A FREMANTLE-based, Aboriginal-owned security company swept the Australian Security Industry Awards in Melbourne last month. 

Eon Protection won three awards at the gala, including excellence in diversity and inclusion, and two awards in outstanding security performance.

The business is a unique combination of security services which prioritise the employment of Aboriginal people in security and emergency personnel, risk management, and community liaison staff to promote and protect culture. 

Eon was designed to have a social impact, according to founder Gerry Matera, to address the “disproportionate” levels of systemic racism, unemployment, and incarceration of Indigenous people while providing security services which are more suitable to deal with antisocial behaviour. 

• Jack Alpe from Guardhouse Security Software withg EON Protection’s Danny Hines and Gerry Matera.

“It was borne out of the idea about putting Aboriginal people in recruiting and training, and then deploying them in places where they would normally be seen,” Mr Matera said. 

“The security industry doesn’t really lend itself to having truckloads of Aboriginal people wanting to seek employment in police, corrective, or security services. 

“We also provide liaison officers, who are people who themselves have been incarcerated and have criminal records, so they can speak from a place of lived experience and lived history as a deterrent.” 

This representation is important, according to Mr Matera, as the community liaison role allows Eon to provide a security service “without intimidation or racial disparity” and accommodate for cultural sensitivity. 

“That’s where the racism starts, because the perception is that there should be an armed guard as a deterrent for Aboriginal people, rather than having Aboriginal people at the shopping centre as a precursor to anti-social behaviour,” Mr Matera said. 

“It’s been an interesting process, as I’m Aboriginal myself, but I think the racism of the perception of what an Aboriginal person is, and indeed what an Aboriginal business is, still has a long way to go… I think we are always going to have a battle around how Aboriginal people are perceived.” 

Eon also run Corroboree for Life, a mentorship program which connects Aboriginal youth with Whadjuk and Ballardong elders and Country, a service that Mr Matera says “can be life-changing”. 

“We find that if you know who you are and where you come from, it’s the first step of the process of engaging with work,” he said.

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER