Main Image – Asher, Rhondie and Ernie

Story by Tom Hearn

When people are able to tell their own stories, in their own voices, about the things that matter to them, they’re not simply being represented in someone else’s communications. They’re part of shaping the conversation themselves.

I’ve been making documentaries and telling stories with Aboriginal people and organisations for more than 20 years, and somewhere along the way I stopped thinking about videos. Of course, that’s still what we make – but video is just the format. These days I’m much more interested in finding the story beneath the story.

I think a good story is a powerful place where emotion, key messages and advocacy meet. Emotion is what makes us care. The key messages are what we want people to understand. And advocacy gives the story purpose – a reason for telling it in the first place. Bring those things together and you’re no longer simply communicating what an organisation does. You’re helping people understand why it matters.

I often work with Aboriginal corporations that understandably start by wanting to promote their services – what they do, where they do it and how people can access them. But I’ve found that simply selling services to your own people can often miss the mark. When Elders, community members, staff and families tell the story of an organisation through their own experiences, something changes. We’re no longer selling a service. We’re building trust, connection and understanding.

And that’s where advocacy becomes agency. People are no longer simply being represented in somebody else’s communications. They’re using their own voices and experiences to shape the conversation themselves.

One of the experiences that really brought this home to me was working with Ernie Dingo and Camping on Country. It would have been easy to make a promotional video about Aboriginal men heading bush together. But the more time we spent around the program, the clearer it became that camping wasn’t really the story. It was what happened when the men got back on Country.

During one camp, Life Without Barriers approached Camping on Country about bringing Rhondie, a man they supported in Cairns who lived with profound disabilities, back onto Country. Camping on Country helped make that happen.

It was deeply important for Rhondie, but what struck me was the effect his presence had on the other men. They gathered around him, looked after him, laughed with him and made sure he was part of everything. Without anybody having to explain it, Rhondie’s return seemed to embody what Camping on Country was about: culture, responsibility, dignity, belonging and men caring for one another.

And suddenly there was a much bigger story sitting in front of us.

Camping on Country went on to secure funding for a three-year pilot and received national recognition for the program, thanks to Ernie and the many people who worked to make it happen. I would never suggest that one story achieved those things. But I do believe the right story can help people see and understand something in a way that a promotional video simply can’t.

So when someone asks BushTV to make a video, I’m much less interested these days in starting with cameras, duration or deliverables. I’d rather understand what the organisation cares about. What is it trying to protect or change? What does it wish people understood? Whose voice needs to be heard?

And, somewhere amongst all of that, where is the story beneath the story?

Because that’s often where emotion, key messages and advocacy come together. It’s where people get to speak for themselves rather than being spoken for. And perhaps, at its best, it’s where storytelling can contribute to something much bigger –  agency and self-determination.