“For me it’s about giving opportunity where no one else would have. The same principle as what happened to me with Tribal Warrior and the Never Going Back Program, I want to give that opportunity to people.”
– Nathan Martin CEO, Founder
The one stop shop for helping anybody along their journey, Yalagan Group is an Indigenous-owned business dedicated to delivering Indigenous-orientated, value-adding and innovative solutions.
Founded by Yuin man, Nathan Martin, who grew up on Wreck Bay mission.
“I moved out of home when I was 15 and I moved to Sydney with my grandmother, I never looked back from there,” Nathan said.
“I finished off my schooling, I did my HSC … I then went off to work”. I worked for probably nine years in the construction space, and then I got up to a bit of mischief which got me locked up for four years. I had about two and a half years parole on top of that as well.
“That took me away from my family for almost four years … whilst I was there, I decided that wasn’t where I wanted to be with my life, this is not what I want to do. I wanted to change it, and the idea I had was to start Yalagan, to work with Indigenous people in the construction space.”
At its heart, Yalagan focuses on empowering Indigenous people. It’s about bringing jobs to the community, about giving people an opportunity [they] would never get anywhere else. That is the whole reason I started Yalagan
The first person we put into work had done 15 years in jail. That was our first recruit, he now owns his own business in the construction space. That is always in the back of my mind and is kind of the whole reason I do what I do, the reason I built Yalagan Group.
