In Episode 7 of Black Business with Dixie Crawford we meet Sam Alderton-Johnson. 

Sam grew up on Gadigal Country (Glebe) and now calls Bidjigal Country home (south Sydney). He is the Founder and Director of Impact Policy AU a social policy and communication and engagement service, embedding every project delivered in a critical First Nations lens.   

Sam graduated from The University of New South Wales with honours in Social Science, majoring in Criminology and completed a Masters of Teaching studies.

He spent ten years in the Not-for-Profit sector. Sam managed local and state-wide projects for NGO’s such as PCYC NSW where he received employee of the year and the Australian Red Cross where he led the NSW Pilot into Post Release Mentoring for men exiting prison. Sam then went on to lead the Dual Diagnosis team for a community not-for-profit in Waterloo, Sydney. He won an excellence in treatment award for programs and services for Aboriginal young people.

For over five years, Sam worked in senior management roles within the NSW Public Service, specifically Aboriginal Affairs NSW and the Department of Planning Industry and Environment. Sam coordinated Solution Brokerage, a whole of Government project for the then Secretary, Department of Planning, around implementing complex social policy projects in the regional NSW community of Bowraville, following the recommendations of the ‘Parliamentary Inquiry into the Family Response to the Bowraville Murders'.

Outside of Impact Policy, Sam is a father of five jarjums. He does his best to live the values he operates alongside—Access, Equity, Inclusion and Justice.

In this episode Sam yarns with Dixie about his university days, working life (and his observations in those spheres), what reconciliation means to him and how we must engage in agreement making with First Nations communities to deliver long-term and equitable change.

*this episode contains explicit language.

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Welcome to Episode 6 of Black Business with Dixie Crawford. In this episode Dixie introduces you to Rachelle Towart OAM, Managing Director of Pipeline Talent.

Rachelle is a Medal of the Order of Australia recipient, was named an Australian Financial Review Woman of Influence, and in 2020 was named Canberra’s Indigenous Business Woman of the Year.

Rachelle is a proud Wonnarua woman. She has elevated awareness and the importance of Indigenous leadership and governance capacity to the national stage, through her business Pipeline Talent.

In 2016, Rachelle formed Pipeline Talent to build support for emerging Indigenous leaders after recognising the need for an improved range of tailored support programs for Indigenous executives. She’d met with hundreds of employers who were looking for Indigenous managers and thousands of Indigenous leaders who wanted new career opportunities.

Pipeline brings the two together—providing Australia's leading corporations, not-for-profit organisations and government departments with the opportunity to consider highly qualified, Indigenous candidates for management and executive roles. Pipeline Talent is Australia's first Indigenous executive search company.

With Rachelle at its helm, Pipeline Talent has cemented itself as a highly regarded and respected Indigenous recruitment company. Rachelle’s vision for the company was, and still is, to be recognised nationally and internationally as a catalyst for unlocking the talent and career potential of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

In her chat with Dixie in this episode Rachelle speaks from the heart about the need for corporate Australia to learn, trust and collaborate with Indigenous Australians.

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In this episode of Black Business with Dixie Crawford, your host Dixie speaks with Marc Bennie, General Manager, Indigenous Programs and Community Investment at Accor Hotels.

Marc is a non-Indigenous Australian of Scottish and Slovakian decent. He grew up on Cammeraygal country and had a marketing and communications background before joining Accor’s Talent & Culture team to lead their Indigenous Programs. Marc believes that working in the tourism industry is as a great place to give people a start, be whom they are and thrive with the confidence that their story is important no matter what.

He’s driven by the opportunity to raise the visibility, connection to and positive experience of First Nations history and culture through Accor’s network of hotels in Australia.

Marc’s drive to immerse himself in First Nations culture and be more connected to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people came when he was working as a Bridge Climb Leader more than 20 years ago. He found that tourists who came to do a Sydney Harbour Bridge climb often knew more about his country and First Nations culture than he did.

After completing his uni degree, Marc applyied for around 30 jobs with no success and decided to pack up his car and travel across Australia, seeking opportunities to learn and experience more about First Nations culture. From this point on he made a personal commitment to be an active ally, advocating for diversity and inclusion and the need to recognise our original culture as part of our true Australian identity.

In this episode, Marc talks to Dixie about his journey personally and professionally, what he’s learned, how he continues to grow through the Atlantic Fellowship for Social Equity and how we all have the ability to do better when it comes to appropriate engagement with our First Nations communities. 

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