Murraylands Hub
Supporting First Nations people via accessible regional hubs
Hub Details
The Murraylands SA hub is led by Dominic Smith, a Yuin man, and founder of aquaponic farm Pundi Produce. The Murraylands hub aims to create intergenerational and socioeconomic change through entrepreneurship education, confidence building exercises and community consultation.
In the pilot year the focus of activities in this hub has been to encourage young women in the community to explore entrepreneurial career paths in the native agrifood industry. The first project involves three aspiring female entrepreneurs looking to utilise both Traditional Knowledge and modern science to develop new products based on the healing properties of native ingredients.
Hub Projects
Cosmetics Entrepreneur Incubator Project
The Cosmetics Entrepreneur Incubator Project has been designed to create mentorship and support for First Nations female entrepreneurs looking to build their own skincare brand and cosmetic products using native ingredients. Through this project, each entrepreneur becomes experienced in brand creation and the skills required to launch a cosmetic product range to market.
The project has already seen the development of three Indigenous-led cosmetic brands and participants have been connected with cosmetic industry leaders from around Australia. In the next stage, this entrepreneurship model will now be applied more broadly across a range of other native ag+food opportunities in the Murraylands area and beyond to other regional hubs.
These pilot initiatives were supported by cash and in-kind contributions from multiple stakeholders and also received grant funding from the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science Energy and Resources through the Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship Round 3 program.
