Juan Walker

Walkabout Cultural Adventures

Feed the mind

Grow community

Juan Walker, owner of Walkabout Cultural Adventures, has been helping visitors connect with his Kuku Yalanji country in the Port Douglas Daintree region for 19 years. He started as a tour guide at a local ecolodge, where he discovered a skill and passion for sharing stories about the land and sea with people from around the world.

Juan established his own business to offer visitors more tour variety and greater access to his country.

Juan’s Walkabout Cultural Tours provide visitors with stories and knowledge that enable them to connect to country authentically through the eyes of the local Aboriginal people. Guests learn about the land and sea country, the seasons, the plants, the animals and the bush medicine. Juan’s aim is to open the hearts and minds of visitors to a deeper respect of nature and connection with the country around them. The intimacy of Juan’s tours means that he can personalise his guest experiences and make a real connection with them through his stories of country and family and to understand the importance of not taking these things for granted in their own lives.

Lift the heart

The cultural tours have also helped Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who don’t have a strong connection with their own country to understand the importance of that connection. Through the awareness and understanding the tours offer, they are re-discovering their own connection with country.

Supporting and growing community is a major thread through the operation. As the business grows, the local community is benefitting through the employment of local Aboriginal people who are proud to share their land and culture as tour guides.

Juan works with troubled youths through the PCYC and Department of Child Safety, helping their rehabilitation through connection to country. He teaches Kuku Yalanji language at the local primary school to share knowledge with children in the broader community, not just the Indigenous community.

Important elements in establishing and growing his business included:

• Finding guides who shared his passion and could attain a commercial driver’s license to carry visitors.

• Training the guides to have a good understanding of ‘country’, and importantly on how to ‘read’ people to ensure. they could relate to the subject matter and deliver consistently high-quality experiences.

• Providing international and domestic visitors with an authentic connection to country.

• Sourcing start-up capital and securing appropriate national park access and permits.