Nathan’s journey towards NIU Nature began when he was just two years old. This was the age when his parents moved the family from Melbourne to Papua New Guinea, where his father took up a missionary post in Samban, a remote village off the Keram River in the swampy grasslands of the lower East Sepik. Nathan’s formative years and earliest memories are deeply rooted in Papua New Guinean village life, spending his days exploring the bush, swimming, fishing in the waterways, and hunting frogs. He would often leave home shortly after sunrise, with his mother finding him around dusk in any number of houses with a plate of sago in his lap, trading stories in Pidgin and learning about traditional and contemporary village life.

 These childhood experiences shaped much of Nathan’s worldview, leading him to complete a university degree in Community and Economic Development and pursue a profession in youth work and community development throughout Australasia.

 A defining moment in Nathan’s career began in 2014 when he lived and worked in Manus, implementing a province-wide Sports for Development project as part of the Australian Aid Program. Nathan co-designed the Sports Strategy by engaging with stakeholders at various levels, from village communities to Provincial and National Government. He traveled throughout Manus’s 12 Local Level Governments (LLGs), establishing and training over 60 Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) to run sports in their villages.

Spending extensive time in these villages, Nathan collaborated with local leaders to craft constitutions tailored to their specific needs, ensuring they were widely understood and embraced by the community. He also provided training on the financial and administrative aspects of managing an association. The impact was profound. The executive committees of these associations frequently became the most proficient (and often only) functioning CBOs in their communities with responsibilities expanding beyond sports to include commercial, cultural, and social interests as well.

The lessons learned from this experience have strongly shaped Nathan’s approach to working with communities. It highlighted the importance of tailored governance, capacity building, and the broader role that well-structured community organizations can play in local development.

Nathan's work in Manus Province underscores his belief in empowering communities by giving them the tools and knowledge to shape their own futures. This foundational experience continues to influence his work at Niu Nature, where he remains committed to sustainable, community-driven development.

An excellent communicator fluent in Melanesian Pidgin, Nathan loves nothing more than engaging in conversations around the kitchen fire with young Papua New Guineans about identity, purpose, conservation, and what it means to live a meaningful life. This passion for heartfelt dialogue and community engagement is what excites him the most about Niu Nature.

 “To scale Niu Nature up over the next few years, we’re going to need a team trained in our ethos and methodology. Our vision makes deep, intuitive sense to every Papua New Guinean we’ve discussed it with. Over time, we will bring together a team of passionate and talented Papua New Guineans to go into communities to build capacity and support these projects. There is a lot of pride in that for everyone. That’s PNG being the best version of itself.”