GUMALA IS 25 TODAY

Photo courtesy Gumala Aboriginal Corporation.

One of Australia’s largest Aboriginal corporations celebrates its 25th birthday today.

Gumala Aboriginal Corporation was created in 1996 to represent the collective interests of Banjima, Yinhawangka and Nyiyaparli Traditional Owners in WA’s Pilbara region following negotiations with Hamersley Iron.

GAC manages the General Gumala Foundation, a Charitable Trust which distributes compensation monies from the resulting land use agreement with Hammersly Iron, now owned by Rio Tinto.

GAC is a member-based organisation with more than 2,000 Members.

Banjima man and executive officer Justin Dhu said Gumala had achieved a lot for its members.

“Most recently, Gumala’s very proud of the fact that we’ve been able to house some 120 people within our membership throughout the Pilbara and also some who are in Perth for medical treatment,” he said. “That’s a big achievement. We’ve had to really be creative with how we get this program off the ground and quite flexible to meet members’ needs. It’s a growing area that started off in one string of the housing life cycle and we’ve now spread ourselves over five different areas.”