FORMER NRL legend and Daly M Medal winner Preston Campbell has sung the praises of a group of indigenous students from Banora Point High for creating a new food label and product range.

The former Titans player, who has worked tirelessly on the Close the Gap campaign since hanging up his boots, was looking at ways of incorporating the new range in his Dreamworld Cafe, which provides training to young indigenous people.

"We were invited down because we're trying to introduce new products,” Mr Campbell said.

"We want to introduce an indigenous-inspired menu, stuff we already eat but a little different.”

The former footballer wanted to share some of the lessons he had learnt throughout his life with young indigenous people, saying sometimes life presented unexpected opportunities and it was up to individuals to find a positive take on them.

"You're not always going to fall into your dream job straight away,” Mr Campbell said.

The range is distributed under the label Aurora Jahla. Aurora is an indigenous word for the community of schools in the Tweed area and Jahla is an indigenous word for food. Products from finger lime curd to pear and wattle seed jam can be purchased from the school.

Project co-ordinator and food technology teacher Shelley Naughton, who came up with the idea of developing the products, said the school wanted to create a project that would have lasting benefits.

"The idea behind this was to use a grant we received but to have a sustaining project, so we didn't want to just use our money, we wanted to establish something that would continue and to give the students skills, confidence and knowledge that would apply to their lives,” she said. Ms Naughton said local products, mostly from the Tweed Valley, had been used to produce the range.

She said another focus had been to keep flavours as natural as possible, meaning the mask of sugar was absent and the range preservative free.

She said it had also been important to everyone involved that the students learned more about their culture.