Kurtarra & Country: Culture, Enterprise and Partnership | ANZ Partnership Series

This episode is proudly brought to you by ANZ. A new series of conversations with different mob around the country to yarn about, meaningful career opportunities within ANZ, building the capacity of Indigenous businesses and organisations, and helping individuals in the broader community to achieve financial wellbeing and resilience.

If you’d like to know more about how ANZ can help improve your financial wellbeing, or help you start, run or grow your business, visit anz.com or call 13 13 14.

In this episode of the ANZ Partnership Series, I sit down with Garry Jaffrey, Managing Director of Kurtarra Pty Ltd — a 100 % Indigenous, family-owned company from the Palkyu region of the Pilbara, Western Australia.

Garry shares his powerful journey from growing up on Country to leading one of Australia’s most respected Indigenous businesses, weaving culture, community and economic opportunity into everything he does. Together, we explore the meaning of leadership, resilience, and what it takes to build a business that stays true to Country and community while engaging in large-scale industry partnerships.

We also unpack the significance of supportive financial relationships like those with ANZ, and how access to purpose-driven investment and programs has helped Kurtarra scale its operations and deliver real opportunities for First Nations peoples.

This conversation is a celebration of Indigenous enterprise, cultural strength, and the kinds of partnerships that create lasting impact — proving that when culture and business walk hand-in-hand, everyone benefits.

Recommendations throughout this episode: 

Indigenous small business banking services:

https://www.anz.com.au/business/indigenous-banking/ 

https://dev.kurtarra.com.au/

Call ANZ’s dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customer support line on 1800 037 366 https://www.anz.com.au/support/contact-us/customer-support-line/ 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Opportunities https://www.anz.com.au/careers/programs/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-opportunities/ 

For general enquiries visit anz.com or call 13 13 14 

When we reference ANZ in this episode, we are referring to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group operating in Australia and New Zealand. 

Given the nature of this podcast, all comments are general in nature and do not take into account the listeners’ financial circumstances, goals or objectives. Please think about what is right for you and seek independent advice. 

Website: www.blackmagicwoman.com.au 

Follow us on Instagram - @blackmagicwomanpodcast 

The Black Magic Woman Podcast is hosted by Mundanara Bayles and is an uplifting conversational style program featuring mainly Aboriginal guests and explores issues of importance to Aboriginal people and communities. Mundanara is guided by Aboriginal Terms of Reference and focusses more on who people are rather than on what they do. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (23:29):
Speaker 1 (Acknowledgement of Country): BlackCast. Unite our voices. The Black Magic Woman Podcast acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which this episode was recorded. We also acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands where you, the listener, are tuning in from. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and acknowledge that this always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land. Speaker 2 (Sponsor): This episode is proudly brought to you by ANZ, a new series of conversations with mob around the country to yarn about meaningful career opportunities within ANZ, building the capacity of Indigenous businesses and organisations, and supporting individuals and communities to achieve financial wellbeing and resilience. Speaker 1 (Mundanara Bayles): Welcome to the Black Magic Woman Podcast. I’m Mundanara Bayles. I’m joining you today on the beautiful lands of the Kabi Kabi (Gubbi Gubbi) people here on the Sunshine Coast, and I’m bringing you one of the final episodes in our ANZ Partnership Series. This series has given me the privilege to yarn with First Nations people from across the country — both customers of ANZ and people working within the organisation — to talk about employment pathways, education, business opportunities, and ANZ’s ongoing commitment through its Reconciliation Action Plan. This yarn has been a long time in the making. I was really hoping to get over to Whadjuk Noongar Country in Perth to record this in person, which is always best, but today I’m on the east coast, yarning with brother Garry Jaffrey, who’s joining me from the west coast of Australia. Brother, I’ll hand it over to you to introduce yourself — who you are, your mob, and where you grew up. Speaker 3 (Garry Jaffrey): Thanks, Mundanara. My name’s Garry Jaffrey, and I’m the Managing Director of Kurtarra, which is a 100% Indigenous family-owned business. We work in partnership with other organisations across industry, which allows us to collaborate, build capability, and create pathways not just across Western Australia, but hopefully nationally and into the future. I’m a Pilbara man, born and raised. My wife is from the Kimberley — she’s a saltwater woman — and between us we’ve got family spread right across WA. Growing up in the Pilbara back then was very different. There was no mining industry like what you see today. Life was tough — travelling through Country, following old tracks, living off the land, hunting when we needed to. My mum is an Aboriginal woman, my father is a whitefella, so I grew up walking in both worlds. For the past 30 years or so, we’ve lived remotely, building an outstation around 150 kilometres out of town, near Beagle Bay in the Kimberley. Our outstation is called Bindeluk, and that’s where the vision for Kurtarra really began — trying to create opportunity, hope, and support not just for our family, but for the wider community and region. Starting out was incredibly hard. Hitchhiking to work, living on very little income, raising kids — it took 15 to 20 years of persistence to build the foundations. But here we are today, still learning, still growing, and still focused on creating safe, meaningful employment opportunities for our people. Speaker 1 (Mundanara): I’m keen to hear more about Kurtarra. The name means four brothers, right? Speaker 3 (Garry): That’s right. I’m the youngest of the brothers, and we’ve built Kurtarra together over time. The idea came from sitting out on the outstation and asking myself