Bridget Brennan and Isabella Higgins on covering First Nations communities, friendship and the Voice referendum

There are hundreds of thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia's vast landscape, but when the ABC launched its National Indigenous Reporting Team in 2017 it was made up of just two members. 

After decades of advocacy within the organisation from First Nations staff, there was finally a dedicated, Indigenous-led unit, and it was all on the shoulders of Bridget Brennan and Stan Grant.

Brennan, a Dja Dja Wurrung, Yorta Yorta woman, became the national Indigenous affairs correspondent.

"There was a real feeling within the organisation that we were missing a lot of stories from our community," Brennan says.

She was soon joined by Torres Strait Islander Isabella Higgins, currently the ABC's Europe correspondent, who recalls almost bubbling over with anticipation.

"My overwhelming feeling was just huge excitement because Bridget and Stan were working together and they were quite big names and I was a total nobody from regional," she laughs.

But for all the promise and hope the little team held, they were about to face a long road of systemic racism, ignorance, and personal challenge to build the sort of coverage of First Nations people and issues they deserved from the national broadcaster.

Breaking barriers and building trust

The first challenges were from within.

"There was a perception of what Indigenous stories were, how they would perform, what they would look like," Higgins explains.

"We were really invested always in showcasing the diversity of Indigenous people and making it very clear to the audience that there is no model for what an Aboriginal person is, what Aboriginal issues are, what an Aboriginal community is."

Brennan says she and Higgins were ironclad in their belief that people would read and watch their work — stories that put Indigenous people, often women, front and centre, driven by them and for them.

"We just had to work so hard to change that perception internally … it was kind of like if you build it, they will come," she says.

It also became clear quickly that many Indigenous communities did not trust the ABC.

That meant much of the focus was on building relationships as they traversed the country.

"They didn't trust the media, so here we are as First Nations women going in representing the ABC and we're trying to build a whole new relationship," Higgins says.

'It continues to take a huge toll'

Both women say they always carry the weight of responsibility.

Sometimes that load feels particularly heavy.

"The challenge was, every story we did, we felt like we had to do it bigger, smarter, better than anyone else had done it because it felt like we had to prove it was valid," Higgins says.

"This is so worthy and we had a responsibility to the people that we were interviewing to make sure we did it as well as we could."

Brennan was the Europe correspondent before Higgins took over, but both agree covering Indigenous affairs is a more difficult job, so deeply personal is each story.

"It took a huge toll on us and it continues to take a huge toll on us," Brennan says

"There were some really low lows and that was experiencing racism, watching other people experience racism, watching the public not care about the most distressing issues," Higgins says.

Often, in the lowest points, having each other proved to be the lifeline.

"That's the importance of working with other Indigenous people," Brennan says.

"I would not have coped one week if I wasn't sitting next to Belle and able to bounce ideas and support one another."

"We were fuelled by strong black tea and the free hotel biscuits for months on end," Higgins recalls from their long trips on the road together.

Support also came from their bosses, Stan Grant and then Gavin Fang and Lisa Whitby.

"Stan used to just come over and say, 'You guys are doing the most important work in the ABC,'" Brennan says.

"He was a wonderful mentor to us and he really believed in us."

Setting the news agenda

While some of their stories immediately dominated the headlines, like Higgins's award-winning work on Indigenous suicides, the impact of others took longer to become clear.

Brennan recalls their work on appalling water quality in remote Aboriginal communities was rigorous and lengthy, but extremely hard to get off the ground.

"It was an investigation that at the end of it, we just collapsed, we were so exhausted," she says.

"It was really difficult to get government officials to talk to us, academics to talk to us, and get the kind of public accountability we needed."

Now, the issue is widely reported on and tracked by media outlets, governments and researchers.

"It took some years to actually see there have now been investigations, there have been committees," Brennan says.

"The real wins are when the story that you did that no-one was talking about suddenly becomes a big public issue," Higgins agrees.

Joining the communities you serve

Both women agree that no matter how difficult it became or how beaten down they felt, every new community they entered welcomed them with open arms.

"I am always touched by the openness and honesty that people show me and the grace, the kindness, the warmth," Higgins says.

She says it is a privilege to learn from the country's diverse Aboriginal cultures, each of which has its own history and practices.

"I always really viewed it as a cross-cultural job," she says.

Higgins remembers a time in Central Australia when she had to find Brennan to shoot something for the story they were working on.

"I found her and she's got about 10 kids around her and they're all braiding her hair," she says.

"She's going to the bush hairdresser and I'm like, 'Right, so are you going to do the piece to camera with those fresh braids in your hair or what?'"

"I think I did it with the braids in my hair," Brennan adds.

The long road to a referendum

The ABC's Indigenous Reporting Team now has nine staff members, including head of Indigenous News Suzanne Dredge.

While there's always more work to do, Brennan says the organisation has come a long way in six years.

"If you had said that to me and Belle back then that we'd be working under Suzanne right now for the referendum coverage, we would have fallen off our chairs," she says.

"I look up at the TV in the morning and Indigenous affairs is leading the bulletin and I don't think that's just because we're having a referendum."

"There is no other newsroom or organisation in Australia that would have a team like that that is working across so many different platforms, that would be interacting with such a huge audience across podcast, radio, TV," Higgins says.

The team has led the ABC's coverage of the referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Higgins says the campaign has shown how little understanding there is about Australia's Indigenous history.

"I think it's exposing us as a nation for what we don't know about each other, and it's really uncomfortable as a Torres Strait Islander person to watch the nation grapple with that," she says.

"It feels like no matter where you are on either side of the debate, our rights are being debated and our history is being debated," Brennan says.

"And that's difficult because we can't tap out of it."

Brennan, the ABC's Indigenous affairs editor, will host the referendum-night broadcast, while Higgins is temporarily back from London to help with the coverage.

"It's so important for blackfellas to turn on the TV and see us there," Brennan says.

"We know that that means something to them.

It's another challenge at the end of an often difficult campaign, and following years of stories, but Brennan says she's ready.

"We feel the weight of that to make sure that we reflect the decision that Australians will make and also the complexity of feelings in the Australian community," she says.

"So yes, we're very proud to front that coverage given we've covered it for six years, but we certainly feel the weight of expectation and we really want to do a good job for the audience."

Watch the ABC's coverage of the referendum vote count from 7:30pm AEST on Saturday, October 14, on ABC TV and iview.