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Barry Taylor
My current role
Business Entrepreneur
Region
Western Australia - PilbaraMy background
I follow in the footsteps of my father, and the great Aboriginal leaders of the Pilbara, who gave our people a taste of economic independence in Australia at the end of WWII. On 1 May 1946 Aboriginal cattle men and their families across the entire Pilbara walked off the non-Indigenous owned and managed cattle stations and never returned. They wanted ownership and control of their own land and business, not token rations. They refused to budge or compromise. Their will and strength unites all Aboriginal people of the Pilbara and beyond to this day.
Little by little we have made our way forward but our rights of economic sovereignty and a fair share of the productivity that is raped from our traditional lands continues to be a battle to be fought by my children and grandchildren.
Biography
My career began when I got the opportunity to play football for Perth Football Club. My family and I travelled to Perth and we lived out of shoeboxes at the beginning of my career. As a young man I had been given the opportunity to play for Perth, but I blew that chance. So when my chance came again I was determined to make the most of it. I played a number of games for Perth and sport gave me an opportunity to mix with people that I would never have been able to meet at home.
I joined the public service and got the chance to see how the State government worked (or didn't work when it came to Aboriginal people). I learned a great deal and though I can remember my father being sceptical of my career at the time, he later realised that I was learning some inside white fella law that would be of benefit to our people.
I became very active in the ATSIC era in seeking better representation and action for the Pilbara community. I became Chairperson of the ATSIC Regional Council, Chairman of the Ngarda Ngarli ATSIC Regional Council, Managing Director of the Islander District Education Council and took on a board position and later the Chairmanship of the ATSIC WA State Council.
Whatever the politics were at the national level, the demise of ATSIC at local and regional levels was a catastrophe. All of the infrastructure sat in mothballs and gradually was over-run by non-Indigenous bureaucrats. We were determined to never be hostage to governments again so we formed the Ngarda Ngarli Yarndu Foundation based on the representation of the ATSIC regional council. The foundation would be independent and it would work to develop independent economic capacity for all Pilbara communities.
Under the auspices of the foundation we set up Ngarda Civil and Mining in 2000 and we took the company from whipper snippers to 100 million dollar contracts with BHP Billiton. It was a great period and Ngarda showed that an Aboriginal company could compete with other major contractors in the cut throat Pilbara mining industry. Over the nine years of my Executive Chairmanship we employed hundreds of Pilbara Aboriginal people and I don't think any other single company could match our track record in that regard.
In 2009 I resigned my position as Executive Chairman of Ngarda Civil and Mining but as Chairman of Ngarda Ngarli Yarndu Foundation, one of the three owners of Ngarda Civil and Mining, I continue to monitor the company's performance closely.
My current role is three fold.
* Coach and Consultant: I work as an ongoing coach and consultant to help large Australian companies, particularly in the mining industry, to improve their Aboriginal recruitment, employment and ongoing skill development.
* Mentor and Advisor: I work to help other Aboriginal entrepreneurs and business people start up their own businesses on a large scale. In this regard I am currently very proud of the formation of the Pilbara Aboriginal Contractors Association and I would urge all Aboriginal businesses to form similar associations.
* Business Entrepreneur I actively work on developing my own business opportunities in a variety of different fields.
Finally as a Nyamal tribal elder I uphold the primacy of our law and traditions. There is nothing in the world of 21st century commerce and industry that will ever take away from our law. Though there are pressures and compromises that must be made at times, the primacy of Indigenous law is always central in our hearts, minds and actions. There is a lot that non-Indigenous Australians have yet to understand about Aboriginal traditional culture. Over the next hundred years and as we improve our economic sovereignty and strength we will start to teach more people about what makes our culture tick.
Hopefully this will allow Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to live and work together in a more harmonious way. But the struggle for Indigenous economic independence continues and is what I will continue to work towards.
| Contact | : | Barry Taylor |
| Mobile | : | 0438-954-458 |
| : | barry@4bcm.com.au |