Their 2024 season has just opened for bookings so we asked them about the opportunity visitors have to hear the Traditional Owners’ stories and learn about their culture.
Q: What kind of experience can visitors expect at Home Valley Station?
A: A family friendly environment, a cultural immersion and experiencing the ruggedness, beauty and remoteness of Balanggarra country.
Q: How important is it that places like HVS exist to teach people about the Traditional Owners’ stories and culture?
A: We are thankful to the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC) for giving us the opportunity to manage this tourism precinct and to be able to share our knowledge and understanding with visitors to this country and to be able to provide a more cultural immersion experience from Traditional Owners of the land.
The importance of managing the property has provided an opportunity for Traditional Owners first nations people in employment and training in hospitality, tourism and business enterprise sector.
Q: How do you see your role in bringing cultures together?
A: We have up to 68% Aboriginal employment, which means we are achieving groundbreaking results compared to other tourism businesses around Australia.
Having this opportunity we are able to share our knowledge and experience with other visitors travelling through the area and who are seeking that cultural experience.
As First nations people we know there are a lack of cultural experiences with other tour operators with First Nations people.
This has put us on the front foot when sharing this opportunity with other people.
Q: Ms Cissy Gore-Birch (Interim CEO, Balanggarra Ventures Limited) says you are “working on a different model of tourism”. Can you tell us what this entails?
A: Through this model we are providing an opportunity for indigenous people to have access to training and employment in hospitality and tourism.
That’s how we are making the most of this opportunity – working towards self-determination, towards owning businesses in tourism and hospitality and to be able to showcase and invite others to join us on this journey.
Q: Do you think we are doing enough in Australia to promote Indigenous tourism and authentic cultural experiences?
A: We know that there are other large organisations in the tourism space that aren’t being run by Traditional Owners.
Through this management opportunity of Home Valley we have the opportunity to manage and share our experiences.
As traditional owners, we are able to be in a position to promote indigenous tourism and authentic experiences. We need more Indigenous owned operators and experiences throughout Australia and more needs to be done by others with more support.
We need to align other strategic partners to come on board and support the movement of sharing these cultural immersions with people from around the world.
We welcome more strategic partnerships to support what we are trying to achieve as it is a collective approach to bring tourism to these areas, but to also better the lives of First Nations people and to continue to uplift the Indigenous people in this place.
There is a cultural connection right through this nation. Our stories need to be told and shared by First Nations people, not non-Indigenous operators.
