Innovative business linking families
Business is more than a way of making a living for Deanna Roberts.
She has launched an innovative company in Darwin called Deanna’s Family Researching and Linking Families.
The company offers family history research for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal clients who want to know their heritage but are unable to research it themselves.
Some of the research is for people who are part of the Stolen Generations.
“We will try to find their families to reunite them and link families together again.”
Deanna’s mother and father were both taken away from their mothers in Tennant Creek and Central Australia.
They were removed to the Bungalow children’s home in Alice Springs and then sent to Croker Island off Arnhem Land.
The company got off the ground with support from the Territory Government’s Aboriginal Business Development Program.
She used some of the grant to create a website.
“I started this as a labour of love and my son suggested I ask for help,” Deanna says. “The government help was very useful to me.”
Her company draws up family trees, helps with DNA tests for paternity, maternity and ancestry; finds missing relatives; and helps with birth, death and marriage certificates.
The business has also started making identity cards for Aboriginal people to identify their clan groups and immediate family members.
“It’s a way of identifying them to other Aboriginal people and it’s a way to be proud of their heritage, their clan and familial groups.”
The Aboriginal Business Development Program helps Aboriginal people interested in starting or expanding a business in the Northern Territory.
Support is available for:
- business growth and sustainability
- creating new enterprises
- increasing the number of Aboriginal-owned and Aboriginal-operated businesses
- increasing knowledge and developing new skills
- creating new employment.
For further information contact our small business champions team on 1800 193 111 or email businessinfo@nt.gov.au.
