ABOUT US

Today’s Kungarakan people of the Northern Territory are descendants of Alyandabu, the Kungarakan Aboriginal matriarch of the Finniss River region. ‘Alngindabu was around six feet tall (183 cm), straight as a gun barrel, black, proud, barefooted, wearing a simple cotton frock and a wide-brimmed stockman's hat’ (Ted Egan). 

 

She was a member of one of the 250 Aboriginal tribes who continuously occupied Australia for some 60,000 years prior to European settlement. One of the few survivors of her people, following a poisoning perpetrated in the region in the early days of settlement, she was ‘fiercely independent, known for her generosity and esteemed for her devotion to her family’. Deemed ‘the paperbark people’ by early settlers, some 800 of her Kungarakan descendants now reside across all regions of the Northern Territory and Australia. Many leaders have emerged within this group over the past two centuries. National Trade Union leaders such as Jack and Joe McGuinness who fought for the rights of all Indigenous Australians, successfully campaigning for the removal of constitutional limitations on Aboriginal citizenship via a National referendum in 1967. 

 

Activists and sporting heroes such as Val McGuinness, described by Xavier Herbert, the acclaimed Australian author, as as 'a great Australian', and 'the truest Australian I have ever met'. In more recent times, Kungarakan leaders such as Tom Calma, a University Chancellor and the current Co-chair of the Senior Aboriginal Advisory Group in Australia, have provided advice to the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Tom and Kathy Mills, the daughter of Jack McGuinness, have each been awarded an Order of Australia (OAM). Kurt Hoffman of Western Australia is a highly successful Kungarakan industry leader, as Ship Manager - GO Marine Group.

 

Future Initiatives Aboriginal Corporation

A number of emerging young Kungarakan leaders have been instrumental in the establishment of Future Initiatives Aboriginal Corporation (FIAC). It is a multi-faceted not-for-profit, charitable Indigenous Corporation registered with the Office of the Register of Indigenous Corporation (ORIC_ICN9652), and with the Australian Commission for Not-for-profit Charities (ACNC) ; based in the Finniss River region of the Northern Territory, Australia. It has been established to pursue a range of social, welfare, cultural and economic goals, to promote the health and well-being of community members, provide support for those experiencing poverty or hardship; and to further the sustainable management of traditional lands.

 

The many arms of the Corporation are designed to provide Indigenous training and employment opportunities, to help foster personal growth and independence, to generate a sustainable income stream, to support return to country and to enhance the development of the Kungarakan and Indigenous community as a whole. Corporation Directors have a wide array of academic, business and management skills, with experience and qualifications in horticulture, landscaping gardening and environmental rehabilitation, Indigenous education, training and development, psychology, counselling, welfare and community services, property management and corporate finance.

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FIAC actively seeks partnerships with all levels of Government, other Indigenous Corporations, business organisations and academic institutions to pursue common economic, social and cultural goals for Indigenous advancement, community development and sustainable environmental management of traditional lands. FIAC is strongly committed to charitable, environmental & philanthropic Indigenous causes