NAIDOC Week celebrates and recognises the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It’s an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories. The POPSUGAR team is sharing stories to help educate, honour and guide in our continued push for change, so be sure to find all our pieces here. Val Morgan Digital acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
You don’t need to be working in the industry to recognise Australian media’s diversity problem. Turn on the television, and you’re presented with an array of caucasian people, and sometimes, if you’re lucky, networks will sprinkle in a bit of colour.
We are slowly starting to see improvements, however. From Melissa Leong fronting MasterChef Australia to Brooke Blurton being the first bisexual, Indigenous Bachelorette, people of colour are starting to make their mark.
It’s long overdue.
Amongst the sea of journalists, reporters and television personalities, Narelda Jacobs stands out. The Studio 10 presenter and Whadjuk Noongar woman regularly advocates for minorities and those from marginalised communities, and after being appointed as a Legacy ‘23 ambassador for Football Australia, she’s shifting her energy towards women in sport.
“When you look at sport in general, people would probably think it already has a lot of different cultures involved and it’s welcoming of multicultural Australia,” Jacobs told POPSUGAR Australia.
“But even AFL, NRL, basketball, netball, all the different sports are so proactive in community engagement because they all feel like they aren’t doing enough.”
Through her influence and position, Jacobs often raises her voice for the voiceless, and this is no exception. The Intergenerational Review of Australian Sport revealed just how abysmal media coverage surrounding female athletes is, with approximately 8% of sponsorships and 7% of broadcast opportunities directed towards women’s sport.
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Combining that with the challenges women face in the sporting world, it’s evident that pursuing an athletic career isn’t simple.
“What I would like to see in the future of women’s sports is for there to be no obstacles. It would be wonderful to see change rooms because incredibly, there are still community clubs that don’t have women’s change rooms,” said Jacobs.
“I wouldn’t want there to be obstacles when it comes to the cost of joining a club because that’s been an obstacle for some people. I just want it to be more accessible.”
Jacobs is booked and busy. Her most recent venture is female-led talk show, Dinner Guest, where she, alongside Susan Carland and Melissa Leong, invite a guest over for dinner to chat about their lived experiences, helping to elevate underrepresented voices.
The entire premise is groundbreaking, as Jacobs, Leong and Carland all belong to different minority groups. We have Jacobs, who is a queer Indigenous woman, Leong who is Asian Australian and Carland, who is a Muslim.
It’s also the first female-led talk show in Australia — which is shocking in itself.
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“Isn’t that incredible to think that Australia has never actually had an all-female talk show? But I wanted to take it further. I wanted it to be a talk show with marginalised voices, people from underrepresented communities,” explained Jacobs.
“That’s where the idea came from. It was hearing people from marginalised communities saying, ‘we do not see ourselves on screen’. So, it’s been with me as an idea for about a year, and in my mind it was only three main hosts — Melissa Leong, Susan Carland and myself.
“They are incredible, trailblazing women. And I want to be in their company,” she said.
The response so far has been incredible. Jacobs revealed that “people have been flooding my social media by saying thank you”.
For so long, people have longed to see themselves on screen, and thanks to Jacobs, Leong and Carland, they now are.
While Jacobs is now decorated and respected in her own right, throughout her career, she’s faced racism and discrimination simply for being an Aboriginal woman. That’s just one of the reasons she’s so passionate about sharing stories about the people from her community and beyond.
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“I’ve been championing positive stories of diversity for as long as I can remember. But it’s almost like I know what the answer is going to be when I pitch one of those stories. There was no interest for the longest time,” she said.
“What is really outstanding now is that there is an appetite and hunger to put out positive stories.
“I am the first person to admit that I helped perpetuate negative stereotypes as a mainstream journalist, just by the types of stories that we did and the images we put to air of Aboriginal people.
“And I try to be the champion to balance that out with positive stories because those stories are a true reflection of who we are as First Nations peoples.”
Jacobs, who grew up following Christianity, is now rediscovering her roots.
Her father, Cedric Jacobs, was stolen from his mother, Eileen Jacobs, at the age of nine years old, along with his two younger brothers in the early 1950s.
Forced to assimilate, Cedric was not allowed to speak his native language or practise his culture, and the last time he heard his mother was her anguished cries from outside a Perth courtroom.
It is said Eileen died from a broken heart, as she was unable to fill the void of her three stolen children. Cedric passed away in 2018 after finding solace in Christianity.
“After my dad passed away and I was preparing his eulogy, I did a deep dive into interviews that he had done,” Jacobs said. “We were very blessed as a family because he did a lot of interviews and is on the record saying a lot of things because he was interviewed a lot during his lifetime.
“And one thing piqued my interest is when he said to the interviewer that as a child — he was about 11 or 12 — he decided to beat the white man at his own game. And I think that informed his parenting, and informed the rest of his life,” Jacobs solemnly revealed.
“He wanted to make sure that we were able to walk in both worlds. And be able to succeed in both worlds. That’s kind of how we were brought up.
“He was a very religious, I would have liked to know about my Aboriginal spirituality, because in the Christian faith, everything else is paganistic, so we weren’t taught Dreamtime stories. He decided we were going to have a better childhood than he did.”
The story of Cedric’s is one of tens of thousands within the Aboriginal community. Families torn apart by a government that thought they knew better. As a nation, we still have a long way to go, and it’s time we start to make real progress rather than empty promises.
“In every conversation that we have, in every decision that we make and every policy that we roll out, put First Nations peoples first. Once you get that right, then everyone benefits.”
