It’s been a big week for film, television and journalism. After the glitz and glamour of the TV Week Logie Awards on the weekend and the Mid Year Journalism Awards last week, some of our brightest and best talents have been front and centre, being awarded for their incredible work.
Walking the red carpet at the Logies, Network 10 and NITV’s The Point Presenter Narelda Jacobs stole the limelight showcasing Indigenous artists and creatives with her glamorous look.
Her social media has since been awash with images of her dress designed by Maara Collective and her bespoke weave collar created by Indigenous fashion and jewelry brand Yanggurdi.
For the proud Wadjuk-Noongar woman, culture is everything. It’s her pride, her identity, and it’s what she wants to see more of on screen.
Network 10 Presenter Narelda Jacobs attending the 2022 TV Week Logie Awards (Source: Narelda Jacobs Instagram)
"My passion is about bringing the balance to every discussion and every conversation," says Jacobs.
"For the longest time the conversation has been weighted, all white voices. And just lately, we're starting to see the balance come back with women, people of minorities, and all marginalised voices but we haven't quite got it back to balance."
Despite a larger representation of people of colour nominated for awards and taking part in performances on stage at the Logies, the hope for more minorities and First Nations peoples being reflected on screen remains one of Jacobs's big dreams. One she wants to dedicate the rest of her life to.
“Imagine if it's equal? Marginalised voices don't just speak for the people on the margins. They make things better for everyone, so I think that is so important.”
Finding inspiration
It may come as no surprise, but for Jacobs, journalism has always been her passion. From the age of seven, the jingle of a news broadcast would always grab her attention.
“Mum and Dad were news junkies. They would watch all the bulletins, and I remember the Four Corners music so vividly, because it was time that we needed to be quiet, because everyone needed to concentrate.”
At the time Jacob’s father was involved in Indigenous politics, meaning interviews with journalists were frequently done at home.
“I was inspired just seeing people doing it [working in journalism]. They might then be on TV, but they're actually just people that you're relating to. So there was never that feeling that you're different to me or you're better than me. We're actually just all people and their job is to tell a story.”
Narelda Jacobs and her father Cedric Jacobs (Source: Supplied)
From that point on Jacobs’ goal was to become a journalist and tell stories of her own people.
Racism in the workplace
The new millennium saw Jacobs begin her first job in journalism, beginning as a court reporter for Network 10 in Boorloo, Perth. It was a difficult time for the reporter, who was at the time a single mother of an energetic toddler.
“It was really challenging. One day my daughter was injured badly at childcare. I was in the middle of a story, so my Dad had to take her to the hospital. I felt like I couldn't leave that day because there was no one else with young children in the newsroom. There was no one else that understood.”
Despite the trials of family and work, Jacobs's biggest challenges to come in the workplace came from racism.
Narelda Jacobs with her daughter Jade (Souce: Supplied)
“I used to have the view that if you want to see racism, you'll see it. And I think I hid behind that, and it's not been until recent times that I thought back and thought, have I been the victim of racism? You think racism is name calling, you don't think of racism as being unconscious bias and not getting opportunities because people don't think that you have the capacity to do it, or the ability to do it.”
Asked by Living Black’s Karla Grant if she experienced racism in her career, Jacobs recounted a moment her colleague surprised her with his racist sense of humour.
“I was packing up for the day, getting ready to go home, and there was a comment from across the room saying, 'oh, are you going to go line up at the soup kitchen now?' Like that was such an awful thing to say to someone."
"And I remember I came back with, 'yeah, the pea and ham is delicious', it was a shock, but at the time I remember thinking I was just getting attention."
Racist humour wasn’t the only form of racism Jacobs would experience in the newsroom. Looking back, Jacobs feels guilty that she didn’t do more to prevent racism in her early career.
"I think as a young journalist I probably should have been more vocal in calling out things that I thought weren't right, or things that were perpetuating negative stereotypes. And I think I was in that situation where I, myself, was perpetuating negative stereotypes, just purely on the sorts of stories [I was assigned to]."
Journalist Narelda Jacobs in her early career (Source: Supplied)
Having an opinion
The year 2008 saw Jacobs accept the presenter's chair as an anchor for Perth’s Network 10 Nightly News. It was the fulfillment of a childhood dream.
While being promoted for the role in a profile piece for the local Sunday paper, Jacobs announced to the world that she was gay. It was a revelation for the journalist, but it came at a cost. Having such a public role in broadcasting meant that Jacobs was not able to speak her own opinions publicly. The presenter would seemingly have to keep her newfound freedoms quiet.
Things would change in 2017 with the Federal Governments gay marriage plebiscite.
Network 10 Presenter Narelda Jacobs hosting 10 News First (Source: Supplied)
“The No Campaign was getting very loud and very aggressive, and I felt that I had a role that I needed to play. So I asked my work, 'can I get involved?' They said no.”
A few weeks later, the CEO of Network 10 publicly pledged the network's support for the Yes Campaign. Jacobs was given the greenlight to speak publicly and make comment.
"When I was able to make comment, it was almost like a breaking down of the barriers that existed for news presenters and journos to speak public on political issues. It was a big deal.”
Making change through news
Three years after the plebiscite, Jacobs made the career and lifestyle change to move to Sydney, taking up a role as a regular panelist on the news and entertainment program Studio 10. A role where opinion is encouraged; almost a world away from her earlier career.
"Every day is a bit of a challenge because you never know what topic is going to come up or what you're going to be having to draw on your own lived experience to illustrate your point."
Jacobs hopes she can make a difference in trying to change the view of audiences on often difficult topics.
Network 10 Presenter Narelda Jacobs hosting 'Studio 10' alongside Kerri-Anne Kennerley (Source: Network 10)
“Sometimes I do share personally, [in the hope that] people sitting at home think, 'oh, I wasn't expecting to get that from watching morning television’. I pick my moments and try to make the most of those opportunities.”
The Black Lives Matter movement was a turning point for Jacobs, it was during coverage of marches in Australia and overseas that the journalist saw unconscious racism appearing in stories across newsrooms and networks.
"I’d see a story and would be thinking, 'oh, let's take that out, let's change that. That's putting a negative spin on things', often in stories where that wasn’t what the story was about at all.”
Jacobs believes that for stories to be told accurately, diversity in newsrooms is key.
“It's so important to have different lenses looking at the stories we put out. We’ve come a long way, but we’ve really got such a long way to go having diverse newsrooms around the country.”
Looking at the big moments of Indigenous rights and activism in Australia, Jacobs believes that had more Indigenous journalists been writing the articles, our nation would be in a very different place.
“If there were Aboriginal people reporting those stories, we might have a treaty by now. We might have constitutional change by now. But because they have been reported on through a different lens, there's still [an attitude of] ‘what are they going to take from us?’”
Representation remains an ongoing challenge, but Jacobs is determined to make a lasting difference.
"My passion is about bringing the balance to every discussion and every conversation. We need to hear from the minorities. Why can't we hear from all marginalised voices? That’s how we can make change.”
You can hear more from Narelda Jacobs on Living Black, Tuesday at 3:30pm on SBS One or catch up on SBS On Demand
Journalist Narelda Jacobs speaking with Living Black Presenter Karla Grant (Source: Living Black)
