Native Secrets founder Cherie Thompson talks about her big plans for the future

"Being named as a finalist in the Telstra awards is truly remarkable and something we are very proud of," founder Cherie Thompson said.

"It is incredible recognition of who we are and what we stand for as an Indigenous business in a regional area. It is an opportunity for us to continue the conversation around reconciliation in this country that is based on foundational knowledge around native plants and bush medicines."

The Native Secrets Group manufactures and sells natural skin care products and essential oils. Proudly Indigenous owned and Supply Nation certified, they extract bioactive ingredients from wild-harvested Australian natives and transforms them into high quality natural skincare products.

After being nominated for the awards, Native Secrets decided to go through the nomination process as it gave them an opportunity to unlock new learnings and experiences to help them achieve their future business goals.

To be considered in the finalist program, Native Secrets has been generating a positive impact in three main areas: the environment, job creating and creating a culturally safe space for knowledge transfer and learning from one another.

"From an environmental perspective Native Secrets is combining scientific, traditional, and local knowledge and bringing Indigenous people together to create a holistic approach to biodiversity management and caring for the country," Ms Thompson said.

"The effective approach Native Secrets has toward biodiversity management has allowed for the discovery of environmental interventions, actions and minimising the impact of pressures."

Native Secrets has been successful in two rounds of the Regional Jobs Creation Fund awarded from the NSW Government. These grants will allow Native Secrets to create 30 full time jobs over the next three years. The local positions will range from general laborers to scientists to global sales people.

"This builds prosperity and carries important health benefits, both for individuals and entire communities," she said.

"From our experience and as research clearly shows higher income is consistently associated with better health, including a reduced overall risk of mortality and chronic diseases. Re-employment after a period of being out of a job has beneficial effects on physical health, psychological distress, and certain psychiatric conditions."

These jobs are located on country and allow Native Secrets to create culturally safe spaces for elders and youth to come together and share knowledge.

"Employees are supported on their journey and gain support from others experiencing similar challenges, while being in an environment that understands the obligations of culture, family, and community," she said.

Ms Thompson said Native Secrets aims to imbed educational programs and outreach opportunities that encourage youth to pursue university and higher education as an option and provide alternative entry pathways for others. There are many factors that make this impact significant and sustainable, she said.

"Firstly, what we are doing is innovative turning a native invasive species into commercially viable product that can be sold around the world is substantial. We are working with CSIRO and testing new technologies to become world leaders in native plant extraction," she said.

"Through the biodiversity management we are improving land capacity. Creating jobs allows for our people to make better choices, be healthy and create a space where First Nations People feel connected to country once again and ultimately have Indigenous and non-Indigenous people working together in harmony."

The model Native Secrets has created can be placed in any community across the country and grow the impact they have.

"We can build community capacity and potentially create innovation hubs where ancient knowledge is reinvigorated and we can test, trail and validate our anecdotal knowledge. This process builds viable sustainable businesses in other communities and builds secure supply chains across the country," she said.

"Native Secrets started to reignite old conversations and preserve generational knowledge and create culturally safe spaces for employment."

Ms Thompson explained that in addition to their product offering, they also have a service providing Indigenous cultural and education experiences. Currently, all final executive year MBA students from AGSM (University of NSW) undertake this program and as part of this they also introduce them to other local Indigenous businesses where they undertake high level projects to strengthen those businesses.

"Native Secrets takes pride in making our community a better place and spending quality time with community members and passing along knowledge to further build up the community. We aim to rehabilitate and reconcile the country," she said.

2022 has been a big year for Native Secrets as they continued to grow their business with a rebrand and a relaunched website and product range.

They were also featured on ABC's 'Moving to the Country' series in the first episode, received a Kick Start grant from CSIRO, spoke at numerous events, tested a new range of products, started a CSIRO partnership, researched the latest harvesting equipment, grew stockists, launched through Todd Creates with Woolworths Everyday Online and was accepted into Austrade's 'Going Global' Program - Vietnam.

In 2023, Ms Thompson has big plans, starting with attending the NSW Telstra Business Awards Gala dinner before going on to create a minimum of 10 jobs. They will be scaling operations before launching an "exciting new range".

They will attend international tradeshows, export products and expand their research of native plants with CSIRO.

When asked what Ms Thompson hopes for the future of her business, she couldn't narrow it down to one thing. In fact, the business woman had seven.

Here is the list she gave the Daily Liberal:

Ms Thompson wanted to encourage anyone that was looking for work in 2023 to send their resumes to sales@nativesecrets.com.au.

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