“The media seems to have a lot of influence on the selection of who gets framed as an Indigenous leader over an Indigenous activist or advocate.”

To celebrate NAIDOC week, Backchat was joined by two influential Aboriginal activists – Sol Bellear AM and Luke Pearson.

Max Chalmers spoke to the legendary Sol Bellear AM about the history of NAIDOC week and how it started. Mr Bellear is the long-serving Chairman of the Aboriginal Medical Service, Redfern, and is also one of its founding members.

While NAIDOC week is now a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and cultures, the movement was born out of protest.

Co-hosts Osman and Heidi also chatted to Luke Pearson, the founder of @IndigenousX, about what it means to be an Indigenous leader.

Each week, a new Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander guest host controls the @IndigenousX twitter account and is free to tweet as they like on issues they care about.

Luke joined to discuss the idea of “Indigenous leadership”.

Is just a title the media uses out of convenience, or is it something greater? Listen below.

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Photo: Newtown grafitti