Rigby Barnes graduated this year with an Executive MBA from the Adelaide Business School at the University of Adelaide plus two startups spawned during his studies, Gangurru Apparel and Gangurru Seltzer.

Gangurru Seltzer will hit the market this month, taking Australian native ingredients into the canned ready-to-drink category, and filling a yawning space both taste-wise and in terms of business ownership by First Nations people.

A proud Guugu Yimithirr and Birri Gubba man, Barnes said Gangurru Seltzer started as an enterprise project for his Executive MBA.

“I identified a gap in the market around native ingredients seltzers here in Australia,” Barnes said.

“For the last 12 months, I’ve been planning these seltzers, with the native river mint and watermelon and the native lime and strawberry as the first two flavours.”

Alcoholic or hard seltzers are big in Australia and overseas, with the category exploding locally in the last three years, driven by consumers’ willingness (and thirst) to try new flavours.

The plan is to sell exclusively online for now before moving into a small selection of retailers. However, Barnes has his sights on the events and festivals market too, looking to tap them to connect with consumers interstate and overseas.

Like others within the Adelaide Business School’s Executive MBA program, he is keen to use his business acumen to make a positive impact in society.

“My big vision is to offer a range of different beverages, including seltzer, utilising Australian native plants to build opportunities for Aboriginal people and for me to do more work in economic development,” he said.

“What I’d like to do, and especially what I’ve been trying to do with the apparel, is build up the businesses to where I can employ more Aboriginal people.”

He came to hear of the Executive MBA program (previously the Adelaide MBA) through Professor Shane Hearn, the former Pro Vice Chancellor (Indigenous Education) at the University of Adelaide, and said he was “instrumental” in his decision to enrol in late 2019.

“I was playing football, but I could see in future that study would be really important. The MBA fitted into what I thought my direction would be moving forward.”

Barnes has been working with First Nations communities since 2008. For the last three years, he has been working with the Tjindu Foundation to deliver cultural awareness training to government, NGOs and corporates, such as mining companies, while also supporting the foundation’s Aboriginal AFL Academy.

Accepted into the Adelaide Business School’s Executive MBA program on the strength of his professional experience, he especially benefitted from the micro- and macroeconomics teachings, and the finance and accounting courses.

Early in the piece, he felt confident enough to take the leap to launch his own business. He founded Gangurru Apparel, a custom corporate and sports apparel business, in 2020 and applied the learnings as he progressed.

“What I learned definitely added to my strengths – which are relationships and networking – and to the overall growth of the business,” he said.

Undertaking and then graduating from the program has changed him on a personal level in terms of self-belief, ambition and clarity of direction.

“It’s nice to have a degree behind you, a bit of paper, but I feel the commitment and the knowledge that I got from the course served to substantiate what I thought.”

The Executive MBA is delivered Harvard-style, with face-to-face delivery in small classes, weekly evening classes and monthly weekend intensives. Networking with and hearing from a diversity of backgrounds and industry sectors was a particular standout for Barnes.

“Especially when you’re doing group assignments or discussions, everyone is bringing their own perspective, so it’s always good,” he said.

“There were other Aboriginal students who I studied with, and I found that really positive – because we’re trying to build up our community to have significantly more opportunities, agency and successes in future generations.”

The dot painting artwork on the seltzer packaging is by Barnes’ brother, Rowan Carmody, while Arrente woman Bree Ah Chee did the graphic design. She also produces the graphics for Gangurru Apparel, using work commissioned from First Nations artists across Australia.

“I encourage my client organisations and businesses to source a local artist for their artwork, so they can also build relationships within the community,” Barnes said.

The brand name Gangurru comes for the Guugu Yimithirr word for kangaroo, with the language being one of Australia’s first recorded.

It is also the language of Barnes’ grandfather Hans Pearson, who as a clan Elder gave permission for its use. Barnes says he is inspired by his grandfather’s formidable strength and resilience.

The lead claimant in a class action against the Queensland Government, Pearson fought for the reparation of decades of unpaid wages to First Nations people. The government settled the case in 2019, saying it was an “important day in rebuilding the relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders”.

In his quest to build opportunities for himself and First Nations people, Barnes is quietly confident.

“I feel like the past three years running Gangurru Apparel puts me in good stead for the seltzer business.

“I’ve seen the growth and development of the apparel business, especially over the last 18 months, and the size it has reached in such a short time.”

Lecturers at the Adelaide Business School are ‘pracademics’, meaning students are exposed to industry experts who are both academics and current leaders in their industries.

This allows students to gain strategic, real-world perspectives, along with the skillset and knowledge directly applicable to their current roles.

“It definitely helped from the point of view of having that content and then applying it along each stage of it,” Barnes said.

“And then obviously, as I started quite early in the piece running the business, that was a bonus.”

While juggling two start-ups, work with Tjindu Foundation and MBA study commitments was at times a challenge requiring a few late nights, he said it was worth it for both the knowledge and the networks gained.

“The MBA has been a positive impact on my personal and business growth since 2019.

“Now, I honestly think the sky’s the limit.”

The University of Adelaide Executive MBA is the #1 MBA in SA for career impact.¹ The next intake closes on 8 January 2024.

Learn more and register for the upcoming information session.

¹AFR BOSS Magazine Best Business School rankings 2023, Career Impact.