Fast Forward Founder: Marsha Uppill, Co-Founder of Arranyinha

(upbeat hip hop music) - Have you ever wondered how humans have invented our way forward through time? Now, almost overnight, we’re entering a new age. But we’re also facing some of the biggest challenges, ever. Today, we have a chance to reimagine the way we work, play, consume, and learn, in harmony with our planet. To create a more positive future. One that doesn’t create more problems than it solves. And we’re going to need everyone to build this future, a future that we all want to live in. This is what I’m passionate about.

00:46 - I’m Sarah Moran, CEO of Girl Geek Academy, and host of this special episode of That Startup Show. Australia is home to the oldest culture in the world, whose history is rich with technologies that have huge value to the world today. Marsha Uppill is a proud Adnyamathanha woman who is on a mission to shift business cultures across the world. She wants to bring them on a special journey of understanding First Nations people, to inspire change in the next generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs. - Arranyinha aims to empower First Nations and business to collaborate for generational change.

01:21 - And through our startup, Campfire, we enable businesses to delve deep and get a better understanding of their impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities. The reason we’ve called it Campfire is because culturally, a campfire is a place where anyone can come and they can learn, they can grow, the can get it wrong. A campfire, in an Aboriginal sense, it’s a ceremonial place, it’s a place where big decisions are made, it’s a place where things are challenged and brought to a new level of learning and understanding. So, through Campfire, through the diagnostic tool, through the work that we do that encapsulates the campfire conversation, it’s about allowing businesses to go, I have some questions, I don’t know where to take them, I don’t know how to ask them, I don’t want to offend anybody. But bring them to the campfire and let’s have those open conversations so we can learn and grow together.

02:18 - So, it’d be about 20 years ago now when the acknowledgment of country first came in, and at the time it was fantastic, because it was the first time the traditional owners of a land were actually acknowledged that that was their country. And so we’ve come so far since then and it might begin with an acknowledgement, but it is so much deeper. There are other things we can do. For example, you know, we can have artworks throughout our organization, we can engage with community a lot stronger, we can provide opportunity to reflect cultural respect by the design that we have in our building, the architecture of a building. You know, if we’re an organization that is responsible for water, or for land in some way, bring the Aboriginal lens in there, that cultural connection that we have with the country into the design of your organization. There are so many layers, there are so many levels, there are so many opportunities.

03:12 - It’s inspirational, it’s motivational and our belief that the business world is really ready for this change. I often get asked what it’s like to be an Aboriginal entrepreneur, almost like Aboriginal and Torres Ngawarla people, like it’s a new concept to us, to be entrepreneurial. However, what I say to people is, we were the original entrepreneurs. We created what we needed to create at the time we needed to create it. We just didn’t have a word that said we were entrepreneurs, we just got the job done.

03:40 - So it’s inbuilt within us to be innovative and creative. I’m a citizen of Australia, I have rights. But as Arranyinha, I have responsibility, which is cultural responsibility, so this has become very important to me as I’ve grown older in my life. My mum was stolen generation, so systems continually failed her throughout my life and throughout the life she had prior to myself being born. So for me, how do I make a different world for my family, for my children? And having Arranyinha be my business name, be my birth name, be my cultural responsibility, drives me for that change.

04:22 - So sometimes when I wake up in the morning and I don’t want to get out of bed, because I’m exhausted, or, you know, I’ve given lots of stuff to a certain project or I just really don’t know the answers that day, I think about my kids and I think about my mum as a survivor and I think, they’re my determination and they also take away my fear of getting things done and my fear of asking the questions and my fear of pulling up a seat at the table that people have tried to keep me away from, as an Aboriginal woman. So that determination is deep-rooted. It’s not just about me, it’s about what’s come before me, it’s about the present that I can impact, but it’s about the future, showing my children that they can do and be and say and change things to impact the future generations to keep our culture strong, to keep their identity strong and to know how very much connected they are to this country. I often say that I have been created to create. So through the startup community, the startup world, the entrepreneurialism that is, I guess, has now been an opportunity for me. I’ve actually been able to release that creativity and it’s an exciting place and time to be in.

05:32 - So when you’re taking the journey with us, it’s really important to understand that it may only be one footstep in an 80,000 year-old culture, but that one footstep is what makes the change for us here and now and into the future. - So where do we go from here? What kind of world do you want to live in? Can your startup make the world a better place? Let us know, we want to hear from you. So, I’ll catch you next time on That Startup Show. (upbeat hiphop music) ♪ But what makes you think ♪ ♪ That this life’s made for a king ♪ ♪ So many different things ♪ ♪ to do thats in the high life ♪ .