Assignment 1: Personal Reflection and Analysis

The National Indigenous Television (NITV) channel is an Indigenous and Torres

Strait Islander channel broadcasting programs produced by Indigenous Australians.

Last Saturday night, I watched two programs on NITV; the 5:30 pm NITV news and

episode 11 of Living Black. This personal reflection will cover, my feelings towards

the issues, the way the issues are raised, and how the issues are presented in both

programs.

When watching both of these programs, the powerful message I received was the

importance of how destructive it would be for Indigenous people living in remote

communities having to leave their homelands to seek medical support and require

them to move to the cities. The first issue on NITV news was regarding the risk of

Indigenous people contracting the coronavirus in remote communities. Scott

Morrison stated that remote communities would be especially at risk if an outbreak

were to occur. Indigenous people are most at risk as in these remote communities as

there is very limited or no medical support. If these people contracted the virus, they

would need to leave their families and homeland and move to the cities to seek

medical support. A similar issue in the show ‘Living Black’ follows an Anangu

woman, Inawintji Williamson from the APY lands. Inawintji suffers from Renal

disease where she has been forced to move from her remote homeland, family and

friends to receive dialysis in Adelaide. Inawintji had to choose between staying in her

homeland and with family and die or move to the city to seek urgent medical support.
She explained how her mental health had taken a turn for the worse as she explains

her culture has been taken away from her (NITV, 2020).

PERSONAL FEELINGS

After extending my knowledge on why Indigenous people are not getting adequate

health requirements, it saddened me as to how they can’t even get these essential

medical treatments. After watching the episode of Living Black and acquiring the

information on Indigenous health, it has made me view Inawintji as such a brave

woman. She had moved away from her family to receive medical treatment, and I

can understand how hard it would have been to make that decision to leave her life

behind and move away for her health. It’s not only her family she is leaving behind,

but her culture, lifestyle and food (NITV, 2020). I know I take health care for granted.

With the nearest hospital a two-minute drive from my house and medical practice at

the top of my street and when going to them, not having to pay a cent. Then

watching what Inawintji had to go through to be able to get her dialysis, it made me

realise how lucky I am to be able to get medical support. From viewing the program,

I have learnt how important it is not got into these remote areas and spread harmful

viruses and disease to our most vulnerable. People living in remote areas, do not

have these facilities, and we need to understand it is much harder for them to seek

medical support than us. 

In many remote areas, there are limited to no health services. These people may not

have the transport to be able to get to and from hospitals and health care services or

lack of accommodation. If an Indigenous person caught the coronavirus, they would

need to seek medical support. When getting medical support, they would need to

leave their families and homeland to get to a hospital in the regional areas. Being

away from their families and homeland can play a big part in their mental health. If I

were in these Indigenous peoples situation, I would be terrified. These people would

be moving away from everything they know, their culture, their homes and their

lifestyle. 

Both of these stories have the prevailing trend of Indigenous people leaving their life

and culture and moving for their health in order to survive. By watching Living Black,

it gave me a more in-depth understanding of how important the land and culture is to

Indigenous people and what it means to them when having to move away. Their

home and land are there identify, and if they leave their land and home, they are

leaving their identity. I realised that we are so similar. In our homes, we feel that

sense of belonging and comfort, and in our suburb, we feel at home. If we had to

move to a remote location after living in the city for our whole lives, we would be

missing our homes, family, our culture and our lifestyle. We are all the same. 

To make sense of how they connected, I constructed a mind

map answering the questions on how the issues are raised, the way the issues

are raised, and how the issues are presented in both programs.
ISSUES RAISED

The issues throughout both programs were how badly coronavirus or any other

medical incident could affect Indigenous people living in remote communities. Both

the programs talk about how their mental health is also impacted as they have to

leave their homelands and families behind to seek urgent medical attention. They

have to choose between leaving the bush in order to survive or stay in their

homeland and die. 

THE WAY ISSUES ARE RAISED

When watching the NITV news, the issues were raised by the news reporter in a

very professional way. In the show Living Black, the issues were presented in a

community centred, belonging and nurturing way. 

HOW THE ISSUES ARE PRESENTED 

The first program I watched was the NITV news. I was surprised at how professional

the set of the news program looked, and it looked very similar to how a mainstream

channels studio would look like. I was also surprised at how professional and very

spoken the Indigenous news reported was. I was expecting her to sound like a

stereotypical Aboriginal woman. NITV news stories were very similar to what

mainstream channels would broadcast. They presented their main news, sport and

their weather, including some remote areas.

In Living Black, it reminded me of the show ’60 minutes’. When watching the show, it

came across as entirely professional, and I wasn’t expecting this. I ended up

watching three episodes of Living Black as I was hooked on the show and wanted to

keep watching. Living Black was a passionate, community centred show. 

CREATIVE THINKING

After watching both programs, they both share the issue of Indigenous people having

to move from their remote locations to cities to receive medical support. Before
undertaking this assignment, I was asking myself the questions below and wanted to

learn more ways we could help Indigenous people and their health. After completing

this assignment, I was able to successfully answer each of my questions.  

1. How can we support Indigenous people in remote

locations to help them receive medical support?

REASONED SOLUTION:

A team of medical professionals could visit remote

locations once a month in a medical bus and do checkups on everyone. By this

happening, it would improve Indigenous health and would not require them to

leave their homelands. This would also hopefully prevent major illnesses by

them receiving more checkups to catch things early. 

2. How can Indigenous people eat more healthily to

improve their health?

REASONED SOLUTION:

Make fresh produce more affordable for people living in

remote areas?

3. How can we improve mental health for Indigenous people

when they do have to move away from their homelands for health reasons?

REASONED SOLUTION:

Ensure family can make regular visits, photos of family

and homeland, making sure they understand once their health is in order, they

can go home, phone calls and doing activities that reflect their culture. 

 
 

 After watching the NITV news and Living Black, it

has placed a great deal of emphasis on how important community, culture,

country and family is for the Aboriginal community. After watching NITV, I

believe I now understand a bit more on the issues that are going on in the

Indigenous community. From watching the issues being addressed, the way they

are presented, and how the issues are raised, it is clear that the Indigenous

community is ever-changing and evolving while staying true to their culture and

identity. 
 References

NITV, (2020). NITV. Retrieved from http://www.nitv.org.au 

Achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality within a generation - A

human rights based approach | Australian Human Rights Commission. (2020).

Retrieved from https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/publications/achieving-

aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health-equality-within

Indigenous Australians Overview - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2020).

Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/population-

groups/indigenous-australians/overview