Uncle Gene Blow

Uncle Gene is a proud Noonuccal and Goreng Goreng Elder currently living in a Brisbane north seaside suburb in Queensland. His cultural heritage comes from his grandfather (Noonuccal - Nth Stradbroke Island) and grandmother (Goreng Goreng - Bundaberg region). Raised by his grandparents on a tobacco farm in north-western NSW, he grew up around family and culture.

He was home-schooled and later moved to Cribb Island (a Brisbane north suburb) where he started formal education in a school. This is where he spent the next 9 years learning about traditional island culture from his grandparents, uncles and aunties.
It wasn’t until Uncle Gene started working as a cultural educator with Qld Health from 2006-2019 that he saw the opportunity to share his cultural knowledge with children and youth at all levels of education. During this period Uncle Gene started his own cultural dance group called the Ninghy Ninghy Dance Group and set up an academy for learning cultural dance in the Redcliffe area. Also, during this period Uncle Gene coordinated culture camps for First Nation children in foster care and single parent families.

Uncle Gene also saw other opportunities to deliver culture programs in childcare centres. Uncle Gene then wrote his own dreamtime stories to share with children and assisted with native animal puppets. Now he writes cultural children’s story books that can be purchase with Amazon.

Today Uncle Gene is recognised as a Community Leader and Elder in the Brisbane north area with his cultural education teaching with all age groups. Under the NDIS banner, his present-day cultural support is with First Nation men producing traditional artefacts that provides cultural, social and emotional well-being support for men with Mental Health issues. Through Uncle Gene’s teachings he lays down foundation information to implement First Nation cultural knowledge in the delivery of a variety of 10 different cultural programs to:

• childcare centres;
• primary and secondary schools;
• tertiary education institutions; and
• organisations.

Uncle Gene’s main passion in life is to leave cultural legacies behind in all his journeys and walks of life, so all Australians can learn, appreciate and in some instances ‘embrace’ First Nation culture in a way that is meaningful and understood.