Black Witness: The Power of Indigenous Media
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Amy McQuire has been writing on Indigenous affairs since she was 17 years old.
Her essay collection, Black Witness, showcases how journalism can hold the powerful accountable and make the world more equitable, arguing why the media needs to believe black witnesses.
We took five minutes with Amy to talk about this powerful, and personal, book.
How have you seen black journalism evolve over the past two decades?
Black journalism has continually been underfunded and under attack. There has been a difficulty in funding truly independent Aboriginal journalism. The Aboriginal community-controlled radio sector, for example, which is a true example of self-determination is constantly in need of adequate funding.
There were a lot of hopes with the emergence of NITV, but that changed when it merged with SBS and it was always a far cry from what had been originally called for by many in communities and in black media. I don’t think it’s truly independent because of the fact it is under SBS. There have been really great changes though in relation to digital media, and the potential it gives for black voices and new forms of radical black media forms. There’s also the continual presence of print media like the National Indigenous Times and Koori Mail. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people use social media and new technologies to disrupt imperial media and damaging stereotypes daily.
There are also more black journos working within imperial media – but I find conversations centred on diversifying media problematic, because it does not fundamentally change the structure, and racism remains endemic in these institutions.
How have your perceptions of ‘good journalism’ changed?
I no longer believe in most of the principles with determine who is a ‘good’ journalist and who is not. I don’t believe in concepts like objectivity and impartiality as methods to establishing truth because I don’t believe you could ever be truly objective, and to be impartial is to in some sense believe in an objective perspective or viewpoint. Only white people are allowed to be truly objective, but this is just a dominant viewpoint – the viewpoint of the colonising power. This comes from seeing how it is often the liberal progressive press that often does the most damage and harm to Aboriginal peoples.
Tell us about anger… do you get angry? How do you channel your angry-adjacent feelings?
I always get angry and believe anger is a very important emotion to fuel your work. This is also why I don’t believe in objectivity – I believe you have to be emotionally invested in the stories you write about. If you are not angry at the system, if you are not angry at injustice, if you are not angry at state violence, if you are not angry about genocide, then this means what you write is passive and not fit for use. Of course – I also think in doing so you have to think about self-care and I think one of the parts of self-care is believing that the work you are doing is important and the anger is being used appropriately. Taking time away and investing in things that bring you joy is also really important because rest is critical to the ongoing fight. That’s why I believe in building a workforce which has care and support built into it.
You say that black journalism is an act of activism. Was this your intention starting out as journo, or something you learnt along the way?
No it wasn’t, because I don’t think I understood the media in the way I understand it now. I began journalism in the time period just before the NT intervention – so it was a shattering of everything I thought I knew about journalism. I saw media as a reproducer of violence, and so if media could be a reproducer of violence, then why can’t an independent black media be a part of the resistance to this violence?
And what is the difference you see between activism and independence?
Independence is to be transparent about your positioning and about who you work for. Every journalist, even in mainstream media, is in advocacy or activism. It’s a lie that journalists aren’t activists/advocates – you are always advocating for something –whether it’s for a victim of violence or for the police state. There is a REASON you are doing that story. There is a MESSAGE you want to communicate through that story. But ‘impartial’ ‘objective’ journalism presents itself as the opposite to what it is. So it is better to be honest, and to be independent – to not be bought. Yes – my work is for blackfellas, but NO, it’s not funded by mining companies, for example. The distinction between who gets to be an activist/advocate and who is an impartial, good and ‘caring’ journalist, is whether you are white or not.
What some books you can recommend our readers?
Read Palestinian, Indigenous and black writers. Read Ramzy Baroud, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Sara Saleh, Saree Makdisi, Edward Said, Samah Sabawi, Chelsea Watego, Larissa Behrendt, Ronnie Gorrie, Amanda Porter, Alison Whitaker, Susan Abulhawa, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Robyn Maynard, Noura Erakat, Alexis Wright, Ellen van Neervan, Walter Rodney, Robin D G Kelly, Angela Davis, June Jordan. Read those who are attending to what is happening in the world right now, or whose work speaks and provides tools for the world we are living in.
What’s on your TBR?
I have so many. There are two recently released non-fiction books that I want to read: Samah Sabawi’s Cactus Pear For My Beloved: A Family Story from Gaza, and When Cops Are Criminals edited by Ronnie Gorrie. I also like to read a lot of fiction in my down time usually from here, and from around the world. I am reading Ernesto Sabato’s On Heroes and Tombs and Babel by R F Kuang. The next fiction book I want to read is Politica by Yumna Kassab as I just met her at a writer’s festival and she is brilliant, and of course, eventually, Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright.
Black Witness: The Power of Indigenous Media is out now.
