Converge 2024 - First Nations Media National Conference

Release Date:
Speech

Can I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land. It's just beautiful to be able to be here and acknowledge the local mob for here, but also each and every one of you who've travelled from across the country, I acknowledge each of you and your families and First Nations people from around Australia.

I'm encouraged because you walk into a room like this and you just see how many people have come together in the area of First Nations media.

Your voices, in every state and territory jurisdiction, really matters.

Being able to represent our people, their stories - whatever their stories may be - you are that messenger.

You are the people who gather that news, who give voice to the poverty, voice to the difficulties, the racism, the challenges.

But you also give voice to the resilience and the strength and the beauty and the joy of our people. And we often don't hear that enough.

It was one reason why I wanted to go into journalism when I was in high school.

Growing up in Borroloola on Yanyuwa Garrwa country, my families, we had to learn the ways of the four language groups, the Yanyuwa, the Garrwa, the Marra, and the Gudanji peoples.

And I used to think when I watched the early days of TV, just why was it that we had really bad representation about our people?

Because it was not the world that I lived in and not the world that I knew growing up on Yanyuwa Garrwa country.

So, being able to move into the media at that point in time, to move into mainstream media, there were very, very few Indigenous journalists, certainly in the mainstream media. SBS was led by people like Rhoda Roberts, what a legendary trailblazer she is.

And so you only had a couple of people that you could look up to and see; it is possible.

But it was the local community radio stations and the local Alice Springs CAAMA and Imparja that really caught my attention.

Through Indigenous broadcasting you could hear the languages and it was important, when we worked in mainstream media, that we could see the very real possibility of making sure that our local voices were heard across Australia.

I could see TEABBA, I could see CAAMA, Imparja, Warlpiri Media, and then across in Queensland with your networks in the north and in WA, you've led the way too, in terms of Indigenous media.

Because of that, I was then able to go home to Borroloola and set up our first community radio station so that we could have language and stories and local issues, right there in our community.

We set up the local community radio station there, The Voice of the Gulf, and it still continues to this day.

We've had some terrific people come through that radio station, who've actually been a part of your journey and team through First Nations Media.

Coming into this role as Indigenous Affairs Minister, I'm so aware of how important it is to make sure as a government, we should always be reaching out to you when we want to make sure that our communities can hear the messages from governments, but also so our communities can respond and tell us what they think.

Which is through you, First Nations media, you're the ones that report it.

When I read the papers, when I listen to the news through your stations, through your newspapers, it gives us a really good understanding of what people on the ground think.

So, keep up the good work with all of that.

I know that we're also moving into the space of digital media and we've seen what impact social media can have on our communities.

Some of it's really good. There's some really, really unique and exceptional stories that come through when mob can be able to tell their stories through, whether it's Facebook, any of the social media platforms.

But there's also a downside to it.

I am aware of how negative some platforms can be.

As Indigenous Affairs Minister, I'm conscious of some of the downsides that we have to work with and how do we engage with our youth and young people to be responsible.

We have to be careful of the language we use, and I don't mean whether it's an Aboriginal language, or Irish language, or another language.

I'm talking about how we talk to one another.

And I say this a lot in the Senate, we can agree to disagree but be really careful of what we say.

You can really hurt people. You can cause a lot of distress to people.

There's a lot of mental health issues that impact people.

Our language and our words matter.

Be kind to one another, look out for one another.

It's something that I really believe in, that we have to carry each day and you, as messengers in the media workforce, you deal with it every day.

You're consuming so much information.

You're looking at the Internet, you're looking at Facebook, you're looking at all sorts of social media to be able to tell your story or run your news item.

Be gentle on yourself, because sometimes you're taking in too much of that information.

You've got to listen to your spirit.

It's the one thing that I'm very thankful for as a Yanyuwa woman, we are known as li-anthawirriyarra, which means our spiritual origin comes from the sea Country.

And we have to be feeling right in here. We have to feel good in here.

When we feel no good, we have to make that space to feel good again, and so we can help others to feel good.

It's not about taking away from someone and ripping away their sense of self and dignity.

It's about lifting them as much as it is about lifting yourselves.

So, you are in a very, very powerful position in First Nations media.

Walk it wisely, walk it responsibly, and use it to better the lives of our people across this country.

Thank you.