NITV 10th anniversary concert: Narelda Jacobs on stepping up and using her platform
Channel 10 and SBS star Narelda Jacobs has the power to change the national conversation. And she knows it’s her obligation to step up.
When journalist Narelda Jacobs called out Australia’s mainstream media for its neglect in covering the violent death of Indigenous teenager Cassius Turvey, she spoke from a place of frustration and anguish.
It took Jacobs’ impassioned plea before the country finally took notice of the grave injustice against a boy who did nothing wrong. Her tears on TV moved the public, and a recalcitrant media, to pay attention.
“What I’ve come to think is that you have to cry,” she told news.com.au, with a touch of mirth. “You have to be the squeakiest wheel.
“With Cassius Turvey, it was beyond a joke that Seven and Nine were not touching that story. That was absolutely ridiculous. And for a lot of people, it took me crying, to know he was a family member of mine, for them to have a connection.
“He was an exemplary teenager and even he doesn’t survive the colony. [Crying on TV] is what it takes. How long do we have to be polite for? It’s time that Australia turns that apathy into action.”
Jacobs is reflecting on the disconnect between the experience of First Nations people and how they’re represented – disparagingly or often not at all – on mainstream media. And where the role of SBS’s Indigenous network NITV plugs that hole.
Jacobs is best known for her work on Studio 10 and the soon-to-launch 10 News First: Midday, but she also hosts NITV news and current affairs program The Point, alongside John Paul Janke.
With a foot in each world – Indigenous TV and a commercial network – gives her a unique perspective on the differences.
Jacobs highlighted that The Point was covering the stories of how Aboriginal communities were affected by Covid well before everyone else caught on.
“It took weeks for those stories to filter through to mainstream media – of there being no food, of Wilcannia being cut off, the only store in town being shut, people with Covid having to camp out in tents to isolate. We were telling those stories.
“We are breaking stories of national significance because we are trusted to tell the stories, but also we care about the stories.”
Jacobs said they eventually appeared on mainstream media because it couldn’t be ignored by then.
Tonight, she is one of the hosts of NITV’s 10th anniversary concert, From the Heart of Our Nation, broadcast live from Uluru.
The three-hour event will feature Troy Cassar-Daley, Christine Anu, Electric Fields, JK-47, Casey Donovan, King Stingray and Jem Cassar-Daley, as well as dancers from the Anangu community and other Indigenous artists.
Designed to be a celebration of Indigenous storytelling and culture, the concert marks 10 years since NITV was launched in the same spot at the foothills of Uluru on the lands of Anangu.
“NITV means so much to different people,” Jacobs said. “I come from Noongar country, and we used to call it ‘Noongar TV’. That’s what it was like for my family.
“It was this thing of ‘What do you mean there are people just like me telling our stories and platforming people like me telling the stories?’. It means a lot to people.”
And having someone such as Jacobs, who is willing to use her voice, means a lot to people as well, not just the Indigenous community but the wider one too.
She understands all too well the responsibility of having that voice and her obligation to use it.
“We all have the intention, the passion and the compassion,” she said. “But not all of us have a camera pointed at us, and a microphone. So, if you ever are in that position, you have to step up. It’s not even a question of whether you choose to or not.
“You have to be completely brutally honest with the Australian public because we’ve been polite for too long. My dad and his generation were all about delicate diplomacy and there are still people who are treading lightly and asking people to come on the journey with us.
“But at the same time, we need to tell people what it’s really like out there, that people are having trouble existing and keeping their head above water.
“And we have to celebrate the amazing achievements of our people as well, which is what tonight is all about.
“It’s about celebrating our existence and our survival.”
NITV From the Heart of Our Nation is simulcast on NITV and SBS at 7.30pm AEDT tonight, and available to stream on SBS On Demand
The writer travelled to Uluru as a guest of SBS
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