Born out of the Aboriginal Music industry & C.A.S.M
In the late 1980’s after Uncle Karno had finished his studying with the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (C.A.S.M.) Karno saw a need for Aboriginal friendly security for the gigs the bands his fellow students played at.
Not only was his security team the first ever found and run by an First Nations Australian, the electric music department at CASM these bands originated from, was inspired by a meeting between himself and the co-founder of CASM, his Aunt, Leila Rankine.
The CASM unit had a huge effect on indigenous music in the 1980’s with students coming from all over the country to study there. The surge in popularity of indigenous music in the 80’s was largely fuelled by bands who were originally students of C.A.S.M.
More information about CASM and Uncle Karno can be found here;
Uncle Karno’s involvement with The Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music
A Company that was also born out of Uncle Karno’s unique brand of Ramindjeri Martial Arts.
In the 1980’s Uncle Karno also came across close friend and Martial Arts Mentor George Pokkias. Uncle Karno studied under him and was according to George, the best student George had ever had, it was not long until Karno had reached the same level of skill as George, and George considered him his equal.
From there Uncle Karno developed his own unique style of Martial Arts called Ramindjeri Martial Arts and taught many students his martial arts style.
Another Australian first – no other First Nations Tribal Elder had developed his own unique style of Martial Arts like Uncle Karno’s.
Many of Uncle Karno and George’s students were employed by Karno’s security team. Because of this Uncle Karno’s staff were not only well versed in self-defence, all team members regardless of colour, were all taught by Karno to be sensitive and aware of Blackfella culture.
Uncle Karno’s S.A. Aboriginal Security Team did work for Sporting Events, Major Festivals, Cabarets, NAIDOC ball.
Port Lincoln State Football Carnival – the first time in it’s recent history without any major incidents.
Uncle Karno’s unique skills, and his ability to apply Wirritjin (blackfella & whitefella working together) and no doubt played a huge role in another one of his amazing ability to break destructive trends.
In the early 1990’s Uncle Karno’s security team had been contracted to do security for an annually run Weekend State Football Carnival in Port Lincoln.
In the previous years this football carnival this was held it had had riots. Local law enforcement had warned Uncle Karno and his team about this and believed there would be riots again during their time at the festival.
Uncle Karno and George believed otherwise and had told the law enforcement officers advising them about this, that this would definitely not be the case. Local police did not believe them.
The local police were quite surprised to find out Uncle Karno and George were right and the festival was held without any major incidents, let alone a riot.
From that time onward Uncle Karno’s S.A. Aboriginal Security Team secured all future State Football Carnival events.
George Pokkias discusses the events of this festival in the video below.
Another first – 2000 Sydney Olympics – No bid contract
In the late 1990’s Uncle Karno’s S.A. Aboriginal Security Team had been awarded a no bid contract to run security for one of the venues at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. They were the only security firm approached for a contract in the whole of South Australia, and may possibly have been the only Australian firm at the Sydney Olympics to be given a no bid contract.
This contract was run over the course of 6 weeks at one of the Sydney Olympics at the Darling Harbour venues.
Local law enforcement and the company that ran the venue both awarded Uncle Karno and his team medals in appreciation of the work they had done.
Aunty Christine (Uncle Karno’s wife) discusses this with George in the video interview below.