By MARION WILLIAMS

A passion for his culture and belief in reconciliation has seen Richard Campbell’s enterprise quickly gain national recognition.

Within two years of starting, Gumaraa was named Aboriginal Organisation of the Year in the NAIDOC Awards 2021. It was runner-up in the NAIDOC Awards 2024 for Caring for Country and Culture. Last year it was named outstanding education service in the Illawarra South Coast Business Awards. In April this year it won the Indigenous Business category at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards.

A Djiringanj man and co-founder of Gumaraa, Mr Campbell said many people wanted to jump on board with Aboriginal culture and build that bridge to represent all Australia.

He was born in Kiama and grew up in the Illawarra region on Dharawal Country, where he learnt culture from his parents and other family members.

Gumaraa means ‘old wise man’. “That is all my forefathers,” Mr Campbell said.

He has six cultural practitioners working alongside him, plus four office staff and a group of cultural singers and dancers.

It is also a family affair: two of his daughters are Gumaraa cultural practitioners, two of his sons are in the dance group, his wife Lisa Bazzano is his business partner, and his stepdaughter Trinity Bazzano is their graphic designer.

Mr Campbell said he and his cousin Dr Jodie Edwards, from the University of Wollongong, started Gumaraa in 2019 because “there was a need.”

“We wanted to present Aboriginal culture to the broader community, so they understand where we come from, how we live and how we have been delivering our culture for thousands of years,” he said.

By then Mr Campbell had worked for more than 15 years as an Aboriginal education officer at the local public school, a job he loved.

“It put me on the road to where I am today.”

So many services

Gumaraa offers a huge range of Aboriginal cultural experiences and education. It works within the Yuin and Dharawal Nation borders along the NSW South Coast, offering programs tailored to schools, universities and workplaces.

“We do from pre-school to university,” Mr Campbell said.

“Preschoolers love it. We have them up dancing and speaking language. They soak up everything.”

They run public tours including immersive experiences on Country and Sea Country, plus a range of workshops. Gumaraa goes into schools and workplaces and takes clients to culturally-significant places.

Staff also perform Welcome to Country, smoking ceremonies and cultural singing and dancing.

Mentor and artist

When Mr Campbell and Dr Edwards started Gumaraa, they developed cultural-mentoring programs for children in-care and in the juvenile justice system – again, because they saw there was a need. Gumaraa runs the programs weekly for the Department of Community and Justice.

“It is connecting them back to Country and keeping them connected to their culture,” Mr Campbell said.

“We work right across the board – from five-year-olds to the age of 24, and non-Koori people, too.”

Mr Campbell is well-known along the coast and in Sydney for his art. It can be found on school, sport and corporate uniforms, plus murals.

“I just picked up a paint brush and have always been selling paintings,” he said.

Building bridges

The latest addition to Gumaraa’s offering are whale-watching cruises in partnership with Wild Whale Cruises in Shoalhaven. The first cruise was in May. NITV came to film the second one in June.

“We are going out on a boat, telling our Dreamtime story about the whale,” he said. “We tell them to look back at the land, and we tell them the stories of the land, too.”

Most of Gumaraa’s clients are non-Aboriginal, which Mr Campbell likes.

“I am a big believer in reconciliation and what better way to do it than through Aboriginal culture. They should be proud of the oldest culture in the world.”