Promoting cultural and environmental resilience

We are living in a time where it is increasingly urgent to respect the importance of cultural and environmental resilience and sustainability. Ilan Style’s founder is both a proud Indigenous woman and an environmental scientist, and our team boasts Indigenous and non-Indigenous conservationists and a naturopath developer. We have a philosophy that everyone is indigenous to the universe, a topic on which Kerry has written widely.

We are passionate about the intersections of cultural and environmental health. More and more Indigenous allies are valuing and protecting the cultural heritage of all First Nations societies, including language, art, stories, traditional knowledges and Indigenous ways of Knowing, Being and Doing. These have been handed down through First Nations families for generations. In Australia, this learning is an integral part of understanding our history, our diverse modern identity and our journey forward, together.

In protecting cultural heritage, we must also be defenders of Indigenous Intellectual Property. This can mean voting with our voices against the practice of ‘black cladding’, and voting with our wallets by ensuring the products we buy and the brands we support do come from (or support) genuine First Nations businesses. One way to tell if an Australian business is genuinely Indigenous owned, is to look for the red Supply Nation certified logo.

Reducing emissions to tackle the climate crisis and decreasing our reliance on environmental pollutants, like single-use plastics, is also essential for the resilience of our ecosystems and for life on the planet. This is especially the case for vulnerable coastal and island communities.

'In the Torres Strait Islands, my ancestral home, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and ocean plastics are threatening our land and sea Country. This is jeopardising our beautiful vibrant culture, our homes, our place and our very existence.' Kerry Arabena – Ilan Style Founder


By understanding both the cultural and environmental aspects of sustainability, and implementing conscious and respectful practices, we can work together to create a more stable, equitable and healthy planet for everyone (and everything) in the future.