First Nations & SMEs: Driving Inclusive Growth
First Nations businesses are growing fast, carrying with them generations of wisdom about community, land and responsibility. At the same time, Indian enterprises are looking across the seas for partners who can blend business ambition with cultural depth. This conversation is about where those two worlds meet — and the friendships, ventures and possibilities that can grow from it.
Over an hour, you’ll hear stories from entrepreneurs and community leaders who are breaking new ground, not just in markets but in how they honour relationships, culture and shared values. It’s a chance to explore how trade becomes trust, how innovation can carry heritage forward, and how small businesses can have a big impact when they work together across borders.
Expect a session that feels more like a yarn than a conference: part storytelling, part exchange, and all about weaving new ties between Australia and India that are grounded in respect, reciprocity and opportunity.
Moderator: Javed Khan - Founder/Director of Delhi 'O' Delhi, winner of R&CA Awards for Excellence NSW Indian/Sub-Continent Restaurant four years in a row.
Panelist Profiles:
Garry “Gaz” Farrar
Role in the session: The cultural bridge-builder — showing how business and culture can coexist, and how Indigenous cultural capital strengthens partnerships.
Wiradjuri man with decades of experience across media, events, corporate cultural liaison and Indigenous partnerships.
Former Reconciliation & First Nations Partnerships Manager at Qantas, where he bridged corporate systems and cultural practices.
Has managed large-scale cultural engagement projects with Elders, museums, and corporates, helping organisations embed Indigenous perspectives into their strategies.
Brings a relational, storytelling orientation: adept at navigating between Indigenous knowledge frameworks and business settings.
Andrew Bassford
Role in the session: The systems and operations leader — offering insight into how Indigenous enterprises like Nallawilli Bunjil grow sustainably, weaving cultural knowledge, ecological impact, and business strategy into lasting partnerships.
COO and Director of Nallawilli Bunjil, a Jaithmathang-owned venture under the Nallawilli Group that focuses on biodiversity, land restoration, and culturally grounded environmental stewardship.
Works alongside Traditional Custodians, industry, and government to align commercial outcomes with ecological renewal and cultural responsibility.
Brings experience in operational leadership, building governance and systems that enable Indigenous enterprises to scale while staying true to cultural values and environmental care.
Aunty Margret
Role in the session: Share experiences and the opportunity for multicultural immersive experiences. Aunty Margret’s desire to ensure that the world’s oldest continuous, living culture is shared, explored and respected by everyone.
Aunty Margret is an icon in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tourism space. A pioneer in the cultural tourism market, with more than 30 years experience, Aunty Margret has a wealth of stories and insights to share across both tourism and cultural. Ask her about Dreaming-ism!
Born at sunset on the bend of the Macleay River and raised at Burnt Bridge in Dunghutti Country, South West Rocks New South Wales, “Muughi” (meaning Margret) is a proud saltwater woman. Aunty Margret has experienced some of Australia’s most turbulent political decades of racial injustice, inequality and discrimination which ultimately brought her to Sydney, which she now calls home.
From the age of five Aunty Margret was educated in her traditional custodianship of Dunghutti Culture, the Baranbyatti Mirra Buuka or Dreamtime Southern Cross. Talking to Aunty Margret is to learn both the living wisdom and practical relevancy of her ancestor’s Dreamtime stories and the tangible ways it still influences and shapes our lives.
A qualified teacher and founding member of Aboriginal Educational Consultative Group, Aunty Margret helped to introduce and shape Aboriginal cultural curriculum in Australian schools and higher education institutions. It is the combination of her passion for education and deep cultural understanding which lead her to start Dreamtime Southern X. A natural extension of teaching, Dreamtime Southern X tours reflect Aunty Margret’s living, interactive understanding of the Dreamtime landscape and stories. The tours are designed to educate creating mutual understanding and respect between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people grounded in cultural understanding of Dreamtime and the Australian landscape.