Indigenous Concepts and Networking (ICaN) is a small business in Dubbo in regional NSW.
Wiradjuri brothers Rob and James Riley started ICaN to improve lives in one of Australia’s most populated Indigenous communities, a place that's home to 20 different nations.
James and Rob say they had no idea how to run a nursery business, and it took them eight months to build the former forestry nursery up alone.
“The business was solely tube stock for mainly farmers, government organisations and it just wasn’t a sustainable business,” says Rob.
James says the day they moved in, the nursery looked “terrible”.
“It was bare … it was an investment of our own money to just make it look like a nursery.”
But slowly, they grew by word of mouth to where they are today, holding more than 200,000 plants at any given time.
Changing their business model also helped ICaN grow and target a new audience, marking a turning point in the business.
It was their new targeted audience they’re focusing all their resources on, using profits from plant sales to fuel the reason why they started ICaN in the first place: helping Indigenous people in their hometown.
“We’re the fastest-growing part of the local population,” says Rob.
Participating in ICaN has been life-changing for Robert Ryan. Source: Supplied
“We’re also the youngest, the most unemployed and the most uneducated.”
The pair has connected with local groups including the Inland Waters Rejuvenation Association to deliver the best outcomes for their new target market.
Together with ICaN, the IWRA fisheries group has trained people who have planted about 7500 trees over 12km of Dubbo’s Macquarie River.
Robert Ryan is one of more than 300 people who have participated in ICaN’s programs so far.
As a single parent, he says gaining work at ICaN has completely changed his life.
“I came in, put my head down and had a go,” says Robert.
“Getting out planting trees, meeting people and then showing them that I’m good for working helped me get a job offer and now I’m pretty much laughing.”
And it’s not just adults who are benefitting from ICaN either.
School students such as Rome Tomey from the local primary school are being included in programs that encourage greater educational engagement.
"It teaches kids, some are troubled, some are not," Rome says.
Rome (third from left) and his peers are re-connecting with the land at ICaN. Source: Supplied
"We see what's happening on at home and obviously at school and it's just a good way to bring everyone together and calm everyone down and it's a fun job to do."
Rob says: “We learn differently. We didn’t have things written down in the past because we learnt through looking, listening and talking.”
“So we’re getting people out of their comfort zones and in the bush.”
Rome believes growing the nursery is a win-win that’s changing local outcomes and creating a greener future for his generation and those to follow.
“I want to show young kids how to plant, how not to plant, and what sort of plants are out there, such as things you can eat like what the elders use to do,” he says.
Rob says working with native plants restores a connection with the land and it’s a reward for him and James as business owners.
“We argue a lot because James and I come from two different spaces… It’s brotherly love, isn’t it? Isn’t that what brothers do?” he jokes.
James says, “But within those two views, we found that there’s a way of doing business that works.”
