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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