The second keynote at the Indigenous languages symposium was by Tanya Denning-Orman, Director of First Nations at SBS: the Topic, Our Lingo, Our Way – The Rise of First Nations languages through Australian Media.
Tanya’s presentation demonstrated how the rise of First Nations presenters and media has positively impacted the representation and self image of First Nations people and how NITV and SBS are championing First Languages through innovative and engaging content, such as Little J Cuz & Big Cuz and True Colours.
She gave both the history of Indigenous media, from CAAMA through to NITV finding a home with SBS.
Another innovation has been the sharing of weather maps, using First Nations place names, which people regularly watching NITV and SBS would be aware of. This reinstatement of First Nation original names of places over current Australian maps, is also something creative artists Megan Cope later spoke about in conversation session which I will share in another post.
Tanya shared her personal story as a young journalist indicating some of the moments when mainstream media has not give an extremely balanced, nuanced or well researched picture of First Nations communities. She shared the photograph of when she was 18 and connected to the fact that NITV is now 18 years old as well. She paid homage to the creatives and journalists in media who paved the way for people like herself.
Highlighting some events where the media representation has been unsettling rather than insightful such as the intervention in the Northern Territory. She demonstrated how NITV has built itself as a brand the First Nations community can trust and others can look to for balance. It has been alongside several other Indigenous media, integral to giving voice to First Nations diverse perspective and languages and improving practices in everyday, mainstream media.
Citing market research, SBS and NITV protocols and processes, she shared clips of some of the innovative content, such as scenes from True Colours as well as clips of the process of how these works were made, distributed and translated for Little J and Big Cuz. The clip of Little J and Big Cuz being performed by local language actors, for Tisland
She argued, using data and examples, how important it had been for the sustainabilty and development of NITV for it to have a home at SBS. This has enabled NITV to reach a much wider audience, than just the Indigenous communities, although they remain a priority for the content, audience and production teams.
Tanya then took us through the policies that have enabled the relationship between SBS and NITV to be a constructive collaboration. These included that 2019 Social Justice Framework and committment to Indigenous languages and the Elevated RAP of 2022.
Tanya’s arguement for the importance of self determined sustainble First Nations media, articulated the importance and responsibility of media to enhance social justice through understanding its impact on representation. She outlined the process of community engagement that SBS and NITV have adopted to ethically produce the shows that they do.
A fabulous feature of this year’s conference, was the graphic organiser summaries of the speakers in the main auditorium. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have this kind of support listener/artist for every classroom and conference.
Tanya’s presentation was heart felt, supported strongly by evidence, well paced, and used multimodal approaches well; for example there were extremely well composed slides, and alternation of times to listen to her speak, and to watch videos relevant to the presentation.
Further food for thought can be found at the following links
June Paisa Perkins 