In March, 2022, Mantingunya Arts & Culture Centre begun a social enterprise idea in order to become a wake supplier. This consists of bulk blankets and flowers in which we would not only supply, but also deliver the wake items to the funeral.
Over the last 6 months since our initiative begun, we have supplied over 10 funerals and reburials this far. Supplied and delivered to various towns and remote aboriginal communities around the Pilbara, WA. These places are Port Hedland, Newman, Nullagine, Jigalong, and Punmu. On one load, Lloyd even had enough time to go hunting with the boys while taking blankets to Punmu.
We love this initiative for 2 reasons, keeping money in the communities and providing casual employment to small indigenous business owners. When blankets are purchased from Mantingunya Association, the money continues to go directly into Art Centre Renovations, community events, wake restock, painting equipment and supplies.
As for our second reason, providing casual employment. It seems like a genius idea how we supply and deliver. What we’ve done is casually employed local indigenous small business owners to pick up stock and deliver to the funerals and reburials. Blackfullas always attend funerals in the region to pay their respects, so why not get paid while you go to a funeral right?.