Colleen Strangways

Colleen Strangways (Raven) is a proud South Australian Arabana and Northern Territory Mudbura Warlpiri woman, who grew up in Alice Springs and moved to Adelaide SA to be closer to family. Because of Colleen’s unique ability to capture award-winning photography via her Business Nharla Photography, she is being recognised on various national and international media platforms.

Colleen has spent many years working with more than 50 different communities in Australia and has been sourced by NITV and ABC networks to showcase her works. She is committed to showcasing her culture by telling stories through an Aboriginal lens and to pass on the photography skills and the knowledge she has learnt over the years to the next generation of emerging artists. Colleen has been awarded the 2018 NADIOC business of the year and was awarded the Gladis Eplick award in 2019 for her work. Colleen has produced and filmed short documentaries for her Arabana families in regards to language , a welcome to country video to be shown at Aboriginal athletics SA and a documentary for South Australian health organization Nunkuwarrin Yunti. VR film Arabana Songlines and the Stolen Documentary “Unbreakable” for Reconciliation SA.

Colleen has over 12,000 followers on social media alone. And is also now an Nikon Australia Ambassador. She is now also a business woman running her own printing service working for community and government alike to represent her community in both a humorous and serious way. Brought up in community and being well connected, Colleen is now using her creative flair to bring her art and others art into the print business to showcase to the world. Not bad for a single mother.

⇢⇢⇢ MEET THE MOB Meet the Mob is a YouTube series dedicated to showcasing Blak Excellence in Indigenous Business. Each interview is designed to provide an introduction to an Indigenous business leader, what drives them to succeed and how they're creating positive change for organisations and Indigenous communities. #meetthemob #indigenousbusiness #indigenousprocurement #supplierdiversity #BlakExcellence

ABOUT KRISTAL Kristal Kinsela is the supplier diversity expert who’s done it all before. A published author, trusted advisor to leading global organisations and descendant of both the Jawoyn and Wiradjuri nations, Kristal brings lived experience and over 18 years of business expertise to every partnership.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Like us Unite. Our voices.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Were respectfully acknowledge the Gadigal people of the eurination and
as the traditional custodians on the lands in which this
was created.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Hi, I'm Christal Kinsella. I'm a proud Jarwin and Bradrew
mt A supply diversity expert and published author. Welcome to
Meet the Mob, a series dedicated to showcasing Black excellence
in business. I get to interview deadly first Nation business
owners from around the country and learn about their wife.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
Today, I'm joined by Colleen Raven Strong Ways from Nullah Photography,
who will share with us for why why she got
into business and why she does what she does. So
to kick it off, who are you introduce yourself?

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Here's your mob, Hi Crystall. Yes, so my mob from
two areas. So my father and where I predominantly go
is ara Abada Country, which is where Lake Aires or
what we call Cutty Thunder. So that comprised Mari, William
Craig and bat Ear and all around those. And then
on my mother's side that's all mulberdo Gerinji Wholprix so

(01:09):
and I was born and raised in Alice Springs. Well yeah,
so because that's where we have a lot of family.
And that's where I suppose Dad traveled with the railways
up to Alice and that mum, and lucky for them,
they had us. So I'm one of three. So yeah,
I've got two brothers.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
Nice. Nice, nice. So tell us about your business.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
So I actually got a couple, but predominantly my business
is photography, which i'll call nulla photography. As you said. So,
I've been doing photography since twenty eleven, and I got
into it because I always loved it. But my boys,
there were babies, and and anyone who have gone into this,

(01:53):
you know, the supermarkets or the malls, you know, the
shopping centers would have seen those, you know, take the
baby portraits or the kid's portraits that have set up Pixie.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
I remember those.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Well.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I got mine done and under the guise of you
don't have to pay, you can have this little one
for free. But then they took you through the whole
Oh look yeah, and they dressed the boys up, they
you know, put them on little motorbikes. And it's like
when I got the package, they said, you can still
have that one little I think it was like three

(02:27):
centimeters by three set photo or you can get the
package for six hundred dollars and I went. So I
went into a payment plan and it was like, these
photos are nice, but they're not as good as what
I hope them to be. But they were my boys,
of course I want them, you know, And so I
decided to get into spy that way. I went onto

(02:52):
eBay looking for a camera. I had the point and shoots,
but that wasn't doing the same thing I wanted. So
I went onto eBay and I looked up the SLRs
and I bounder nick On. It was a eight. It
was a nick On. What was it again? I should
remember this, I'm sorry I can't, but it was an

(03:12):
old style one. Yeah, and I got and it was
for parts only because there was something wrong with the shutter.
So I bought it, thinking, oh, maybe I could fix
it up because it was quite cheap. Anyway, I got
it and there was nothing wrong with it. And yeah,
I know, right. So anyway, I started to taking, you know,
much of my boys pleasure. I was taking photos left,
right and center of them, and they hated it after

(03:32):
a while. And but that's how I learned so self
error practice. Yeah, so I'm self taught. So when the
boys were down or you know, when they were just playing,
I was on YouTube. I was teaching myself. I was
learning from trial and error and and I just started

(03:53):
to you know, venture out into doing more and more,
pushing the boundaries until I got to a certain standard.
And then I started getting some paid work, and which
leveled me up another level again.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Fantastic, I mean, because photography pictures are so powerful. They
are capturing a moment and a picture to me, you know,
says a thousand words in all of that. So talk
to us about some of the sorts of paid work
that you're doing now through your business, Like what sort
of events? What what are you like shooting?

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, well I do a lot of events here in
Adelaide and really being the only ambitional photography here. We
do have others, but I'm the one in this space
doing you know, the high end stuff. So I've just
took picture a portrait of the premieer.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
Oh wow, that was that was been a cool experience.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
It was deadly. I loved it. But all the you
know aunties behind me were like swooning over him, like no,
you know, but I was trying to be a professional,
like you. I stand here turning this away and put
the lights around and so that was good and just
taking you know, portraits of you know, like young mums

(05:09):
coming up, wanting to connect to their culture, being proud
of who they are, and wanting their first child to
be able to have this picture of them being pregnant
their cultural identity, you know. So that's really important to
them and it was really important for me to do
that for him as well. And so it's it's all
those sort of you know, portrait work that I love doing.

(05:32):
I love doing events too because I get to get
out and meet the mob.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
That's always fun.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
That's always fun, catching up with gossip, yes, taking people's photos, yeah, yeah,
And that's always good because it connects you to you know,
the community, and community gets to know you.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
It opens you up. It opens your personality up as well,
you know what I mean. So you can't be shy
in this field. No, you have to be be able
to get on with people and be able to get
into those areas that might be a little bit hard
to get into, you know. And I do that through
you know, being you know that humor that we have

(06:12):
as black people, you know, and sort of sort of
you know, rally them up a little bit, leasen them up,
you know how it is. But people know me now
and they just go crazy anyway for you to photos.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
So you said you've got a couple of other businesses
what else.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, So I do printing as well. So I've done
the shirt so so amazing and that's taken it away
from vinyl, so this is direct to garment printing, so
it goes straight into the fibers. So that's been good
doing other mobs, you know their clothing range or what

(06:51):
they what their graphics that they want on shirts or
stickers or dickals on. So I've been doing that because
photography can be up and down, so you need another
string coming into for those moments where it's down that
you can pick it back up and then the other
one is filming. So I do a lot of feeling myself.
So we've had Rabaz song lines which was done in VR,

(07:13):
which was really exciting. We went back on country, we
used the VR camera and we captured that in the
virtual reality space. Well yeah so and that was taken
and taken the film of our elders and that's a
really important time capsule. Now you know their stories but
also our stories on country, you know, because we have

(07:36):
a lot of mound springs and how important that is
to us and the water. So now that serves as
a time capsule, yes, and people can connect it connect
through that immersive feeling you know when they put the
goggles on, or even just seeing the films so powerful.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
It is culture. But with technology coming together and as
you say, being able to really capture those moments and
bring it in and that connection piece for young young
people using absolutely.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
The technology that we have now at our fingertets are
just incredible just being able to connect people. Like one
of the things that we found with the VR and
even augmented reality is the ability to have our elders
who are too sick to travel or are up in
say Darwin or Queensland, they can view it and they
can see the sunrise come up on their bodloo, you know,

(08:28):
their country and we've had our elders in tears because
of it, you know.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
But yeah, that inability to be able to travel, but
they can still have that presence through technology to be
able to feel that's absolutely and for kids to learn
as well, to sit down and be able to be
taught through the elders through.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
That medium as well. And as you know, kids are
technology savvy, yes, and so you know, I get my
thirty year old to help me with the computer all
the times that we'll trusted, they know, and so to
get them to learn in that space think brings about
a great awareness and also learning because it's fun for them.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
Definitely. So what does the future hold for you? Like,
what's the legacy that you're trying to create through your businesses?

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Just about the biggest thing is expression through storytelling, whether
it's through photography, filming or printing. Yes, it's all telling
others who we are and that we're still here. It's
telling a story. It's been able to demonstrate that we're

(09:36):
very proud, we're culturally strong, we're still here, yes, and
that you know, and we have a message to send
that you know, to the rest of the world that
you know, we ain't going anywhere. We're thriving and surviving. Definitely.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
Oh, that resonates so much from me because we are
innately storytellers. Through your three mediums, you're able to reach
out and reaching to the broader Australian community, which is
so powerful.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yeah, and bringing other people on board to which I
find incredible because here in Adelaide, We've got a ston
network of other creatives that I work with as well.
You know, so like Beck who you had on before,
you know, I worked with her before. Violet Buckskin who
does a lot of work in the art space that
I'm able to print for her. She's able to you know,

(10:27):
work with me about all the tax side and the
business side, which I hate.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
Over the fun stuff, is it because we want to
be in that creative space and connecting with people.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah. And then we've got Tamara who does her counseling business,
but she also does graphic art as well, and she's
really good at grounding people, you know. And then you've
got you know, mal Agus who also does her art.
And it's just a big community of us here that
just really you know, supports each other. And you know,

(11:01):
we've got black coffee that's on today. Actually I can't
go to that biak. Yeah. So you know, all that
aids in us going forward and sort of like filling
our cups with each other's, you know, you know, strengths
and you know what we can add as skills and
putting into the black economy y you know, I love that.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
Well, I've really enjoyed being on Ghana country and actually
seeing that, you know, the collaboration and the connections that
you will have and supporting each other, which is.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
Really quite powerful.

Speaker 4 (11:36):
So if you had a key message for my audience
today that you wanted to share with them, what would
it be.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
Invest invest in your local mob, because we have so
much skills in our community, even the young ones coming
up through high school, primary school, even you know, they're
amazing artists, entrepreneurs themselves. It's about investing in us, in
our community wherever you are, actually your community to enable

(12:07):
us to grow and become onto our own without you know,
needing any outside influencers basically. And you know, I've also
just wanted to mention Black Lens that I'm proudly part
of as well. We're a group of average or photographers
that are all over Astraia and also I would like

(12:28):
to say tap into them. You know, if you're in Queensland,
there's a black photographer near you. You know, West Australia
there's a black photographer over there. So look for black lens,
you know, but also just look to your local mob
for inspiration, growth and investment.

Speaker 4 (12:45):
Yeah great, Thank you so much, Collen coming onto my program.
Really enjoyed meeting you today.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
You too, Thanks Christal, thank you.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
So there you have it. I hope you've enjoyed the
latest episode of Meet the Mob and make sure you
connect with Colleen and share her story with your networks.
Until next time, thanks for listening to today's episode. If
you love it, please share it on your socials. With
your mob, let's help amplify as many Indigenous businesses as
possible and get everyone supporting each other.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Thank you.