This brave journo bravely reported from the highlands of Papua New Guinea before women were given the proper credit they deserved for the stories they gathered.
Maureen Mopio-Jane has covered some of that country’s most difficult stories, from Bougainville, to the horrendous levels of domestic violence that continue to haunt the nation’s families.
She tells me on this episode of Streets of Your Town—The Journo Project how crucial radio was and continues to be in Papua New Guinea, and how from a very young age she wanted to be the voice coming out of the radio.
“It started when I was a little girl and my Dad was a politician and he was interested in self government in 1973,” Maureen says.
“So he would sit us around this box…which was the ABC at that time, and listen to talks of self government and people like Sir Michael Somare at that time trying to be leaders.
“He would sit us around the box and then I thought that the voice is coming out from it—it was very magical and all that.
“And I was thinking—I’d really like to be the voice in that box.”
Maureen went on to be a newsreader and reporter for NBC in Papua New Guinea. She also worked as a TV reporter for EMTV, a PNG TV company, where she covered the riots in Lae Morobe Province and covered stories in Bougainville.
“Unfortunately I didn’t get credit for it, but I got a television set and a letter to say that, congratulations, you covered a very important story,” she says.
Maureen also reported on the scourge of domestic violence in her community, well before it was accepted as a topic that should be discussed.
She now works as a producer and broadcaster for 4EB Radio in Brisbane, and continues to use innovative approaches to gather her stories.
Above: Classical lndian singer Menaka Thomas with Maureen Mopio-Jane.
For her last series on climate change, she brought together various interest groups to ensure they were all heard as part of the project.
“What is climate change in the Pacific? People tend to ask,” she says.
“Oral tradition is important. So I had a ‘listening party’ for my climate change project.
“And we say, if the people are having sea flooded around their houses and homes and gardens and affecting the water system and all that sort of stuff, how can you explain that things are happening?
“So that’s why I thought, oh, I need to tell the stories that people know that there’s something happening in the Pacific.
“Storytelling techniques is very, I guess, it’s traditionally told and passed on from my relatives and ancestors down. So that’s why I was able to tell this story.”
Above: Dr Noritta Diop with Maureen Mopio-Jane at the recent First Nations conference at Mt Samson.
Today, Maureen continues to fight for a more inclusive and diverse range of stories in the international media, particularly from the Pacific region.
“Look at it from all different angles rather than one person doing a story or gathering comments from everybody else who are involved in that story,” she says.
“That way you get a broad perspective of the whole story and get the right people to talk on it. If it’s in the Pacific, it’s not only just PNG. You have Micronesia, you have Polynesia, you have Melanesia. It’s all different.”
She’s concerned about recent threats to press freedom in Australia after the AFP raids on News Corp and ABC, particularly from her experience reporting from Papua New Guinea where those freedoms were not as well established.
“It’s a human right and it’s a right to have to speak freely,” she says.
“I guess we’ve come to a country that’s a free country. And we exercise the freedom of press and exercise the freedom of speech as opposed to back in Pacific islands, the little snippets of a freedom of press being threatened here and there.”
Behind the scenes
While putting together this week’s edition of The Journo Project, I also managed to squeeze in a quick Q&A with comedian extraordinaire Mikey Robins for the Brisbane Writer’s Festival! It was fantastic catching up with him at Mantra Hotel at Southbank surrounded by fascinated fans all keen to hear about his very aptly titled book Seven Deadly Sins and One Very Naughty Fruit.
Of course one of the questions was when are going to get Good News Week back on our screens? Sad news from Mikey though is that he can’t see that happening any time soon. Not because the crew don’t get on anymore, in fact he had lunch with Paul McDermott a couple of weeks ago: “And I picked up the tab—so nothing’s changed”. But Mikey says the TV networks just aren’t willing to pay for a staff of six comedians writing such brilliant one liners any more, as the whole funding model for television has changed. Pretty good explanation for why there’s so much relentless reality tv on the box!
Beyond the pod
Congrats to our very own Journo Project podcast interviewee and legend Mark Willacy—his legendary status has now been officially recognised by the Queensland Clarion Awards as Journalist of the Year! Proof yet again that The Journo Project is ahead of the curve, which you my loyal Wandering Journo tribe make possible with your support. Hurrah and congrats for Mark—let’s celebrate by listening to his episode again!
What I’m reading
“But the Pacific is a region that has long hosted alternative expressions of gender, and this current cultural moment has given its peoples a chance to contribute to a global conversation.”
“Fa'afafine, fakaleitī, fakafifine — understanding the Pacific's alternative gender expressions” —ABC News, 31 August 2019
Reading this article gave me so much joy and took me right back to when Andrew and I travelled to Samoa for the most glorious holiday more than a decade ago. I put together a story on the Fafafine pageant for Saturday AM while I was there—typical Wandering Journo I can never turn my storytelling brain off even when I’m on holidays! Here’s a link to that story too: “Samoa holds traditional cross-gender community pageant”
I remember meeting Velda in a market in Apia, and being so struck by her grace and confidence. She was so beautifully patient explaining the long tradition of fafafine to me as well. We have so much to learn about tolerance from our brothers and sisters in the Pacific!
And this story is straight from the putting a smile on your dial department of feel good quirky yarns—my favourite ones to write as well as read.
“Max uses a unique, trust-based training method taught by Tara Lea and Russell Osborne from Camel Connection at Lakes Entrance in Victoria, which enables him to take a camel from the wild, and within two days have a lead on it. By four months, he’s milking it.”
“How a blind man is taming one of Australia's best kept secrets” —ABC News
I remember eating camel roast when I was a reporter in Port Augusta, and thinking it was better than beef! Fascinating how good their milk is for us as well. The friendship this beautiful man has with his herd is stunning, and thought provoking too.
And who wants to come with me to see this? I am so there…
“Franklin is certainly presented at the height of her power in the resynced, remastered result—a film that moves and breathes with the urgency of the moment.”
“Aretha Franklin dazzles in new doco Amazing Grace, featuring never-before-released footage” —ABC News
Upcoming
Next Monday’s episode of Streets of Your Town—The Journo Project sent straight to your inbox, features the South Australian Journalist of the Year for two years running, Angelique Donnellan. She started her career in some of South Australia’s most remote locations, as a junior reporter for the ABC. Her relentless investigations range from exposing abuse and mismanagement at the Oakden nursing home, sparking a government investigation and eventually it’s closure, to her reports on the pet food industry which led to a Senate inquiry. Angelique believes in the power of gut instinct, and tells me on The Journo Project podcast how she would encourage all journalists to spend time nurturing and developing this undervalued resource, in their quest to uncover stories that matter.
Merch!
“The only way to start to day!”
So says the Chief of Staff of Cairns ABC and beautiful human Fiona Sewell—showing the Wandering Journo’s influence is spreading far and wide around the country and around the world! Are you loving The Journo Project podcasts? Then become a paid subscriber at this link and you too can get a limited edition keep cup to give an extra kick to your cup of Joe in the morning on your way to work.
Thanks to you all, my Wandering Journo tribe!
See you in a week!
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