorian Aboriginal organisations will share their thoughts and insights into harnessing tourism opportunities now and in the future.

Jamie Lowe, CEO, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation
Jeremy Clark, Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations
Janine Coombs, Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations
Liz Liddle, Victorian Aboriginal Business Strategy Implementation, Small Business Victoria

AITC 2018 will take place on Gadabanud country, people of the Eastern Maar. The Welcome Reception will include a welcome from Eastern Maar Elders, Eastern Maar Chairperson Jason Mifsud and a performance by Eastern Maar dancers.

Delegates will be welcomed to this years event by the committee

Registration and information for the days events

MC Shelley Ware

Welcome to Country: Jason Mifsud – Chairperson, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation

Opening Address: The Hon John Eren MP - Minister for Tourism and Major Events

Peter Bingeman - CEO, Visit Victoria

Eastern Maar  - presentation by Jason Mifsud and Jamie Lowe

Eddie Fry, Chair of Indigenous Land Council and Indigenous Business Australia

ILC and IBA Chair Eddie Fry will speak about tourism as a significant growth area of the Australian economy which often comes with varied success. Eddie will cover some of the foundations for success in tourism, including the combination of hard work and commercial focus coupled with the existence of the right settings and drivers to make opportunities work.

Take a break for half an hour with morning tea

Kia Dowell – Tourism WA Commissioner

Aboriginal tourism in Western Australia continues to be of great interest to visitors (at 78% in 2016-17) and has grown in enthusiasm 19% over the past five years. Participation levels however remain low at 21% in 2016.  There are opportunities to address this gap of interest versus participation and in the session find out what how they are doing it in WA.  Western Australia is growing its Aboriginal tourism sector and here is your opportunity to find out how.

Robert Taylor – WAITOC CEO
WAITOC (the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council) is a membership organisation that supports and advocates for the Aboriginal tourism sector in WA.  Through ongoing partnerships with Tourism WA, the City of Perth and Indigenous Business Australia, WAITOC has developed business coaching and mentoring support for Aboriginal operators, along with innovative and successful marketing initiatives, and this session will outline some of WAITOC’s programs.

Renata Lowe - Tourism WA
Also learn how the WA State Government, through Tourism WA, is supporting new Aboriginal tourism product through Camping with Custodians, which is an exciting, Australian-first initiative that builds campgrounds on Aboriginal lands which are open to the public and operated by the community.

This session will finish with Kia Dowell facilitating a panel of Aboriginal tourism operators who have been supported by WAITOC and Tourism WA’s various initiatives and programs.  A wonderful opportunity to hear about the journey and their aspirations for the future.

Nick Morris OAM (Morris Access Consulting), Australia’s Red Dust Heelers, Roelands Village Academy Students

Accessible tourism is focused on building tourist destinations, products and services that are accessible to all people, regardless of their physical limitations, disabilities or age.

Accessible Tourism will make up 25% of the market by 2020. It is an 8 billion dollar industry now.

This session combines a presentation from experts in accessible tourism product, alongside case studies of Aboriginal tourism operators who are embedding accessibility in their tourism business.

Key speakers have presented at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Accessible Tourism Forum, and internationally.

Key case study also from Roelands Village in SW WA where young people are building an all abilities, edible bush foods garden to enhance the cultural tourism experience.

Bush Foods Tasting & Coffee/Barista Competition with Outback Academy Linked Young People (WA)
Interactive Session
The food and hospitality industry is generating some standout youth for future tourism leadership
Join us for a coffee, with some coffee art you won’t have seen before.
Hear from young people about their aspirations and views about tourism now, and in the future
We’ll be sourcing coffee from different Indigenous coffee suppliers, including OAA’s Red Dust Blend with Jasper Coffee, and Lucky Bean Cafe

Doc Reynolds, Lucky Bean Café, Cape Le Grand National Park

Australia’s National Parks agencies are creating strong, economic and social links with Aboriginal groups in some of Australia’s natural treasures. In this session, National Parks agencies from around Australia will provide delegates with an update into engagement activities with Aboriginal people in their States and Territories.

Take a break with complimentary refreshments.

Margret Campbell - Dreamtime Southern X
Walter McGuire - Go Cultural Aboriginal Tours and Experiences
Rob Hyatt - Koorie Heritage Trust
Yarraka Bayles - BlackCard Cultural Tours
Shannon Ruska

A depth of Aboriginal experiences is found right in the heart of our capital cities. In amongst the skyscrapers, Aboriginal guides unravel the Aboriginal history and culture to our cities in a context both pre and post colonisation. Hear how some of Australia’s leading Aboriginal tourism operators present their product in this bustling environment and understand their challenges and opportunities in every day operations and future growth.

Enjoy a delicious meal with fellow guests.

Registration and information for the days events

Ceillhe Sperath

Simon McArthur

There are a lot more people that want to, than actually an Indigenous experience. This presentation will unravel why Indigenous tourism isn’t getting more customers, and then suggest some of the ways that Indigenous tourism product could be evolved, to become more attractive to the market.

WAITOC member Outback Academy Australia (OAA) has supported the development of the East West Alliance (EWA) movement.
EWA is a collaboration between Aboriginal leaders in SW WA (Noongar Land Enterprises – Australia’s first Aboriginal led land based business cooperative) and an emerging Murray Corridor based leadership (NSW, Victoria and SA).
EWA leaders are focused on building ethical, sustainable and authentic Aboriginal led business in bush foods, botanicals, nutraceuticals and linked cultural tourism.
They are passionate about the protection of traditional knowledge and sustainable commercialisation that brings benefits to communities and the environment.
EWA leaders are committed to cooperative business models that embed the principle of the greatest good for the greatest number and country.

This session shares the story this emerging network, being mentored by Australia’s first Fairtrade Coffee Company Jasper Coffee and global environmental management services Veolia.
The purpose is to share knowledge from Jasper Coffee owner Wells Trenfield about Fairtrade style business, and EWA leaders about why and how they are pursuing cooperative business models to achieve increased economy, social and environmental outcomes as a connected supply group.

Take a break for half an hour with morning tea

Facilitator: Renata Lowe

Jill Abel, CEO - Australian Cruise Association
Chris White - Head of Product and Familiarisations, Visit Victoria
Toby Biddick, Cruise Ambassador, Akorn Australia & New Zealand
Bart Pigram - Narlijia Cultural Tours Broome

In 2016-17 the cruise sector contributed $5,280.3 billion to the Australian economy and supported 21,260 jobs – how can you get involved?    In this session you will hear from cruise industry specialists about the current state of the sector and the framework of working within this growing part of the Australia tourism industry. Also hear from Bart Pigram, Narlijia Tours who is currently servicing cruise passengers in Broome by offering an Aboriginal cultural tourism experience.

Tahn Donovan - Creator, Max's Black Sauce and Director, WAITOC
Mikaela Jade – CEO and Founder, Indigital
Leanne Miller – Executive Member, Koorie Women Mean Business and Chairperson, Outback Academy Australia

In the NAIDOC Year of Because of Her We Can, this session is dedicated to the challenges, achievements and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in tourism.
The session will be facilitated by Shelley Ware, and showcase some tourism product owned and delivered by Aboriginal women from across Australia.
A panel session will follow for questions and comments on increasing the engagement of women in tourism business.

Victoria Pope - Director of Convention Services, Melbourne Convention Bureau

Australia's business events sector is a substantial piece of Australia's economy having contributed $24.9 billion in total economic contribution to Australia and supported 193,203 jobs in 15/16. For Aboriginal tourism, it represents enormous opportunity to plug in to and this presentation will give some tips and advice on how you can benefit. 

Nick Henderson, Global Manager, Social Media, Tourism Australia

Hear from Tourism Australia on: Social media and the 5 hour selfie. How social media is changing the tourism industry and how you can capitalise on it. 

A.Professor Wayne Quilliam, Indigenous Photographer

Since the beginning of time Aboriginal people have cared for the land, in return it provides us with food, medicine and shelter. In the past, this information was recorded through song, dance and art then passed from generation to generation. These practices are more than an educational process as interpreted by non-indigenous people; they are an extremely complex and important part of Indigenous culture that allows us to build strong and resilient social networks essential to the continuity of culture, language and family. In the today’s society, the digital platform is reshaping the power of storytelling, enabling us to unfold a highly sensory experience that dances a narrative voice with images, sound, and music into illuminated understandings.

The key to developing these narratives is ‘Living the story’.  Each and every individual has a unique perspective of their own environment, how we express and formalise these experiences is the key to a cohesive story.   Creating a space to empower individuals to contextualise the meaning of experience, give value to it, and communicate that journey with others locally, regionally, nationally and globally.  The constant through this evolution is the basic skills of narration through photography, video, drones and sound. 

To assist Indigenous tour operators in developing their understanding of content while increasing visual, sound, oral language, creativity, and thinking skills, Aboriginal Artist A.Professor Wayne Quilliam has developed a series of flexible workshops.

This powerful workshop format has assisted individuals and communities to develop skills and techniques to promote their product through collaborative storytelling methods, developing physical and online curatorial strategies for developing digital projects.

Sponsored by 

Research Fellow, Curtin University
Founding Director, Pindi Pindi Ltd, Centre for Research Excellence in Aboriginal Wellbeing

Cultural security is a relatively new concept but is fast appearing in the general literature within the health and education domains and is exploding in the workforce as a means for cultural competence training for workers.  Yet, within the tourism field and especially in Aboriginal tourism, the concept is new.

According to Coffin (2007) cultural security is a measure of how well a service can effectively deliver its programs to Aboriginal people.  It is comprised of the building blocks of cultural awareness and cultural safety but requires “brokering” with the service and those the service is intended for.  A result of brokerage is the protocols for cultural security.  If protocols are developed and monitored effectively, then the service can achieve cultural sustainability for its services to the Aboriginal population.

Using Coffin’s framework of cultural security, this presentation will explore cultural intellectual property of Aboriginal services and products that are built on Aboriginal cultural knowledges and wisdom and what this means for certification of Aboriginal tourism in the future.

Cultural Intellectual property and the road to Certification
Professor Cheryl Kickett-Tucker PhD

Empowering each other through tourism

Damien Jacobsen

Sarai Roe - Owner/Operator of TAG Traditional Aboriginal Games
Josh Hanley

This workshop will focus on hearing from young people who are studying, delivering, or aspiring to own their own tourism businesses.

We will also explore how to better support succession building for existing Aboriginal tourism operators.

Key questions are who is coming up behind current tourism operators to run the business? How do we get young people interested and engaged in tourism?

We'll share what some communities are doing to build engagement and training for tourism related careers and business.

Sarai will also invite participants to join an interactive TAG session for during the Conference.

A key outcome will be young people themselves sharing their interests, challenges and advice to building better engagement with young people in this growing industry.

Johnny Edmonds and Aurelie Debusschere
World alliance and an update on the World conference held in NZ as well as an intro to 2020 World Summit in Perth