INDIGENOUS X MEDIA PLATFORM TURNS 10
Luke Pearson is the founder of IndigenousX.
The multimedia platform IndigenousX celebrated its tenth anniversary earlier this month.
Gamileroi man Luke Pearson told Ngaarda Media he founded IndigenousX as a Twitter account on which a different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person was invited to post each week.
“We know that a lot of mainstream media still don’t do a very good job of talking to Aboriginal people, talking about Aboriginal people, telling our story,” Mr Pearson said.
“[IndigenousX] was just a place to say, ‘we can tell our own stories.’”
Mr Pearson explained that guests on the IndigenousX account get the chance to talk about whatever they want, be that “mob stuff”, “basketball”, or anything else they’re interested in.
“We always love it when mob come with purpose,” he said.
“It’s also really nice when people are just like, ‘I’m just here to have a yarn. I’m just going to talk about something.’
“But, it is really cool when people are doing things which they know are important, and we can leverage the account and the audience around it.
“People have done health campaigns, education campaigns, suicide prevention work. There’s been a lot of important things. Organising protests, advocacy, community events.
“People don’t have to come with something like that they want to talk about, but it is always nice when we can do real-world stuff and help people do good work.”
To mark the ten-year anniversary, a different host has taken over the Twitter account for a day at a time over the last month.
Hosts have included Megan Krakouer, Mineng Noongar woman and Project Director of the National Suicide Prevention & Trauma Recovery Project, and Professor Sandy O’Sullivan, Wiradjuri person and Professor of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University.
IndigenousX is more than just a Twitter account. It has become a multimedia platform for First Nations voices.
“On the website, we publish our own stories. We’re starting to do more video work and other things,” said Mr Pearson.
“So we’re always happy to hear from people who either have a story to tell or are looking to tell stories themselves and might want to publish an article or put a video out.
“We’re always looking to hear from mob, always looking to collaborate, always looking for good stories to tell.”
To contact IndigenousX, get in touch through their website.