Milingimbi business building remote community economy

A new Milingimbi furniture-making venture is helping to keep jobs and profits in the remote Arnhem Land community.

Makyu is a small enterprise set up by Community Development Programme (CDP) provider Arnhem Land Progress Association Aboriginal Corporation (ALPA), in partnership with commercial fit-out company Ramvec and the Swineburne University of Technology.

Milingimbi CDP participants receive nationally recognised training through Swinburne as they learn how to manufacture furniture in the Makyu workshop. The completed products are then sold locally in the community through ALPA’s Milingimbi Store.

Makyu supervisor, Robert Yurrkuwuy Baker, said the arrangement was not only providing job opportunities for the CDP participants, but providing economic benefits to the broader community as well.

“The money stays in the community, because the guys are working and making the designs and selling it to ALPA at a cheaper cost than furniture imported to the community,” he said.

Making items based on community need is an important focus for the venture. Bed frames, for example, are bring made so that people don’t have to sleep on mattresses on the floor, which Robert said will have increasing health benefits.

“There are a number of skin diseases forming such as scabies, and it’s not healthy for old people to get up from the floor or pregnant women,” he said.

Mayku also produces cupboards, wardrobes, picnic tables and chairs, side tables and coffins for the Milingimbi community.

There are plans to expand the enterprise to provide furniture for other communities in the Arnhem Land region, as well as produce a separate line of high-end products designed for sale in major cities around Australia.