Black justice journalism needs to be encouraged and used to fight against racism in Australia, according to the author of new book on Western media.
Black Witness: The Power of Indigenous Media is award-winning journalist Amy McQuire’s non-fiction debut.
A post-doctoral Indigenous fellow at QUT’s School of Communications, Dr McQuire weaves the role of activism in Black media, Indigenous deaths in custody, and issues around the justice system into her book.
Dr McQuire said the collection of essays explored partiality of the Western media and outlined why the media needed to believe Black witnesses.
A Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman from Rockhampton, in Central Queensland, Dr McQuire has spent 20 years reporting on key events involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including numerous deaths in custody, the Palm Island uprising, the Bowraville murders and the Northern Territory Intervention.
She has also exposed the misrepresentations and violence of some of the mainstream media’s reports, as well as their omissions and silences altogether on Indigenous matters.
Dr McQuire said Black Witness showcased how journalism could be used to hold the powerful to account and make the world a more equitable place.
“My work has been sustained by the strength of Black witnesses who continue to speak out and utilise journalism as a tool for advocacy, even when so often journalism has been used against us,” she said.
“This work speaks to the need for the building of a Black Justice Journalism which fights for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Black Justice Journalism is not objective or unbiased, but rather is to be used as a weapon for our people in the continuing fight against racial violence.”
