Listening to First Nations Voices – Podcast 9

Welcome to Listening to First Nations Voices!  Our group approached the Listening to First Nations Voices podcast not only with excitement, but with the idea to focus on topical content, that was relatable within the contemporary cultural and political climate.  Our two episodes were inspired by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.   The movement is complex and multifaceted; therefore we narrowed our focus, exploring how social media has been used as a tool to further the momentum of the movement.

The BLM movement resonates with Indigenous Australians, as the movement fights for equal treatment of black lives at the hands of institutional organisations.  Social media has provided a platform for Indigenous voices to reframe the narrative of Australian history whilst voicing their support for the movement and creating avenues for the wider Australian community to be able to engage meaningfully with the vision of the movement.

We thought it was an important aspect of our exploration of social media and BLM, to see how videos on social media platforms, such as TikTok, are received by Indigenous Australians.  To gain an understanding of how social media can be used to contextualise the BLM movement in Australian society.  We asked Indigenous Australians how they perceived societal dynamics and if this is an accurate reflection of the Australian community, as well as what their roles are/should be in the reeducation of Australia.  In our second episode we present the opinions of young Indigenous Australians who are all users of social media, and whether they acknowledge the influence of Indigenous Australians on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

The Listening to First Nations Voices podcast was created by Indigenous and non-Indigenous University of Canberra students. The idea for this podcast came from Associate Professor Samia Goudie who is passionate about Indigenous people and culture and is attempting to expand people’s knowledge on the subject and start a conversation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. This podcast was developed to educate people on Indigenous ways of being, doing and knowing, and to inspire awareness and a deeper understanding and appreciation of the richness Aboriginal people bring to Australia.

A bit of information about the team behind this installment of Listening to First Nations Voices:

Ellyse Dahl

Hi, my name is Ellyse, I am a non-Indigenous student, and this is my last year of studying International Studies at the UC.  I elected to be part of Listening to First Nations Voices Podcast, as I have a great respect for Indigenous cultural histories and wished to gain further insight and understanding into the contemporary issues effecting Australia’s first nations peoples.  Through the group’s decision to pursue a topical issue for our episodes, I was able to contextualise some of the societal injustices that are currently impacting upon Indigenous peoples.  I believe that through consistent dialogue, society can begin to rectify the many imbalances and cross-cultural miscommunications that are present within Australian society, and this podcast is a great way to facilitate that discourse.

Jessica Cordwell

Hey, thanks for taking the time to check out our work. My name is Jess, I am a non-indigenous student, in my final semester of my Communication & Media (Journalism) degree here at UC. I wanted to be a part of this project as I thought it was an opportunity to create something meaningful with my last couple of months at uni. Along with knowing that I lacked any in depth knowledge about Australia’s first nation peoples, I’ve spent a few years working in education and saw firsthand just how underrepresented and ignored their voices are. I believe that the best way for us to be educated on topics surrounding first nations peoples is to provide them with a platform to tell us themselves, something that this podcast is trying to achieve.

Demi Choden Dorji

I am Demi and I am a final year student majoring in Global Studies. This semester for Professional Practice 1, I decided to join the Listening to First Nations Voices Podcast initially to educate myself better on the Australian Indigenous history. Being an international student, I have to admit that I did not have a lot of prior knowledge about the Indigenous Australian history but working on this project gave me a lot of new knowledge about Indigenous history, it helped me gain new insights of all the contemporary issues that affect the day-today life of the first nations people and it also helped me gain a brand-new perspective of the beautiful and vibrant Indigenous history. So, I am very grateful to be here at the University of Canberra and be able to gain such diverse, cross-cultural experience.

Passang Dorji

Hi, I am Passang Dorji, an international student from Bhutan. This final year of my degree and I have chosen listening to first nations voices project. Being in land of Aussie, I felt it would of great advantage having better insights and understanding about the Australian indigenous culture so that due acknowledgement and respect are put in place. The research by the team in coming out with the podcast helped me further to contextualize in-depth understanding particularly, about the social injustice and racial discrimination that is happening almost in daily basis all across the world. In summary, being the part of this team was great success despite, me possessing little or no knowledge of about the issue. Understanding the black lives matters in relation to Australian context was great part of this project which I believe that it would serve base-line information about these particular issues for student like myself who have no information about it. Finally, I am happy to be part of this project where most of team member possessed better understanding about the issues and I am lucky enough.

Jenaya Gibbs-Muir

Hi there, my name is Jenaya Gibbs-Muir. I am an indigenous student from Dubbo New South Wales, currently studying in my second year of my degree. I am studying a double degree of Arts/Communications and media, with a specialist major in journalism and a major in global studies.  While in the class professional practice 1 I chose to do the First Nations Podcast as I thought I could give a first-hand experience of what it was life was like for me growing up as a stong Aboriginal woman. I have always wanted to educate people on issues to do with Indigenous people and help those who aren’t educated to better understand why there is problems in the treatment of Indigenous people. Doing this podcast has given me an opportunity to not only give my own insight on the issues but also allow people to understand that Indigenous people all have different views on these issues, one person doesn’t speak for all us as a culture. I do think through continued learning and reeducation we as a nation can grow to a point where we can live as one cohesive society.