Living the dreamtime

Name: Gayle Heron

Business: Li’TYA

Industry: Skincare

IP smart since: June 2003

Embracing indigenous healing therapies has created a thriving business for Melbourne entrepreneur Gayle Heron – and a deep sense of responsibility to protect Aboriginal cultural traditions.

Selling skincare and health treatments that draw from ancient Aboriginal traditions is both a privilege and a burden for Gayle Heron. The founder of Li’TYA, a leader in the luxury spa market, Heron says protecting protocols around Aboriginal healing philosophies can be challenging.

“With a lot of the healing it’s really a trust element where you share this knowledge and you expect it to be treated with respect,” she says. “It’s quite a difficult concept to own, but trade secrets and confidentiality agreements can be useful when using convention IP regimes aren’t appropriate.”

Li’TYA, an Aboriginal name meaning ‘of the earth’, is booming on the back of its skincare and spa product lines. Using ingredients such as guangdong, lillypilly and wild rosella flowers, the Melbourne-based company is using the natural healing properties of native plants to pamper people.

Set up in 1997, Li’TYA now boasts 14 staff and has spa agreements with 71 outlets around the world. A new distribution deal in Britain signals the start of an exciting new phase of the business. Heron explains: “We’ve been very reactive in our growth (previously), but now we are actively starting to put in place some distribution agreements overseas.”

In the blood

Growing up, Heron had early exposure to the skincare industry courtesy of her father, an industrial chemist who formulated products for major skincare companies. Later, while working as a photography teacher, she expressed an interest in using Australian native plants to develop skincare products. Heron’s father agreed to help – on the proviso that she did the onerous research.

What followed was a decade of work to create a skincare range under the retail label of Baiame, an Aboriginal ancestral hero. Over the years Heron sought out Aboriginal elders to learn about their healing philosophies, admitting the response was mixed. “There were people willing to help and there were others (who thought) ‘what’s a white woman doing getting involved in this stuff’,” she says.

One elder, Kakkib li’Dthia Warrawee'a, a spiritual advisor, befriended Heron and promised to teach her his healing techniques. To this day, she feels the responsibility of being true to his methods. “I had to make a pledge almost with him that I’d do the best I could to not have it exploited or turned into a gimmick.”

As Li’TYA’s success has grown, Heron has strived to repay her early indigenous advisers through initiatives such as Bunjil Foundation, a non-profit organisation that provides cultural, educational and spiritual assistance to Aboriginal communities throughout Australia with close consultation with recognised elders. The foundation is partly funded by a percentage of Li’TYA product sales.

A breakthrough business moment came in 2000 when Li’TYA launched in the prestigious Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Macau and the brand has spread from there.
Giving the additional cultural sensitivities, Heron has been conscious from day one of protecting trade marks. “I did not bring a product out until I’d had the Li’TYA name trade marked,” she says.

Intellectual property rights and brand, Heron argues, are inextricably linked. “I think that’s what your business is about. It’s really important. That’s what I’ve been doing – building a brand – and to me that is the success of the business.”

Brand security

As Heron expands overseas, protecting the Li’TYA brand will become even more difficult. Heron moves quickly to secure IP protection whenever it enters a new market.

Li’TYA has already experienced IP problems at home. Some Australian spas have copied Heron’s concepts and treatments “and put their own names on them – even to the extent of using our images and our wording”. Legal letters have been sent to one particularly “blatant” offender, but Heron still takes the pragmatic view that she must first concentrate on her own business. Pursuing legal action is often expensive: “It’s the money and time – and both are very precious.”

“It’s a difficult choice because you can spend a whole lot of time chasing them and suing them and taking your eye off the ball of running your own business. Unless I am being infringed and seeing it have a really deep impact on the business I just tend to focus on growing this brand and business and allowing them to fizzle out.”

Full steam ahead

With the opening of a new licensed concept spa in St Kilda offering an indulgent series of scrubs, massage and facial treatments, Li’TYA’s growth shows no signs of slowing. Four more such spas are on the drawing board and, again, Heron did not reveal the concept until she had registered the trade mark. “To me that’s just sensible business.”

Drawing her inspiration from Aboriginal elders and her business mentor, a childhood contact in Melbourne, Heron is confident of further business growth in Australia and overseas. At every step along the way, however, she will be cognisant that her link with Aboriginal culture means she is doing more than just running a business.

“It’s close to my heart to do something to increase the positive awareness of indigenous Australians,” Heron says. “That gives me a cause.”

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