Speaker, broadcaster and reporter for Channel 7’s Great Day Out program, Karni Liddell, is not only a renowned journo of note.
She’s also travelled the world competing as a swimmer at the highest level, ultimately being recognised as the Captain of the Sydney 2000 Paralympic swimming team.
She loves that her job reporting for Great Day Out, is not predicated on her disability.
“What I loved about Channel 7 was they didn’t want me to be ‘accessible holiday journo’. Even though everything I do is in my wheelchair…but that’s not the focus. I’m just a journalist. And I don’t know if I’ve ever just been a journalist,” she says.
“I’ll tell ya I didn’t study journalism and communications to just talk about me.
“The whole story is not just about me and the medals that I won.”
Her passion for social justice is a big motivation for her storytelling, with her speaking talents helping to raise more than one million dollars for various disability charities.
But one of Karni’s greatest frustrations is the assumptions that people make about her capabilities, because she uses a wheelchair.
She says people need to be more aware of how traumatising that can be for people with a disability.
“You don’t get through a day without someone being way too nosey and personal wanting to know why I’m in a wheelchair,” she says.
“I think it’s because people don’t know what to say and…they don’t realise that they may be the tenth person asking me that question.
“I don’t want to talk about it. And most of the time I don’t think or understand or remember that I’m in a wheelchair, just like you don’t go to the park and think ‘I’m walking’. That isn’t in your head. If someone came up to you and said ‘let’s talk about you walking’, that would feel weird for you.
“It feels the same to me—I don’t think I’m in a wheelchair, I just am. And talking about that you’d find really boring and weird. And I feel exactly the same way.”
Not limiting herself just to writing stories that matter, Karni is also the National Disability Insurance Scheme QLD Ambassador and a member of Dame Quentin Bryce’s Domestic and Family Violence Council, as well as a radio broadcaster, social commentator and highly acclaimed international speaker.
Her TED talk was watched by thousands of people around the world and she was the only TED speaker on the day to receive a standing ovation.
Karni tells me on The Journo Project podcast, that her greatest hope is that she can soon stop talking about the disability discrimination she sees every day because it doesn’t exist any more.
“I’m sick of talking about it, it’s been 30 years. At school, integration wasn’t done well,” Karni says.
“We’ve got to get this right now. We’ve got to start thinking about disability differently.
“Disability: why do we keep thinking of it as negative. It’s never going to go away. We’re always going to have it. It’s natural. The world will always have 20 per cent of people with a disability no matter what we do. We can’t stop it. So why make 20 per cent of the world feel shit about themselves.”
Beyond the pod
It’s been another big week for The Wandering Journo! I’m making my mark in the podcast stakes—this week, the podcast peaked at #20 on the Chartable Australian News Commentary charts and cracked the top 100 in the US.
What I’m reading
This is just stunning—such a beautifully drawn and beautifully told piece about the surprising final words that people say before they die. I know it sounds morbid—but in fact it’s just fascinating. From a hospital palliative care doctor who knows.
Dying Words Aren’t What I Imagined —Spiral Bound
While this story by Nicolle White is a fascinating deep dive into how to travel around Australia while showing respect for our Indigenous people.
It is absolutely thoroughly researched and also references the incredible book from Marcia Langton, Welcome to Country: A Travel Guide to Indigenous Australia. Both of these I highly recommend. It’s not just Uluru that has cultural significance for the traditional owners, and we should respect that, and have a better holiday because of it!
“Professor [Marcia] Langton notes that traditional owners make ideal travel guides, given their extensive and historical knowledge of the country.
“By joining an Indigenous-run tour or enlisting an Indigenous guide, travellers will also be giving back to communities where there may be few opportunities for work.
“It will also help invest in the preservation of the world's oldest living culture.”
Uluru isn't the only place where tourists are asked to respect Indigenous cultural history —ABC News
Upcoming
Next Monday’s podcast of Streets of Your Town—The Journo Project, sent straight to your inbox, features rural journo extraordinaire and Walkley Award winner Amanda Gearing. Make sure you look out for her tips on how she has produced the award winning stories from parts of Australia that are often neglected.
Thanks to you all, my Wandering Journo tribe!
See you in a week!
If you believe in journalism and wish to support it, subscribe to the paid version of this newsletter. The same content is free for anybody but your support helps sustain this podcast.
Share this post