Nyungar Birdiyia is a cultural consultancy based in Perth with nation-wide reach. Formed by Neville Collard and Paul Carter in 2019, Nyungar Birdiyia is a wholly Aboriginal owned cultural and creative consultancy based in Perth, WA.
Nyungar Birdiyia embraces and advocates for the following values
Nyungar sovereignty in all matters relating to spiritual Country
Economic opportunity for Nyungar communities
Educational and professional opportunities for early career Noongars
Nyungar agency in policy relating to cultural and environmental maintenance of Nyungar values.
Our three-phase engagement model, Giving/Listening/ Returning, embodies Noongar protocols of respect, responsibility and renewal. The outcomes we recommend, the pathways to realising these and the character of the programs that result are all consistent with this ethic. We team up with leading non-Aboriginal cultural interpreters to produce outcomes directly relevant to local and regional planning, whole of community education and creative opportunity and the prosperous future of Aboriginal communities.
The success of our collaborative business model depends on the trust we enjoy across our communities. Neville is a proud descendant of master storyteller, William Thomas Bennell (Yelakitj), but has made it his goal throughout his long career of community service and story collection and telling to reach out through and beyond kinship networks to embrace the whole community.
Across 25 years of high-profile creative collaboration, with leading artists, designers and architects, Paul has also built up an unrivalled Australia-wide, multi-disciplinary community, whose values he proudly channels and advocates. For more information about his studio, Material Thinking, see MT_WB_Profile 2020. For more about our story, you can read ‘Gnarla Biddi breathes new life into business models’ at https://www.metronet.wa.gov.au/news-info/latest-news/gnarla-biddi-breathes-new-life-into-business-models.