SBS ‘racism’ drove indigenous writer to ‘suicidal thoughts’

Indigenous screenwriter Kodie Bedford has slammed the workplace culture at SBS, where she started her career.

Australian screenwriter Kodie Bedford has described SBS as a 'deeply racist' workplace.

Australian screenwriter Kodie Bedford has described a deeply racist workplace culture at SBS, where she started her career as a cadet journalist.

Ms Bedford, now a writer for the hit ABC TV show Mystery Road, has written a long essay in the form of a Twitter thread, saying she and other indigenous cadets were made to feel like “dopey blackfellas in the corner, ticking boxes” during her time at the multicultural broadcaster.

They endured jokes about alcoholism, and had their accents mocked, she said.

Continuing thread: I ended up altering my work hours so I would come in late and finish around midnight so I wouldn’t have to spend so much time with them. My health suffered, this is where I lost my period because of stress.

— Aunty Kodie (@Ms_Kodie) June 29, 2020

In a thread called “My First Career” Ms Bedford, who uses the name “Ms Kodie” and “Aunty Kodie” on Twitter, said: “It has taken me a long time to get over, because I still carry trauma and feel sick about it.”

But, she said, with colleagues and others sharing their stories as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, she wanted to “add my voice”.

“I won out a journalist cadetship with SBS,’ she began. “I only mention SBS because it’s touted as a champion of diverse voices.

“It wasn’t a champion for me. I still believe in the SBS charter and mission and personally think they have the best content in (Australia) and a lot of good people in the newsroom.”

But, she said, she was made to endure “jokes” about alcohol and forced to clean up her desk like a child, in front of other staff, even though the desks of other colleagues were messier.

She said indigenous staff were mocked for their accents, and encouraged to re-do their scripts over and over, as if they couldn’t speak English properly.

“I started out as a pretty solid journalist,” she said. “I could string a story together pretty quickly. But by the end of two years my writing was worse, my self-esteem destroyed, I had suicidal thoughts.”

She said she was told to add a didgeridoo to one of her stories, and mocked for pronouncing “aunty” as a blackfella would “aun-ee” (even though this was a blackfella news program).

“I understand that this was a national broadcaster and I had to speak in the formal English way but what should have been a 10-minute session in the voice-over box, would turn into two hours and I’d come out defeated, ashamed of the way I spoke,” she wrote.

A graduate of the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Communications and a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney, Ms Bedford started at SBS in 2008.

She said other cadets in her intake were introduced as “the cadets” while she was often introduced as “Kodie, the indigenous cadet”.

“It’s always stayed with me,” she said.

“And then Walkley season would happen.

“Awards were given out to white journos telling our stories.

“We had a running joke about the way non-indigenous journos would do a stint at our program and leave with a Walkley.”

She said she was subjected to “continual micro-aggressive racist comments, the only way I can describe them”.

“I was told I was one of the good ones,” she said.

“Comments were made about my looks. Apparently, I looked more Aboriginal on certain days.

“There were jokes about made about alcohol. I was shame.”

She said she was told she “had an attitude problem” when she started to “get short” with the person making racist comments.

She put up a post on her Facebook page saying “I faced racism today” she was called into her superior’s office, and told to take it down “even though I didn’t mention any names or that it was at work”.

“No one cared about the racism,” she said.

“It was more about protecting that person and the company.

“My colleagues and I were made to feel dumb and all our confidence had gone.”

She said a non-indigenous journalist did the “white-fragility thing and made themselves the victim.

“Us Aboriginal journalists were the ones being horrible to the non-Indigenous staff. They threatened to sue me.

“My last humiliation was when this person made a complaint about my desk.

“I had just go back from a trip and tapes and papers were everywhere.

“I sat outside the news director’s office and they said it was a bad image for visiting people.

“I’d been there for two years and nothing was ever said bout my desk until I complained about racism in the office.

“In front of all my colleagues I was made to clean my desk (even though there were desks in a worst state than mine). I felt dirty and humiliated, suicidal.

“The only support I got was from my Aboriginal colleagues. Some of us speak about the trauma we still carry. We want T-shirts “I survived as an Aboriginal journalist”.

She finished the thread saying: “I want to end on a positive. One of my colleagues went to work for a different media organisation and won a Walkley (they supported them entering). It was proof we were good.’

An SBS spokesperson said: “We were deeply saddened to read Kodie’s account of her experiences at SBS in 2008.

“Racism is abhorrent and we are committed to ensuring it has no place in SBS.”