Telling indigenous stories from beyond the block

This Walkley Media Talk celebrated the diversity of story-telling and the many new platforms indigenous journalists and storytellers now have space on to tell their stories. The discussion examined the rise of indigenous media into the mainstream and new innovations in storytelling and the implications for coverage of indigenous affairs in Australia. It also examined the challenges and importance of meaningful collaboration and the experience of non-indigenous journalists in covering Aboriginal issues. This panel was moderated by Karla Grant (@karlagrant28), of SBS Living Black. Malarndirri McCarthy (@malarndirri) is a senior journalist/presenter for SBS/NITV News. The former ABC newsreader began her cadetship in 1989 and worked as a journalist until 2005. That year, the Yanyuwa woman from Borroloola in the Northern Territory became the Member for Arnhem in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. After the 2008 election, Malarndirri was promoted to the Ministry, where she served as Minister for Children and Families, Indigenous & Regional Development, Tourism , Statehood, Women's Policy, Senior Territorians, Young Territorians and the Minister Assisting the Chief Minister on Multicultural Affairs until August 2012. She returned to the newsroom in December 2012. Malarndirri won the inaugural Deadly Award for Journalism. Martin Butler studied politics and economics at Oxford University and then went to work for the manager of ‘The Who’. In 1981, he migrated to Australia and spent the next 25 years as a longform current affairs television producer for ABC Four Corners, Foreign Correspondent and Dateline. He’s produced two Walkley Award-winners and won the New York Film and Television best documentary award. He worked with Bentley Dean to produce the award-winning Contact, a film about the last first-contact in the Western Desert of Australia. For the past three years he has devoted his life to First Footprints – a documentary exploring ancient Aboriginal history awarded the 2013 Walkley Award for documentary in 2013. Kathy Marks (@kathymarksoz) won the 2013 Walkley Award for Coverage of Indigenous Affairs for “Channelling Mannalargenna” – an essay published on the plight of Indigenous Tasmanians in Griffith REVIEW. Her work explored the links between the past and the present, a brutal history that still reverberates in today’s fragmented community. Marks was born in Manchester and worked for Reuters and Fleet Street newspapers before moving to Australia in 1999 as The Independent’s Asia-Pacific correspondent. A regular contributor to Good Weekend, The Monthly and Griffith REVIEW, her work was included in the Best Australian Essays 2010 collection (Black Inc.). Her 2008 book, Pitcairn: Paradise Lost (HarperCollins), won the Ned Kelly Award for true crime writing.