KOORI GARDENING TEAM

The Koori Gardening team has been operating as an independent entity for more than a year now and has gone from strength to strength. The Koori Gardening Team, which began as a small pilot training scheme for six young Aboriginal people, was based at the Living Museum because it was thought the atmosphere with Aboriginal cultural activity going on could encourage the participants to succeed.

Three of the original six, Darren Braybon, Matthew Gristwood and Marty James are still with the Team.

Seven years later the miracle goes on. This year the Team turned over more than a million dollars in contracts and look like reaching a turnover of two million in the coming year. The team is listed in the forefront of Aboriginal Affairs Victoria's 'Victorian Indigenous Business Directory'.

The work of the team has shifted into large landscaping projects and major subdivisional landscapes have been completed at Greensborough, Werribee, Ringwood, Berwick and Narre Warren. Other works have been carried out at St. Patricks Cathedral and the City Link Grant Extension.

This is a fascinating story but the Team is working too hard to tell it. They seem to be all over Melbourne at the same time. However, it is time to look more into this project which has attracted interest from a wide range of people. The child has grown bigger than the parent. The Koori Garden Team has gone in quite a different direction than its parent ecomuseum yet it has sprung from an ecomuseum.

Mission Statement

'The Koori Gardening Team shall use its best endeavours to, through best practice, build a business enterprise providing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples economic independence and the opportunity to train and obtain recognised qualifications, and through this provide employment opportunities.'