Mr Stewart is lobbying the NSW Aboriginal Land Council organisation to have one company offering affordable funerals to all indigenous residents in the state, similar to the successful system operating in Victoria.

He has also had discussions with local Aboriginal land councils and shire councils to see if either new Aboriginal burial grounds can be opened or areas set aside within existing cemeteries specifically for indigenous people. 

Having designated Aboriginal burial grounds could save families $3000 or more per burial, he said, with a full service funeral costing as much as $10,000. His service was all about being low-cost and culturally appropriate.

So far he said he has had meaningful discussions with Eurobodalla Council mayor Lindsay Brown and the Cobowra Local Aboriginal Land Council in Moruya on these matters. Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion is also supporting his push for affordable Aboriginal cemeteries on the South Coast, he said. 

“Our people are often living below the poverty line and can’t afford a full-service funerals,” Mr Stewart said. “Also our people see this as our own land, so why do we have to be paying for burials on our own land.”

In Narooma there was scope to have an Aboriginal burial grounds set aside at the Narooma town cemetery or on Wagonga Local Aboriginal Lands Council land at Paradise Point on Wagonga Inlet. 

He said Wallaga Lake Koori village was lucky to have its own cemetery, that recently was being improved and expanded thanks to a partnership between Merrimans Local Aboriginal Lands Council and Eurobodalla Council. Click here to read more

Mr Stewart’s Dreamtime Funerals has also now paired up with Funeral Transfers Australia, a company run by mortician Russell Howarth who has recently moved his operation to Narooma.

Funeral Transfers Australia transports bodies from all over Australia as far as the Northern Territory and northern Queensland to wherever they need to go around Australia, being handled by subsidiary company Afterlife Funerals in five locations on the East Coast.  

It’s been a busy time and his company has transported 47 bodies in the last nine weeks. The transfer station and office are in the Narooma industrial estate, where both he and Mr Stewart’s Dreamtime Funerals are set up.

Mr Howarth said he wanted to “retire” to Narooma where the fishing was good and where he could continue to operate his companies. He said he was pleased to be able to work with Dreamtime Funeral Services and he shared Mr Stewart’s mission of changing the system and opening more Aboriginal burial ground.

The partnership and Mr Howarth’s qualifications have allowed Mr Stewart to continue to offer the most affordable funeral services for indigenous families. 

Even the coffins Mr Stewart uses are offered at an affordable rate and most feature the designs of his award-winning artist cousin Ray Thomas, a Gunnai man from Victoria. 

“An Aboriginal funeral service should be allowed to give our people a final send off without the financial burden – it should be something affordable and culturally appropriate,” he said.