EVENT REPORT
Global Media Forum: Reaching and reflecting Indigenous Peoples
22 July 2025
A panel on reaching and reflecting Indigenous Peoples was the Public Media Alliance’s contribution to the DW Global Media Forum in Germany this month.
The Global Media Forum, hosted by Deutsche Welle over two days in Bonn, is a significant gathering that brings together journalists, media workers, leaders, and civil society experts from around the world.
The Public Media Alliance (PMA) is a regular attendee, utilising it as a forum to network and enhance collaboration with both members and other media and civil society organisations. This year, our role included hosting one of the Forum’s many sessions along this year’s theme: Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges.
Moderated by PMA’s News and Advocacy Coordinator, Jamie Tahana (Aotearoa New Zealand), the panel included ViviAnn Labba, Head of Programme Development for Swedish Radio Sameradion, Kris Clemens, Senior Specialist, Indigenous Strategy, at the National Indigenous Office at CBC/Radio-Canada, and Paul Shiang, CEO of Hakka TV, Taiwan.
The 90-minute session discussed the challenges and opportunities for Indigenous storytelling, the added labours of fighting for visibility and space in large organisations, and the media’s role in truth and reconciliation.
It also highlighted public media’s role in language reclamation and preservation, and how organisations themselves need to change and play a greater role, with particular emphasis on the CBC/Radio-Canada National Indigenous Strategy and its subsequent progress, which garnered interest from several audience members at other broadcasters.
The panel also discussed the great strides taken by organisations, including a shift to commissioning empowering comedy, like CBC/Radio-Canada’s North of North, or the ABC series Black Comedy.
Still a long way to go
It was noted that there was still a long way to go in other areas, mostly around creating a culturally safe environment for Indigenous staff, journalism and storytelling, and the sometimes-fraught process of working with non-Indigenous editors and programme producers. Many organisations still had sticking points, and they also warned that progress cannot be taken for granted.
But, importantly, the participants also celebrated many of the groundbreaking works they had commissioned or were working on, including comedies, language projects, and strategies to increase Indigenous staff and content on screens and airwaves.
Hakka TV chief executive Paul Shiang discussed the many ways Hakka TV was trying to revive the Hakka language in Taiwan, including through translations during the Covid-19 pandemic or going into communities to discuss local issues for Hakka people.
At Swedish Radio, ViviAnn Labba detailed the children’s podcast, Resväskan, or The Suitcase, which was encouraging children to learn Sámi languages, and recently won a major New York International radio award.
In all, the participants packed a lot into 90 minutes. We thank the participants for sharing their expertise and insights with the forum.
Briefing paper: How public media reach and reflect Indigenous audiences
Our Briefing Paper, prepared ahead of the PBI conference in Ottawa, looked at how public broadcasters around the world (ABC, APTN CBC/Radio-Canada, KNR, NPR, NRK, RNZ & SR, TITV) reach and reflect Indigenous audiences.
Bonus content from the session will be published shortly…
Bonus content
Our panel also included participation from some of our friends and partners who couldn’t be in the room, but who had great expertise, insight, and analysis to provide for a global media forum. We could only fit a small snippet into our session, so here – as promised – is our much more expansive discussion.
Here, panel moderator Jamie Tahana spoke with Kelly Williams and Dan Bourchier from ABC Australia, about Indigenous journalism, reconciliation in a major organisation and how to bring people on board with the journey, and what success looks like.
ABC Australia: Kelly Williams and Dan Bourchier
Jamie also spoke with Tristan Ahtone from Grist, an independent climate change news organisation, about challenges in the United States.
Ahtone is a member of the Kiowa Tribe and has previously served as editor-in-chief at the Texas Observer and Indigenous affairs editor at High Country News. He’s reported for PBS, NPR, Al Jazeera America, and Indian Country Today and is a past president of the Indigenous Journalists Association, and a 2017 Nieman Fellow.
Grist: Tristan Ahtone