Who We Are
Ngara Healthcare is a First Nations healthcare company servicing both the domestic and international market. Co-founder of the company Eli Martin, a Wagadagam (Torres Strait) and Yuin (Aboriginal) man, named the company Ngara Healthcare as the idea of reflecting not only the heritage and rich culture of his people but also due to what the name represents with the idea of the organisation's approach to ensuring effective healthcare solutions is reflected in this name.
Ngara - To Listen. To Hear. To Think.
Ngara Healthcare is a reflection of the standard we aim to leave as an Indigenous healthcare provider and solutions focused entity. As a First Nations company we ensure that our imprint and impact not only ensures the best available codesigned product, but also that there is an ongoing social and community impact as well.
Ngara Healthcare also ensures that a percentage of all sales goes towards supporting First Nations people, causes, organisations or community. Through our work we seek to leave an ongoing impact on community health and associated outcomes.
Our Story:
The concept for Ngara Healthcare originated from a conversation between co-founders Eli Martin and Matt Craven. Mr Martin had spent the prior 15 years working in community development and impact within the Indigenous space with the common and continual thread of Indigenous life expectancy, health relating to diet, disease and mental health and wellbeing all critical issues which are perpetually in a detrimental cycle. Mr Craven who has done extensive work within the information technology space and worked alongside numerous health departments across the country remarked in conversation with Mr Martin about the health gap and how inefficiency within the systems themselves were a contributor to the failing health outcomes. The two then took this seemingly random conversation to two of their partners in Dr John Brooksbank and Mr Paul Fitzgerald. Dr Brooksbank, a PhD in governance and how local community and multinational organisations work with each other, and Mr Fitzgerald a business owner of BlueMountain Healthcare who has been working and developing systems based approaches for healthcare centres and organisations for decades. Both men now came into the fold and together the concept of building an entity which could not only address the alarming rates of health disparity within First Nations communities but also how to address systemic and structural failings within mainstream services as well came into being.Ngara Healthcare was developed as a mechanism from which the failings and gaps in service development, delivering and operation could be addressed. The concept was to ensure an organisation which could begin to look from a holistic lens the ways in which systemic and structural direction, development and impact could be addressed. The partnership of the individuals involved allowed for the pairing of unique and specialised skillsets all of which complement each other in the creation of an entity which can ensure the highest and most effective impact within the healthcare system.
Ngara Healthcare was created to not only change the system but to change the lives of those who suffer every day at the hands of preventable disease, illness and issues, ensuring that they have the greatest and best access to health, wellbeing and quality of life.
Ngara Healthcare was designed to create impact.
Eli Martin
Mr.Eli Martin is a proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island man of the Yuin and Wagadagam peoples. Professionally he is a skilled intelligence analyst, having
worked within Government on tactical to strategic level intelligence. Mr Martin is a highly skilled professional with extensive experience in data analytics, trend analysis, human terrain analysis, Indigenous capability development, and community initiatives. His unique blend of expertise allows him to provide
valuable insights and actionable intelligence to support sustainable
development initiatives across a range of commercial markets.By leveraging his knowledge in intelligence analysis and Indigenous development,
he has helped help organizations identify and mitigate risks, optimize decision-making processes, and ensure the effective delivery of essential
services and support.
Matthew Craven
Matthew’s experience is in both Corporate and HealthcareIndustry spanning over 25 years, including significant experience in Corporate
Management, Banking ICT, Healthcare ICT, and Government ICT. These roles have
covered advisor, implementations, sales, and consulting in a variety of roles,
including senior management positions.
Paul Fitzgerald
Paul’s experience in the Healthcare Industry spans over 30 years, and includes significant experience in Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices and Information Technology. These roles have covered sales, marketing and consulting in a variety of roles, including senior management and Board positions.
Dr. John (Lokes) Brooksbank PhD
Lokes is a research scholar in Asia Pacific Governance systems analysis and community development in mining and petroleum who has a keen interests in multiple fields such as stakeholder engagement, governance, community development and international engagement. He is currently working in research and development on the Great Barrier Reef and has attained a PhD at The Cairns Institute, James Cook University. Additionally, Lokes is a program director for a national indigenous students pathways initiative with The Streets Movement Organisation and part of the executive at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander International Engagement Organisation (ATSIIEO).
About the Ngara Healthcare Symbol
The Ngara Healthcare Symbol/Logo comes from the creation of co-founder Eli Martins brother, Jesse . As a Yuin and Wagadagam man, he has both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage. His father is from the LaPerouse Aboriginal Community in South Sydney and his mother is from the Senpol (St Pauls) community in the Torres Strait.
The symbol is both a take on his Aboriginal heritage paying homage to both the culture from which it was named whilst also adding a contemporary take on this imagery with the inclusion of the Rod of Aesculapius, the staff intertwined with snakes (a symbol utilised today by physicians and doctors around the world). The symbol is a link of both worlds and seeks to provide a different take combining both Indigenous and western perspectives in medicine, health and wellbeing. The reasoning for this is to both convey the artist's link to his culture, heritage, upbringing and blood but also to ensure that connection to Ngara Healthcare itself as a proud First Nations company.With Ngara, a word from the Yuin-Kuric language group, the artist felt that Aboriginal representation was essential in its display of the symbol.
The symbol is representative of Yuin heritage and a contemporary take on modern health symbolism.
Ngara. To Listen. To Hear. To Think. A sentiment more fundamental than ever in a world which is becoming increasingly closer but more disconnected.
Gold has been inlaid across the symbol as to demonstrate both the value of Aboriginal culture and to highlight the value in health.
