Following its ongoing community contributions after the 2022 flood, the Koori Mail has its sights set on new ways to both grow as an organisation and unite and support the community of Lismore.

The Lismore App spoke to Naomi Moran, CEO of Koori Mail. 

"As CEO, my job is always to work out how a loss can be a gain. How can we take everything that was so positive and uplifting and needed at that time (of the flood) and carry that energy and really embed that in the future of the Koori Mail, but also in the future of this building?"

Following this question, a vision was born to turn the first floor of the Koori Mail building into a community space that acts as a not-for-profit. The Koori Mail newspaper will remain a Proprietary Limited business, self-funded and independent, on the top level, and the downstairs level will become a space that will serve the community of Lismore.

The Koori Mail is working with an indigenous consultancy group to support them in building their business plan and strategy around this new entity and space.

This new enterprise will create job opportunities for the local community as staff will be employed to run the downstairs component of what the Koori Mail will facilitate in the space. But the area will also be available for other people in the community to hire and run their activities in.

"We've already had a lot of interest from various groups that want to do things like yarning sessions, forums centred around mental health or emotional well-being, youth programs, art and culture. It's a space that has endless possibilities."

"It is a culturally safe space. This means it is available for non-Indigenous people to feel culturally safe around our Aboriginal community. So to have non-Indigenous organisations (whether it's our local banks or health services or corporates etc.) use this space if their target audiences are engaging with indigenous communities.

We want people to come to the black heart, hopefully, to really strengthen those connections between our Bundjalung and our non-Indigenous communities and to make sure that we continue to create this amazing ecosystem of indigenous run and lead programs and initiatives."

Youth programs are another potential use for the space.

"We have to put the community at the forefront and understand what their needs are. The other day, I spoke to some young people, and they said, "We just want activities to do". So it could be that this turns into an after-school program, you know, once a week just to retain these at risk youth for a couple of hours in a safe space. And what that does is reduces the risk of crime or dysfunctional social behaviours in our community."

The pillars of strength that the Koori Mail is founded on are: knowledge, culture, country and connection, and these are the core values all future endeavours will be oriented around.

"They're really simple words but have great meaning behind it when you start peeling back the layers of each of those words and what that means in the cultural context."

"I think by presenting a building, presenting a new entity to the community, that really does acknowledge the empowerment of Indigenous leadership, Indigenous-led initiatives, Indigenous-led business practices. It means that we're supporting our community's emotional and mental well-being, and we're supporting our young people to be proud in who they are and make sure that they have access to resources that make them feel like they can be anything else except for the statistics that the settlers determined for us over 235 years ago."

In addition to this new initiative with the building, the Koori Mail Newspaper continues to evolve and grow. It is about to launch a corporate subscription program which has been well received. Big corporates nationwide can purchase up to 500 logins to the digital editions for their staff to support them in connecting to indigenous stories and culture.

"We have been able to overcome so many challenges throughout the history of the Koori Mail, but by far the worst was the impact of the floods. You know, we survived the period of time when print newspapers were folding and non-existent.

"We're still printing as a print newspaper. We survived two floods in 2022. The first one wiped out everything - 30 years of print newspaper archives gone. But 18 months later, we're about to create a really special part of the Koori Mails history and legacy by adding an additional, core part of what this Aboriginal-led organisation can be."

"We're a national newspaper, so to have that kind of status but be proudly based here in Widjabul Wia-bal country, the Bundjalung nation, is pretty special. The success of the Koori Mail for so long as an Aboriginal business is quite a remarkable thing. Our intent is that with the next chapters and vision of the Koori Mail, and how we can support the community through other initiatives and projects, we can sustain another 30 years of operations in this region."

The vision and planning behind the new community space has been a collaborative journey, with input from all Koori Mail staff and volunteers. The new name for the space (which can't be revealed yet) is an Indigenous Language name that speaks to traditional ways of being with each other, and it is a suggestion that came from a key volunteer.

"You know, it's not a dictatorship here. It's very much centred around our traditional ways of learning, understanding and creating ideas. We all see each other as equals in our leadership. No one's better than the other or greater than the other. When someone's got an idea, we listen."

The aim is to launch the new entity in December, in line with the consultancy group's schedule.

"Hopefully, before our last paper for the year, we're going have a little party downstairs and invite everybody to come in here!"