ABOUT US

Grounded in Healing. Guided by Culture. Accountable to Community.

Bawamarra Cultural Services is an Aboriginal-led cultural consultancy and mentoring practice grounded in healing, integrity, and relational accountability.

Founded by Jason May, a proud Wiradjuri man from the Binjang clan of Wellington, Bawamarra exists to walk alongside individuals, organisations, and systems as they grow in cultural courage, responsibility, and lasting change.

Bawamarra is more than a service.
It is a practice of truth-telling, healing, and transformation, where culture, lived experience, and evidence-based psychology come together to support people and communities to thrive.

 

Our Story

Jason is a father of five, trauma survivor, mentor, and cultural leader.

His work is shaped not only by professional training, but by lived experience growing up around violence, addiction, and disconnection, and walking a long path of recovery, healing, and self-reclamation.

For over a decade, he has supported young people, families, and organisations to break cycles of harm and rebuild identity, safety, and strength.

His approach integrates:

• Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB)

• Dadirri (deep listening)

• trauma-responsive and somatic practice

• attachment and relational healing

• strengths-based mentoring

• systems and organisational change strategy

Jason is currently completing a Graduate Diploma in Psychological Science and brings experience across youth work, Out-of-Home Care, health, justice, sport, and community sectors. He also serves as the Reconciliation Action Plan Officer for Wests Group and the Newcastle Knights, supporting organisation-wide cultural capability and reconciliation leadership.

This combination of culture, lived wisdom, and professional rigour allows Bawamarra to work confidently at both the community and systems level.

 

Recognition & Trust

In 2023, Bawamarra was honoured with the Innovate with NBN Co Indigenous Business Award, recognising leadership in cultural transformation, systems change, and trauma-responsive practice.

Our work is trusted across government, health, education, justice, and sport sectors.

Dr Gordon Reid MP, Federal Member for Robertson, commended Bawamarra for delivering:

“individualised, culturally centred, and holistic mentoring to at-risk youth, weaving Indigenous understandings of social and emotional wellbeing throughout its practice.”

We lead with lived truth, cultural integrity, and professional accountability, which is why organisations continue to partner with us.

 

Our Advisory Circle

Guided by Community. Strengthened by Collective Wisdom.

At Bawamarra, leadership is never carried alone.

Our work is grounded in relational accountability, to culture, to community, and to the people we serve.
We are supported by an Advisory Circle of trusted cultural, clinical, and community leaders who walk alongside our practice, offering guidance, supervision, and care.

This circle ensures our work remains:

• culturally grounded

• ethically accountable

• professionally rigorous

• community-led

Because healing and systems change are collective responsibilities, not individual ones.

 

Cassandra Smith

Community Leader | Cultural Advocate | Lived Experience Mentor

Cassandra brings deep lived wisdom as a mother, community leader, and advocate for family and wellbeing. She offers grounded accountability and relational insight, ensuring our mentoring and support work stays connected to the everyday realities of families and community life.

 

Debbie Haynes

Psychologist | Trauma-Responsive Practitioner | Clinical Supervisor

Debbie brings extensive experience across youth, mental health, and therapeutic services. Her trauma-responsive and strengths-based practice strengthens our clinical integrity, reflective supervision, and emotional safety across all mentoring and consulting work.

 

Matthew Craig

Neurodevelopmental & Behaviour Specialist | Systems Practitioner

Matt provides specialist expertise in neurodevelopment, behaviour support, and complex care. He supports program design, care planning, and wrap-around approaches that respond thoughtfully to the needs of young people and families navigating multiple systems.

 

Jesse Hodgetts

Cultural Knowledge Holder | Community Leader | Governance Advisor

Jesse provides cultural governance and guidance grounded in Country, protocol, and community responsibility. His leadership ensures our work remains culturally respectful, accountable, and aligned with Aboriginal ways of knowing, being, and doing.

 

Walking Together

Together, this circle strengthens Bawamarra’s capacity to hold both heart and rigour, combining cultural wisdom, lived experience, and professional practice to create safe, ethical, and lasting change.

Because the work of healing is shared.