What We Offer

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Have your event or conference openly respect the spirit of Gadigal country correctly and meaningfully with an elder both living here and using Gadigal philosophy and language.

Hugely popular with locals and tourists, Uncle Mark Merriman makes the spirits new with his Koori Canoe. Available for 1-6 people and for 2hr/half/full day. We also organise larger tours and whale watching on tall ships or old harbour ferries.

Sydney Harbour Elder's student engagement delights both non-Indigenous and Indigenous school kids with dance, tool and spear-making (and optional throwing!) workshops. Coming soon well will be offering traditional canoe making also.

Matt Poll has worked in Museums and Art Galleries for a nearly 20 years, for the past 7 years Matt has worked as the Assistant Curator of the Macleay Museum Indigenous Heritage Collections as well as being the University of Sydney Repatriation Project Officer. 

Matt has previously worked as the Artistic Director of Boomalli Aboriginal artists cooperative as well as other positions at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Wollongong City Gallery. Matt has also worked as the University of Sydney Repatriation project officer since 2009. Matts current masters by research project seeks to further develop methods of understanding the ways contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island artists have used Museum collections, historic records and archival materials in the reconstruction of cultural identities, exploring how visual artists, in particular, have developed auto-ethnographic methods of engaging with historical information outside of academic frameworks. https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-poll-57790094/

Mike Butler has been connecting with indigenous communities for nearly 25 years in places including PNG, NZ and Vanuatu as well as Australian ATSI groups. He is a legal and communications professional with an engineering background and came to Sydney Harbour from Queensland when he was 7. His Aboriginal blood is on his mother's mother's side from Central Queensland.

Mike has recently completed the highly regarded Juris Doctor of Law at the University of Sydney. Since then he has worked alongside Aboriginal businesses and groups in the NT, Qld and NSW in development, land and compensation claims as well governance, commercial legals and management. He is a trained and accredited mediator and is a known facilitator in his communities. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-butler-9443244/

Sydney Harbour Elder is being increasingly being engaged to facilitate Indigenous projects and research or to conduct cultural competence training. 

The University of Sydney, UTS, the NSW Director of Public Prosecution, Parramatta Gaol redevelopment and $1b Westmead hospital redevelopment have all recently employed us for our local knowledge, our learned skills and ideas as well as a reliable pathway for connecting with the best Indigenous people or knowledge available.