Yirrkala, Northern Territory: The Rirratjingu clan, traditional owners of land on the Gove Peninsula, is well-known for its leadership. In 1963, when the Australian Government excised over 300 square kilometres of land from the Arnhem Land reserve for bauxite mining— without consulting the traditional owners—five Rirratjingu brothers took action.
Top End, Northern Territory: Top End Aboriginal Bush Broadcasting Association (Aboriginal Corporation) (TEABBA) has operated in the Northern Territory for almost three decades. It first incorporated in 1989 and is registered under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (CATSI Act). TEABBA has always been a non-profit organisation driven by and for members of the Aboriginal communities it serves; from Wadeye and Kalkarindji in the west, the Tiwi Islands to the north and Arnhem land and Groote Eylandt to the east.
Twin Hill Station, 130kms south-west of Darwin, Northern Territory: Twin Hill Station is a successful Indigenous cattle business owned and run by its members who are the traditional owners, the Mak Mak Marranunggu of the Delissaville, Wagait, Larrakia Aboriginal Land Trust. The station comprises 375 square kilometres of land on the edge of Litchfield National Park, an hour south-west of Darwin.
Cairns, Qld: Nine years ago, when he was 20, Jesse Martin sat down in a Cairns shopping centre with an officer from ORIC and incorporated the Streets Movement Indigenous Corporation (TSM). He was relaxed, confident and dressed like most young people in Cairns at the time—baseball cap backwards and baggy rapper-style clothes.
Move forward ten years and Jesse is now as comfortable in a suit and the corporate boardrooms of Sydney as he is in a gym. And now he is taking his model of helping young people doing it tough around Australia and the world.
