Nairm Marr Djambana – a place to come together

Nairm Marr Djambana has played an important role for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Frankston since it opened as a culturally safe gathering place in 2016. General manager Deb Mellett is proud to be taking the organisation from strength to strength. “We have a fast-growing population of people in Frankston who identify as Aboriginal,” Deb says. “Nairm plays a critical role in Aboriginal people having a place of belonging.”

Deb is a Gurindji woman from the Northern Territory who grew up on Larrakeyah land (Darwin). She moved to the Mornington Peninsula more than 25 years ago, embodying the cultural knowledge and cultural protocol taught to her by her grandmother. Deb played a key role in establishing Willum Warrain in Hastings and brought this expertise to Nairm Marr Djambana when she joined the organisation as chair in 2018 before taking on the role of general manager last June.

Nairm Marr Djambana offers a wide range of culturally strengthening programs and activities to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including a women’s group, a men’s group, cooking classes, a playgroup, and a youth group. Its community garden project sees people come together to learn to cultivate and grow bush tucker and bush medicine.

Non-Indigenous people are welcome to join the community lunches held on the first Thursday of each month. The lunch is catered by Nairm’s head chef, Thomas Mackie, and bush tucker and Peninsula ingredients are used where possible. “We’ve invested in having a chef so we can offer catering for events and local businesses,” Deb says. “We’re building our social enterprise because we want to be self-determining, have our own income and not rely on government support.

“We collaborate with other Aboriginal community-controlled organisations on the Mornington Peninsula so that we’re all supporting each other. If we can utilise Living Culture or support Baluk Arts, we will. There’s no competing but working with that’s really important to us.”

If you’d like to support Nairm Marr Djambana’s social enterprise, head to www.djambana.org.au and take a look at the catering page. There are also meeting rooms available for hire, and catering can be booked for your meeting.