Indigenous showcase

Name: Robin Bryant

Business: G Country

Industry: Retails services

IP smart since: January 2007

Intellectual property is becoming an increasingly important issue for many Indigenous Australian artists whose products and art wares are in demand around the world.

One recently formed business representing unique Aboriginal artwork is G Country, who provide quality giftware and homeware products manufactured by Indigenous Australians. Indigenous entrepreneurs, Andrew Hegedus and Robin Bryant, with the support of Sydney businessman, Ian Plater, established the group in 2007.
“The base of our products at G Country Art Gallery and Emporium of course is the quality of the ceramics, which are from G Ceramics, who have been in operation for approximately eight years,” explains Bryant. G Ceramics are currently stocked in Rainbow Serpent outlets at Sydney and Brisbane airports.
Response to the craftsmanship of the products and the G Country logo has been positive. “Everybody loves the logo and the product,” Bryant says. “It’s distinctive, it has the colours in it, the boomerangs and it’s important to the artists, which gives it that additional Indigenous ownership.”

Plans for expansion
The company’s aim is to promote the excellence of Australian Indigenous products and to enable the artists to broaden their sales opportunities utilising the G Country retail outlets. The first retail outlet – G Country Art Gallery and Emporium – is located in Ulmarra, north of Grafton in New South Wales. Focusing mainly on ceramic artwork, the G Country logo has only recently evolved, and the trade mark is in the process of being registered through prominent Indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights lawyer, Terri Janke. As Bryant says, “G Country Art Gallery and Emporium was launched in March 2007 so we’re still in the early stages – we put ™ on the logo to indicate to outsiders of a trade mark and when it’s registered we will be able to use the ® on it”.
The company’s website is under construction, with plans to eventually distribute worldwide through an online store. “We would be looking at those aspects shortly – no doubt I will be asking my IP legal adviser about international protection before we start distributing worldwide,” notes Bryant.
The directors are looking into the prospect of franchising the business, to further progress the company. “We’re looking at having a franchise – we’re developing a whole system that can be imported into other Indigenous places; so once we have a system put into place, we’ll have a protected brand; it’s recognisable and it’s promoting quality Indigenous products and uniqueness.”

Spreading the message
In due course, G Country would like to work with other Indigenous communities. The company is also interested in plans to send artists from different Indigenous communities to Ulmarra, so they will have their local products sold at the G Country Gallery and Emporium. Bryant sees marketing G Country’s products through the web an effective strategy for promotion of the products as well as the business system.
Bryant highlights the importance of promoting Indigenous businesses and looking at different markets to find niche areas. He also stresses the need for artists to recognise the importance of protecting their intellectual property.
“Artists need to be made aware of the business side of the products they are creating, which includes protecting your intellectual property.” He also believes that IP firms like Terri Janke, which provide workshops and seminars for their Indigenous clients, need to be utilised to promote awareness of IP issues.