If someone had told me a year ago that I would be a Commissioning Editor for a new National Indigenous TV service… well you know how the rest goes.  Needless to say I have been on a slippery slope of fast-tracked learning for about 8 months now and am loving every minute of it!

The most exciting part of my job I think so far is telling Indigenous producers and filmmakers, “Brother/Sister, your idea for a doco/short film is great, but did you know that you don’t have to make that kind of stuff anymore?!?”.  The look on their faces when you explain the possibilities of an Indigenous comedy or drama series, healthy food and cooking shows, Indigenous kids programs, etc is priceless.  The fact is that in the past we have been stuck in tiny little ruts allocated by the few broadcasters who took our culture seriously.  Only ABC and SBS dedicated airtime to Indigenous stories, a grand total of around 60min a week!  Sure there was the occasional documentary or short film series here or there (NAIDOC week, or if we’re lucky Sorry Day), but for the last 40 years we’ve been mostly nothing more than a passing curiosity – a speck in the columns of the TV guides.

That’s all changed now.

NITV is the most exciting thing to happen to both Australian television and Indigenous affairs in over 20 years.  You may argue otherwise, but that’s the camp I’m setting up and you’re welcome to join me.  So far NITV has broadcast our first ever Indigenous AFL panel show The Marngrook Footy Show, an extension of the long running radio series out of Melbourne.

Coming up in March we’ve got a new series of The Marngrook Footy Show kicking off the AFL season for 2008.