Aboriginal Business Forum in Geraldton told Indigenous tourism in the Mid West is ready for an ‘awakening’

When you ask Naaguja-Yamatji man Derek Councillor about his dreams for his fledgling Geraldton-based tourism business his eyes light up with pride. The Daarragi Naaguja founder sees a future where his business spans the entire Mid West and Murchison region and employs people from all tribes to share their knowledge of country and culture. Right now, however, his one-year-old business is struggling to gain a foothold. Mr Councillor has quickly found work for his business in cultural awareness training and smoking ceremonies, but the tours are yet to attract sustainable numbers. “We started when COVID came out so it hasn’t really been that successful,” he said. “It has been successful in working with schools and cultural awareness, but it has been quiet, we aren’t doing a lot of tours.” Speaking at Wednesday’s Aboriginal Business Forum in Geraldton Wula Guda Nyinda Eco Cultural Adventures owner Darren Capewell provided telling insight into the struggles of the region’s tourism industry. While the Yamatji region has significantly more tourist visitation than the Kimberley, the tourist product is lacking. Just 10 Aboriginal businesses are registered in the Mid West. In the Kimberley there are 79 spanning tours, art galleries, services and accommodation. Mr Capewell said it was time to look after the “guts” of West Australian tourism, referring to the Yamatji region’s place in between the Kimberley and South West — WA’s two premier tourist hotspots. “They gotta drive through here, and they gotta drive back through here,” he said. “You also have people on all these big buses flying through here pull up at caravan parks — they gotta stay somewhere. “There is a thirst, a hunger, it is part of the great cultural awakening of Australia, and tourism is the vehicle that makes it happen.” Mr Capewell and Ngurrangga Tours owner Clinton Walker are proof there is success to be found for Indigenous tourism outside of the Kimberley. Both have well-and-truly established themselves as leading tourism operators in their areas — Shark Bay and Karratha — and are credited with attracting huge tourism interest to their homes. WA Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan said progress was being made, citing grants for Gascoyne and Mid West Aboriginal businesses in recent months. “Some of the Regional Economic Development Scheme grants we are doing here in the Mid West are opening up some incredible (opportunities),” she said. “Like the world’s oldest mine, ochre mine, that we are investing $200,000 in to develop that as an Aboriginal-owned tourist operation. “Through the work of government, through tourism and regional development, we are very focused on developing those cultural tourism assets in the Mid West and the Gascoyne.” For Mr Councillor the “awakening” Mr Capewell speaks off can’t come soon enough. He is patient, but he also has big ambitions for the region’s Aboriginal tourism scene. “Up north … they are really successful; they have international tourists come to them,” Mr Councillor said. “That is what we aim to hope for in the end, especially with the cruise ships when they come back. “A lot of people from Perth they go to the Kimberley and Territory to look at painting and hear Aboriginal stories, but we have it all right here.”