Representatives from the Noongar community, dignitaries and residents gathered at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre (MPAC) on Friday evening to see local figure George Walley launch his new Aboriginal tourism brand, the first in the region.
Mr Walley’s Mandjoogoordap Dreaming will offer Aboriginal experiences to visitors and residents across the region who wish to learn more about the local Noongar culture.
The company will offer tours around Mandurah’s waterways, bush reserves and Thrombolites as well as cultural services such as smoking ceremonies, didgeridoo music therapy, welcome to country and cultural awareness training.
Visitors will be able to learn the life on country, bush medicine, bush craft, and the region’s dreamtime stories from the hand of the region’s traditional land owners.
“We are not really the new kids on the block we’re people who have jumped on a bus as a guide or gone into a school as a person to bring cultural awareness training or cultural awareness education,” Mr Walley said.
“So it’s nice to put together a business that brought together lots of things that we do.
“The product is 40,000 years old and uniquely Aboriginal, therefore it should be delivered by Aboriginal people.”
Mr Walley transformed his dream into reality through the Western Australian Aboriginal Tourism Operators Council (WAITOC) Aboriginal tourism development program, which funds indigenous tourism initiatives across the state.
Mandjoogoordap Dreaming was one of 20 successful applications for the funding, which saw ten projects become a reality in the South West and ten in WA’s Kimberley region.
In his speech, Mr Walley thanked all the community organisations and government representatives that rallied together to transform the region’s first Aboriginal tour operator into a reality and highlighted the importance of networking in project building.
“It was a long process but let’s face it, Mandjoogoordap Dreaming is not an easy word to say but perhaps that is the magic as a talking point,” he said.
The first Mandjoogoordap Dreaming tours will take off later this month, but Mr Walley’s project is far from being over.
The Noongar representative is planning to start an Aboriginal cultural cruise together with Mandurah Cruises and wishes to negotiate with the City of Mandurah and the Department of Parks and Wildlife to hold cultural activities in the region’s reserves.
“I can only see from this visionary program lots of positive things happening in the future,” he said.
For more information go to mandurahdreaming.com.au.