Thread by @IndigenousX

Working as a Communications Expert I found myself again often in lonely positions. When I started in this field back in early 2000 there wasn’t a lot of First Nations’ Comms specialist. One person who was leading the way & supported me is @glendat45 who is part of @murrigellas

Who also have another 🔥 comms specialist & businesswoman @leesawatego who I’ve been fortunate to get to work alongside both of them now & gain so much from their knowledge in this field

It’s a difficult field to work in as you are constantly battling non-Indigenous ppl who think they know how to ‘speak to us’ who question constantly why material should be written in a certain way, who feel I am threatening their expertise as comms/social media/media ppl

It’s a large reason why I’ve gone out on my own, to work mainly with Indigenous ppl/orgs. White orgs & depts are hard work. They have Indigenous staff & audiences, but they don’t want to communicate the right way. I went into comms bcoz it was a natural move, I am a storyteller

A few incidents stick out in my mind about the battles I have faced. I have been the ‘just let Kerry look over it’ person at the end of projects to get Blak seal of approval. One was World Refugee Day. Why was I even needed I hear you ask. Well...

Someone, then many ppl thought putting First Nations’ ppl in a World Refugee Video was a ‘great idea’ 😳 so it’s all been pretty much approved, comes to me to ‘look over’ aaaand yep. There are Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander ppl in a World Refugee Video (brrrrt wtf)

I explain err we are not refugees. To be told. The message is ‘it doesn’t matter how you got here or how long you’ve been here, we are all Australians’ brrrt 😳😳 um nope. It actually does matter. We didn’t ‘get here’ & nope, nope, nope! Needless to say they didn’t want to budge

And I argued & argued & argued & then brought in other Indigenous staff for support, becoz I was the only Aboriginal person in the dept of 160. So I was always battling alone. It was exhausting. Blak back-up arrived, bcoz ppl wouldn’t listen to me & they changed the video 🙄 TG

Another time it was Reconciliation Week & we had a quote from a senior Aboriginal staff member for social media. But when it was posted it had grammatical errors. I said remove it, fix it & repost it. To be told no we can’t 😳 errr this isn’t a request, I’m telling you, bcoz

Do you know what this looks like & how this Aboriginal person feels having their quote look like they ‘don’t speak ‘properly’’ umm they didn’t know the impact. But no still can’t remove it 😳🙄 fk talk about 🤬 I have so many stories, I know Blak comms staff would too, it’s a

Lot of hard work explaining, ‘justifying’ to white ppl, why you should be listening to me, the Blak comms specialist you hired for my expertise. I often look at big products/programs with analysis. It’s pretty obvious they didn’t have a Blak comms specialist.True gawd we all know

Or maybe they did & the trauma those ppl have endured working on these materials. Close The Gap 2019 report & this photo & comes to mind. 👇🏽

Seeing Red Cross Mark 40 yrs of the trauma teddy reminded me of the discussion around a batch knitted bears for kids in the Top End. It didn’t get posted On social Media for fear of racist repercussions. Like why? Plus. They have teddies in all colours 🤷🏽‍♀️

Have I seen blatant racist material over my comms career. Absolutely. From orgs/depts who should know better 🙄 I’m sure every Blak comms person has, particularly those like me who worked solo. We get traumatised, fix it, ‘educate’ ppl (who listen 🙄) & repeat. The hardest part I

Found was the expectation that Kerry will fix it to no impact on me. To non-Indigenous ppl in comms they are simply words or photos. It becomes clinical almost. Ppl arguing over a sentence or word 🙄 but these are more to me to Indigenous ppl. We have had white ppl write about us

For over 200yrs & it’s about controlling our story, our narrative, our portrayal. Then to fix their shit & simply move on to the next crisis they create to fix. I’m getting stressed thinking about it

I’ve done a range of comms work, but speech writing I found the worst. Being treated like shit, other Blak staff being treated like shit & then having to bang out amazing speeches about how great the org was. I called it mental fuckery.

I worked primary in comms but had a glimpse into marketing/fundraising in a NFP 😬 I asked why didn’t we talk about our Indigenous programs? To be told ‘research, shows 60yo Betty from Surfers Paradise doesn’t want to donate to Indigenous ppl/programs’ I’m like, well fk Betty

Do we want that racist old woman’s $ 🤷🏽‍♀️ clearly we did & probably most NFP would have too. I mean I can’t speak across the board. But they all do their research & donor personas blah blah to target $