Rachael Hocking

2024 Cohort

Pronouns: she/her

Rachael is working collaboratively with communities to build capacity within the Black Media sector, and is agitating for better reporting of Indigenous affairs that upholds First Nations values.

Rachael is a Warlpiri woman whose family are from Lajamanu in the Northern Territory. She has deep connections to the many places she has lived – from Larrakia Country to the Kulin Nation, and to Gadigal land where she has stayed for the past eight years. Rachael started her career as a stringer (freelancer) for the Koori Mail, before committing to more than six years with SBS and NITV as a journalist and presenter.

She left full-time journalism in 2021, becoming an editor and trainer in First Nations-led programs. Her focus now is on other forms of storytelling and sharing skills with the next generation.

Rachael previously served three years as a director with the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma in the Asia Pacific, and continues to advocate for trauma-informed reporting in Indigenous communities. She is currently a director on the board for Common Ground, an organisation with sovereign First Nations storytelling at its core.

“I hope to learn new and old ways of embodying our role as truth-tellers – to strengthen our Black Media sector and challenge deceptive, harmful reporting.”

Social change work

Rachael wears many hats as an editor, trainer and facilitator, supporting aspiring First Nations journalists and storytellers alongside mob and non-Indigenous allies. Our Truth Our Way is a pilot program she co-ran this year with the First Nations team at the Foundation for Young Australians. Guided by First Nations media experts, it aims to upskill young mob to give them the tools to strengthen their storytelling and critical thinking, build their confidence, and create better, safer pathways into the media.

Rachael also works with the Dart Centre to support First Nations journalists exposed to trauma through the fearless, often relentless, work of covering Indigenous affairs in Australia.