The entrepreneur behind Chocolate on Purpose turned her experience with post-traumatic stress disorder into a social enterprise that aims to heal and educate.
After living with PTSD from an armed hold-up, Wiradyuri woman Fiona Harrison found essential oils helped her manage anxiety.
And when she did a chocolate-making course, Ms Harrison decided to combine medicinal wisdom from this continent with the superpower of chocolate.
“I wanted to lead people to connect with culture again through the healing power of botanicals," Ms Harrison said.
"Chocolate became the vehicle that I’ve envisioned would deliver impacts beyond myself and the business - that’s why it’s called Chocolate on Purpose.”
Ms Harrison hand makes unique products by blending native ingredients with different types of chocolate in the NSW city of Orange.
The Chocolate on Purpose range includes vegan chocolate with guwandang (quandong), white chocolate with Illawarra plum, and ruby chocolate with native raspberry (gamalang).
"Chocolate, like wine, has different notes," Ms Harrison said.
"For example the ruby chocolate I make has notes of berry.
"Then I look at the fruit and work out what would be a complementary pairing."
She is also one of the entrepreneurs participating in the social enterprise scholarship Activate, run by the University of Wollongong’s business incubator, iAccelerate.
Indigenous Business Month, celebrated in October, aims to shine a spotlight on the achievements and contributions of Indigenous entrepreneurs, as well as celebrate their resilience, commitment to Indigenous culture and land, and passion for driving positive change in their communities.
Chocolate on Purpose has an Indigenous-led supply chain and is part of the First Nations Bushfood and Botanical Alliance Australia.
It sources cocoa from members of the Cocoa Horizons Foundation, a non-profit focused on farmer prosperity and self-sustaining communities.
And Chocolate on Purpose also offsets its carbon footprint through the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation.
Ms Harrison said her next step is looking for investment so she can grow her business from a one-woman enterprise, create more chocolate and start employing people.
"Less than two per cent of lead ownership of the Australian native botanical supply chain is Indigenous, despite it being built on the back of our cultural and intellectual property," Ms Harrison said.
"And less than half of that are women, yet traditionally we were the holders of the plant lore and so what I would like to do is employ older Indigenous women to help re-establish leadership in that space.
"But also because women over 50 are the fastest growing group of homeless in Australia."
Indigenous business owner Raymond Timbery is also learning more about being an entrepreneur through the iAccelerate Activate program.
Mr Timbery, a proud Bidjigal Dharrawal and Monero Jaitmatang man, founded Gadhungal Marring (which means Saltwater People), which focuses on developing cultural knowledge in schools in the NSW south coast.
“It’s my third attempt at running a cultural business like this," he said.
"The first two times, I failed while learning firsthand how entrepreneurship should and shouldn’t work.
"When I signed up for iAccelerate and was awarded a social enterprise scholarship, my company was already in good shape.
"Still, I got a confirmation that now, I’m doing it right, I also learned terminology and expanded my knowledge, for which I am grateful.”
The University of Wollongong business incubator runs several programs for Indigenous-led social enterprises, regional businesses, as well as female founders and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The next First Nations workshop will be held in Byron Bay on November 7.
