Articulate, insightful and at times hilarious, Dreamtime Southern X Managing Director ‘Aunty’ Margret Campbell is a force of nature. She’s also a force for tourism, and as such is a First Nations icon.
Today, the 74-year-old former teacher is playing tour guide in her outside “classroom” in The Rocks and Circular Quay in Sydney. It’s hot under the midday sun, but the warm weather isn’t enough to zap the energy that she brings to her stories, which revolve around the history and Dreaming of Eora Country.
And to Aunty Margret, a tourism industry veteran of more than 30 years, it’s the stories that matter most – stories that share her culture, dispel stereotypes (“you don’t have to go to Uluru to find an Aboriginal person”) and inspire listeners to learn more. Besides this, the stories she shares are also just downright entertaining (who wouldn’t want to learn about the 15 animals/plants in their “family” – based on when they were born?).
As part of its aim to help share these stories – and more pointedly, celebrate Indigenous Business Month – adventure tour operator Intrepid Travel has teamed up with not-for-profit marketplace for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiences and products, Welcome to Country, to deliver 200 free First Nations tourism experiences across Narrm (Melbourne) and Warrane (Sydney) throughout October.
While Sydney experiences revolve around Aunty Margret’s Dreamtime Southern X guided walks, in Melbourne, visitors and locals can get creative in jewellery-making workshops with Wiradjuri mixed media artist Ange Jeffrey.
Beyond this campaign, the travel company’s partnership with WTC extends initially to at least three years.
The October initiative is part of an overall push to increase Intrepid Travel’s focus on domestic tourism – and specifically First Nations experiences.
Turning the lens around
“For us, it’s a pretty powerful and exciting partnership,” Intrepid Travel Managing Director ANZ Brett Mitchell says at the launch of the program in Sydney, where guests experienced a taste of Dreamtime Southern X’s full walking tour.
Whilst 34 years old, “we [Intrepid] have always taken Aussies outbound”, he explains.
“We’ve never really explored and expanded the rich and amazing culture we have here, as we say, over 65,000 years – that’s thousands of generations.”
“We’ve got so much to learn from that. Intrepid’s on that journey. And the most important part we can do is really help be a platform for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
“So we’re working really hard to make sure all of our itineraries – we’ve got around 50 itineraries in Australia now, and we’ll continue to expand – have indigenous experiences.
“We’ve gone from having 12 [tours] to 42 at the moment. Next year, we hope to have every single itinerary where we have a First Nations experience.”
Integral to the partnership’s vision, is to help ensure “every traveller to Australia and every Australian can connect, learn, have an authentic [First Nations] experience and take that away because there’s so much to celebrate”.
Prior to this recent push, Mitchell tells Karryon Intrepid’s domestic offering had been mostly for inbound travellers.
But Intrepid hopes the new programs will encourage domestic tourism and also help the company balance its outbound business, which could be key as more and more Australians consider travelling closer to home to reduce their carbon footprint.
Common threads
Welcome to Country CEO Desmond Campbell tells Karryon that Intrepid is one of the first major travel companies to partner with WTC.
“More and more we want to work with partners in the industry like Intrepid, to be able to get the word out about First Nations tourism and experiences,” he explains at the launch event, which concludes with lunch at Midden by Mark Olive at the Sydney Opera House.
WTC has around 125 operators with over 250 experiences all around Australia available on its platform. It also has an online retail store featuring more than 3,000 products from 87 suppliers.
“So Intrepid is helping us reach that vision. Ensuring that not only Australians, but international [guests] really connect with First Nations tourism.”
The common thread in its offering, Campbell says is to promote history, sustainable and eco-friendly tourism, and caring for country.
“This is the future of what tourism should look like .. and First Nations people and operators such as Aunty Margret have been doing this for years and years.”
And Aunty Margret for one, looks like she’s in no hurry to slow down.
Participants can book their First Nations experience here.
Images ©Salty Dingo 2023
