Tasmanian tour guide company wukalina Walk has taken out gold at the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards.
Selected ahead of five finalists, the Aboriginal-owned and operated tourism venture received gold in the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Tourism category, reports nit.com.au
Established in 2018, wukalina Walk offers four-day Aboriginal guided experiences on the traditional homelands of wukalina (Mt William National Park) and Larapuna (Bay of Fires) in north-east Tasmania.
In addition to guiding visitors around Tasmania's northwest, wukalina Walk provides the opportunity for community members, especially young Aboriginal people to connect with culture on Country, increase knowledge and share aspects of culture with the broader community.
In receiving the award, proud Trawlwoolway and Plangermaireener man Jamie Graham-Blair said wukalina Walk's work is 'deeper than tourism'.
"Our work spans back through at least eight generations of genocide survival and thousand of generations into our deep, black Tasmanian Aboriginal history," Mr Graham-Blair said.
"At wukalina Walk, we stand on the shoulders of giants, the cultural knowledge and Aboriginal history of the north-east Tasmania or Lutruwita as we call it, which we share with hundreds of guests over the year, only survived due to the fierce strength and resistance of our Elders, particularly our grandmother."
"We thank our old fullas for not just surviving but for thriving and for passing us our culture when we've earned it."
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