Charmaine ingram

G iving voice to stories untold www.firstnationstelegraph.com

Charmaine Ingram

by Jacqueline Fetchet 4 July 2013

“

I wouldn’t consider myself a leader – I would consider myself a voice.”

Sitting in a little café, tucked away in an alley off Broadway, journalist Charmaine Ingram tells her story of growing up between cities, reporting in remote communities and the sources of her inspiration.

A rising star in Indigenous media, her work has spanned radio, print and video-journalism, earning her current position as a reporter on ABC’s 7:30 News Report.

Born in Melbourne, Charmaine is of Cook Island and Murri descent.

Her mother is Indinji from Cairns, north Queensland, and she had a Great Grandfather who was a member of the stolen generation and a Grandmother who was raised on the Yarrabah Anglican mission, 40 km south of Cairns.

Her father is from New Zealand, of Cook Island heritage.

Charmaine has grown up between Melbourne and Cairns, maintaining a strong connection to family, despite frequently moving and travelling independently.

She went to high school in both Cairns and Melbourne and worked briefly as a dental assistant with the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service before pursuing further education.

After studying towards an Arts degree at Monash in Indigenous

studies and Japanese, she decided to pursue a career in journalism because it seemed the right fit – “I talked a lot, my family said I was the good writer in the family and I enjoyed it.”

She returned to Cairns, working in tourism as a flight attendant and on cruise ships to save money before taking up a cadetship at Austereo Southern Cross radio station in Brisbane and studying an online journalism course through

Deakin University.

“It was a bit of a change going down to Brissy, I was just a girl with a backpack and a guitar,” she reflects with a smile.

“But it was hard on my own. I went from a champagne lifestyle to water very quickly.”

Suddenly she had lost the support of her family and at times struggled with homesickness, but she knew this was the career path she wanted and recognised that these eyePage 1

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opening moments were all part of the experience.

“I wanted to tell my people’s stories,” she explains.

“There are not enough Indigenous people reporting on our own stories.”

After a period working at the National Indigenous Radio Service, Charmaine was offered a position with National Indigenous Television (NITV).

“I wanted to get my head around the big issues” and NITV gave her the opportunity to travel, network and expose some of the confronting realities faced in Aboriginal Australia.

As a video-journalist, there was a significant amount of on the job training, which she quickly embraced and seized the chance to travel from Broome to Mornington to Uluru.

One of the most confronting stories was from Uluru where she reported on housing issues and the associated poverty.

“It was pretty upsetting”, she says solemnly.

“Seeing my people, knowing they have thirty people in one house, with high rates of suicide and depression and just ten minutes down the road there is a luxury ecotourism resort.”

Such contrasts fuel her passion to work to expose these inequalities, but these experiences also give her inspiration and motivation.

“I was really welcomed into the community.

“They are such beautiful people; the kids are so smiley and fun in front of the camera!” She pauses to reflect on this poignant moment before explaining how the Intervention has affected the Northern Territory.

She says the government don’t listen to how locals want to control their communities and little autonomy has been given back to the people.

“A lot of money has been spent – but for what?” she asks.

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Charmaine believes that it is the communities with self-imposed rules and governance who are able to prosper when they are given the chance to dictate how things are run.

“When I see these realities,” she says, “I think ‘I should be here and I should be telling these stories’.”

The biggest lessons Charmaine has learnt, and the advice she shares with others, is to always dream big, believe in yourself and not be scared to leave home or to fail, because that’s just part of the journey.

She would like to see more Indigenous people working in the media because of the different perspective they can give to a story and the importance of sharing community knowledge and connections.

“I love the diversity of our culture, I am constantly learning,” she admits.

“I don’t feel personally disconnected from my culture because our stories are always the first I get to tell…I’ve found a new family here, with Aboriginal people from all over and we all share the same feelings of living away from home. It’s a new community.”

Charmaine draws her inspiration from the history her culture has endured and the challenges they continue to face.

She grew up attending NAIDOC events about land rights, sovereignty, Mabo and black deaths in custody – “there was real frustration and aggression in the voices in those days”.

She was raised by a strong grandmother who instilled the truth that ‘knowledge is power’ and threatened with floggings if she ever tried to ‘wag’ school.

When asked the three things that inspire her, she thought long and sipped her peppermint tea before responding: land hand backs, the empowerment of female leadership and cultural celebrations.

The inspiration is captured in

moments – “seeing the Elder’s faces when they receive the land back is incredibly moving...Women such as Larissa Behrendt and Sue Gordon are women who have risen to the top and done it all on their own, which just shows you what is possible…But our mob coming together at festivals and events is really such a nice feeling, being united after time apart – it’s electric!”

For the future, Charmaine wants to see greater recognition of Indigenous people, including through the Constitution.

“Anything that has our people recognised is a positive thing because we have been forgotten for so long,” she states.

Movements such as inclusion in the constitution are a step in the right direction, but she doesn’t believe it holds all the answers – it’s important to remain optimistic above everything.

As she explains succinctly, “we have only survived because of hope and resilience. We wouldn’t be here if we had just given up.”

An inspiration in her own right, Charmaine is leading the way to promoting a higher presence of Indigenous people in the media, through NITV and mainstream sources – “It’s important for non- Indigenous Australia to see Aboriginal faces on their most watched programs.”

She wants to continue to tell her people’s stories and her long-term goal is to be a foreign correspondent.

Following her own advice, she dreams big because “it’s not about pigeon-holing yourself, it’s about broadening your awareness of issues in the world around you.”

Charmaine will continue to be an honest, proud and resilient face of Australian media, providing a voice for her people and telling their stories to the best of her abilities.

For more information about NAIDOC week 2013, please check out: www.naidoc.org.au