Media

“The power of the people is stronger than the people in power”, I first heard this quote when I was 14 at a youth climate…

NB: I’ve been sitting on this draft article since last year just slowly fine tuning both the article and my thinking on the subject, but…

Since Stan Grant announced he is stepping away from the media, we've seen First Nations journalists tell their own stories of racism and discrimination in the workplace and a lack of support when attacked by racist trolls. This is nothing new, Bizzi Lavelle writes. She explores what has been happening in media and social media with First Nations people, some that don't make the news.

Last month, Media Diversity Australia (MDA)  released its second snapshot, Who Gets to Tell Australian Stories? 2.0 on Indigenous and cultural diversity in Australian television news. It’s the second time MDA has looked at the diversity of television news and representation on the small screen.  Journalist Rhianna Patrick tells us, more work is needed in this space, and asks - is mainstream media even a safe place for First Nations people?

The danger of Aly’s assertions is that it oversimplifies a very complex notion in political and legal philosophy and, by reducing the act of ceding sovereignty to a singular oath, it reveals a lack of critical insight to what sovereignty can mean and how it can operate for First Nations peoples.

As a proud Wailwan arts administrator & producer, it gives me such joy to see mob front and centre representing and excelling in performing arts! But I’m also often thinking about the responsibility we have to model best practice behind the scenes, about the additional cultural load mob are expected to take on when working with white arts institutions, and worrying whether those of working in non-blak spaces are being taken properly care of. 

The coverage on the Rolfe trial could make a reader question who is the one really being judged – the deceased or the police officer standing trial?

Social media has allowed community to tell their stories their way, but non-mob must recognise cultural growth and adaption as well as tradition

Our distrust of the healthcare system is justified and it is no surprise that many of us are skeptical of the medical industry. Similarly, knowing the history of the ways our bodies have been abused and used, I know that still, the vaccine is the best way I can keep my family and community safe.

Protest through Indigenous works is not just the preserve of city ‘rabble rousers’. The home of land rights is in the bush, and our art reflects this

First Nations Media Australia calls for the immediate reinstatement of First Nations media organisation Facebook pages blocked overnight in response to the Government’s proposed Mandatory…

Children ask vital questions of the world which expose accepted ‘truths’. On 26 January, we contrast Australian displays of amnesia with Aboriginal truth-telling

When the media shows pictures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people along with negative words over and over, governments continually speak about how destitute Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and people are, and then using more flattering language and pictures in articles about non-Indigenous people, then the human mind naturally creates its own narrative, in everyone.

So much was said in the media, around water coolers and the general public about the expectations put on her. This turned out to be her Games. Twenty years on, Cathy’s story is retold time and time again.

The power of Black media is not just in the ability to report on Aboriginal issues without the oversight of white people who want to control the narrative, but in its accountability.

The most dangerous time is a time of change, and those who fight the dirtiest are the ones who believe that change is not in their personal interest. We have seen this with every incremental win in the fight for civil rights.

We have all seen the panels where a bunch of white ‘personalities’ debate something so far outside the realm of their understanding that it is laughable and yet, it continues, it influences and it pays them to continue saying what they want without basis, without evidence and without any real challenge. They are – after all – on mainstream media platforms voicing their ignorance as though they have some sort of authority to speak on issues.

A few years back, Joey Williams caused a bit of a stir when he made a point of not standing for the anthem when he won the Citizen of the year Award in Wagga Wagga.