5 programs that show what ABC Indigenous made possible – and what we could lose if it’s axed

Redfern Now/ABC The ABC’s Indigenous department has given Australia some of its best television.

Not simply its best “Indigenous television”, but some of the sharpest, funniest and most ambitious programs made in this country.

Now, after 40 years, Lamestream reports the department is being dismantled.

The position leading the department, most recently held by Kelrick Martin, has been made redundant .

Under the ABC’s proposed restructure, some staff will move into a new First Nations Content and Strategy team.

Individual programs will be managed through the ABC’s broader teams for drama, documentaries, children’s television and entertainment, with a First Nations commissioning editor .

The change could mean Indigenous program makers lose the freedom to commission their own projects and decide which stories matter .

They may have to compete with other programs and persuade the ABC’s larger production teams to support their work.

Showing Indigenous people on screen is not enough.

Indigenous people must also have the power to decide which stories are told , who tells them and how they are told.

Folding the department into a larger structure risks turning Indigenous decision-makers into advocates who must persuade other people our stories are worth telling.

These five programs show what that specialist structure made possible.

They came from a department with cultural knowledge, industry experience, strong relationships and the authority to make decisions.

Indigenous stories need more than a place on iview.