Connecting cultures with Rebecca Wessels

Rebecca Wessels (nee Harvey) is the founder and CEO of Ochre Dawn Creative Industries. A descendent of the Stolen Generations from Ngarrindjeri and Peramangk peoples, as well as the City of Salisbury founder, John Harvey, Rebecca is passionate about South Australia, First Nations’ community, storytelling and creative business practices.

With years of experience in community services and youth work, combined with skills obtained from over a decade working in corporate IT, Rebecca proudly provides a unique and professional service to her varied clients. One of the guiding drivers of Rebecca’s work with Ochre Dawn is to support Aboriginal and multicultural artists. She does this by securing sustainable income and furthering their careers through opportunities to showcase and commercialise authentic First Nations artwork. Now in its 15th year of operation, Ochre Dawn is committed to supporting local South Australian and Australian businesses.

By working collaboratively with local small businesses, Aboriginal businesses, government and large corporate organisations, Rebecca expresses her creativity by finding more authentic ways to appeal to a wide audience. She assists her clients to think more strategically and adopt corporate strategies to ensure they remain competitive, inclusive and sustainable.

⇢⇢⇢ 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.

CONNECT WITH KRISTAL Website: https://www.kristalkinsela.com/ LinkedIn:   / kristalkinsela   Facebook:   / kristalekinsela   Twitter: .css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Like us nine, our voices were respectfully acknowledged.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
The Gatiger people love the eurination and as the traditional
custodians on the lands in which that was created.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Hi, I'm Krystial Kinsella. I'm a proud Jarwin and Bradrew woman,
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. Today, I'm
joined by Rebecca Wessel's of Oka Dawn, who will share

(00:38):
with us her wife, why she got into business and
why she does what she does.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
So hey, beg hey, my fellow Leo sister. I've been
dying to get you.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
On my show.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
I've been dying to be honest, it's such a cool show.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Well, I've known you for some time.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
But how about you tell my audience who you are,
where you come from.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Here's your mob.

Speaker 4 (00:59):
Yes, sure, so I am knows you knows Bex more
than Rebecca Wessel's. That's a bit formal. It sounds like
I'm in trouble or something. My mom paramunk Nne Jetty
and really proud to represent culture and the work that
I do every day. I'm a mum and wife. We've
got a beautiful daughter's about turn ten and step son,

(01:22):
so yeah, and obviously run a business as well.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
So tell us all about Oka Dawn and what's really
motivated you.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
You know, what's the why that sits behind that?

Speaker 4 (01:31):
Yeah, So I guess for me, it struck me a
bit last year actually what my wife might be. And
when my daughter and I were chatting about a day
and somehow we're talking about some kids in class and
I was asking about someone's surname and she wasn't sure
and I was like, well, don't you know it from
roll call in the morning? And she's like, oh no, Mum.
When we do role call, we just say Nina Marney

(01:53):
John and then John says Marni I and you know
she and I'm like, well wait, wait, wait are you
saying that you do role call in Ghana which is
the traditional.

Speaker 5 (02:02):
Here in Adelaide And and she's like, yeah, Mum, that's
just normal I And it struck me and I was like, oh, darling,
I'm so happy that you think that's normal, because when
mummy was your age, it wasn't normal.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
And yeah, exactly. And also because you know her and
I and my mother and my sister and the other
extended family are really trying to reconnect with culture in
these past few decades because you know, my mum's a
survivor of the Soulen generations and so we didn't we
didn't grow up being connected to mob And so you know,

(02:39):
now to hear my daughter saying that, you know, speaking
language in school in a public school is normal, and
being able to see artwork and language and expressions of
culture just in daily life when you know, just a
little while ago, because you know, we're not that old

(03:00):
that it wasn't so normal. And so I just really
have hope for the future that the work that I
can be a small part of in my business, it
can contribute to that in some way.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, that's so, that's so powerful, right, my goodness. And
like I've had a similar experience with my little guy Cohen.
You know, they just got him to help write a
new acknowledgment of country at his daycare, that's day care.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
So it's great.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
No, you definitely do contribute in lots of ways.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
So let's let's unpack, Okador, Like, what.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Do you do you know, where are you doing it?
All of those sorts of things. Sure, so it's coming
up to our seventeenth birthday. It's been a bit of a.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Journey, but it's it's been a great journey. Initially, for
the first seven years was a side hustle business, you know,
one of those when I was in it, and then
then I had a complete career change into youth work
and had been running this little business on this side.

(04:04):
It was always my dream to have my own business,
and my dad's entrepreneurial and have you know. I was
working for the family business as a child, you know,
as we do, and so for me, you know, that
was a dream. And then when Missa Maya was coming along,
you know, I said to my husband, Hey, instead of
maternity leave, can we think about me taking this business

(04:25):
full time because it's not so little anymore. It's a
little side hustle, it's growing, and sankeefully he was really
supportive and and so then it became a full time
gig and we're now, we've grown, We've got a great
team and here in Adelaide, and but we work all
across different corners of the country, all different industries as well.

(04:46):
Essentially you know, branding and marketing services, everything from corporate
apperil and promotional products, corporate gifts to now office furniture
and flooring and office fit outs, which is so so exciting.
So anyway that that company or organization wants to celebrate

(05:06):
their brand and their story in a visual way, seeing
that come to life, whether it's something you wear or
something you're sitting on. And we also do a lot
of wrap surfaces as well, so reconciliation action plans, which
is a growing movement in the country too, and seeing
really acting as a safe space for clients to come

(05:26):
to when either they have no idea what a RAP
is and how to go about one, or maybe they're
on their third or fourth but it's gone a little
bit off the rails. I'm sure you've got a couple
of customers like that too, and it's just they've had
lots of change and they don't know maybe how to
bring things back a line or get back on track,
and so offering that safe space for them to come

(05:48):
and say can you help us out. We have a
really big passion at Okadorn to connect with other mob
as well and their businesses. So if it's something that
it's not our bread and butter that we love to
connect and refer people to other folks like yourself and
other consultants or supply chain you know, partners as well,

(06:10):
which thing is really important because procurement, as you know,
is something that people often find challenging, so we don't
sometimes we can be seen as a one stop shop,
but we'd rather introduce other partners so that you know,
organizations can have relationships with more than one business.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Definitely, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
So in addition to that, you have done some advocacy
work that has I've seen a lot of through LinkedIn
and other mechanisms, you know, around the rights of artists
and protecting artists rights.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Do you want to speak into some of that.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
Absolutely, That's how specialty is. I guess working with First
Nations artists on commercial projects. So it could be like
a reconciliation action plan, it could be on products and
you know, anything from our lanyard to as I said,
office fit outs or something. And because what I found
with the opportunity to work with First Nations artists, particularly

(07:04):
in our industry, is that First Nations artwork always tells
a story, and when you work in marketing, it's about
storytelling for business, right, So what a beautiful way to
tell the story of that organization's commitment to reconciliation or
other messaging for different marketing campaigns they might be doing
on aboriginal health or something like that, and wanting to

(07:24):
connect with their audience in a way that's beyond words
and so on the one hand, for the clients to
be able to do that is really impactful and special
for them, And we could see that a lot of
organizations were not quite sure how to go about connecting
with artists. They were really afraid of doing the wrong thing,
or you know, they wanted to ensure ethical engagement and

(07:46):
they're paid properly and everything, which is great to hear,
so we wanted to help them in that process logistically.
But then also we were seeing a lot of artists
really wanting to get into this space but not quite
sure how to value their work or what to do
about licensing and royalties. And obviously working on commercial projects

(08:07):
can be really challenging sometimes, you know, when there's budgets
and timelines and all of those different things. So what
I love is as well, we offer not just those
commercial projects, but a retail avenue for royalties as well
if for an artist, you know, not everyone likes to
work to a brief or to timeline and things, or

(08:28):
it might just for their season of life not work here.
So instead, you know, if they've got an opportunity to
make money from their art through producing clothing or accessories
or furniture or something like that, then those royalties can
be life changing. Like you know, they're struggling artists suddenly
dissipates because they're getting an ongoing income which sometimes is

(08:51):
a little bit of money and sometimes can be quite significant.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, so you've got like a real intermediary in that
sense and protecting those artists rights but also helping them
to have a platform to have ongoing Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
Absolutely, yeah, because it's still so I mean just you
see it all the time where people are not doing
the right thing, you know, by artists, and that's really
disappointing to see. You know, people buy a canvas and
they suddenly think that they've got the right to go
and make te shirts from that kind I said, profit
from that artwork, and you know, sometimes it's ignorance and

(09:24):
sometimes it's not greedy.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yes, definitely, Yes, So seventeen years in business. My goodness,
I didn't know that, So you just I'm learning something there.
So what's the future hold then, what's the legacy piece
for you?

Speaker 4 (09:39):
Yes? I think think about that a lot. You know,
we so many of the people that you love connecting with,
they're all about impact and so we you know, in
lots of different ways.

Speaker 5 (09:51):
You know.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
I think if coming back to that, you know, normalizing
culture and everyday society, like, that's what I love. I
would love to see that we can as an all
organization have impact on the preservation and celebration of language
and culture and bring it into the every day you know.

(10:12):
You know, we work with sometimes supermarkets or hospitals or things,
and seeing you know, the oldest living culture on the
on the seeing the oldest living culture on the planet
not just be acknowledged but revealed, like really respected in

(10:32):
a way that's and celebrated in a way that's long
lasting for generations to come.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
You can probably see some books coming out just thinking
about that for you as another mechanism to cultivate.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
I need some hot tips from you on a book writing.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
I'm not I'm not a writer, but yeah, it's time
to get that.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
One book out So look, if you had, if you
had a key message to share with my audience, you
know what they need to do next or how they
can help not just your journey your business, but other
First Nations businesses.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
I think the key something I always preach on about
is relationships, right like, because it's super impactful to a
business to receive a purchase order, but it's even better
when you've got a relationship with that business, so that
therefore there's an ongoing commitment to one another, that there's

(11:33):
a two way conversation around some of the challenging things
in the industries that we work in, and just being
able to have a coup and the arm with somebody
and saying, hey, how can we work better? This project's
a bit challenging. How can we do better? What even
more opportunities so we don't just tick a box. And
having relationships with elders and community members and business owners

(11:58):
and the like. Those relationships are key to moving the
needle forward in more impactful ways. Keep purchasers coming. Yeah,
but have a kapa as well, you know, I think
that's really important.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
We don't want transactional stuff.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
We want to be deeply embedded and the.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Best way to have indigenous business deeply embedded is through
building a relationship to the Yeah yeah, well, thanks so
much for coming and having a yarn with me today.
It's been amazing.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
Yes, I always happy to be with you.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
So there you have it.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
I hope you've enjoyed the latest episode of Meet Them well,
but make sure you connect with Beck online share her
story with your networks.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Until next time.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
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 (12:51):
Thank you.