‘Still a ways to go’ in achieving First Nations inclusion in the media and marketing industry
As adland increasingly offers alternatives to today’s public holiday, Mumbrella’s Kalila Welch speaks to CampfireX co-founder Peter Kirk and Cox Inall Ridgeway managing director Yatu Widders-Hunt about the progress the industry has made, and the work it still has to do beyond 26 January to engage with First Nations talent.
Peter Kirk is frank when discussing the wave of floating-holiday policies that have emerged from the industry in the lead-up to 26 January.
“Not working on the day, going to work on the day, calling it a certain name or doing nothing does not detract from the fact that the advertising and media industry has one of the lowest representations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working within any industry.”
Cox Inall Ridgeway managing director, Yatu Widders-Hunt, and CampfireX co-founder, Peter Kirk, spoke to Mumbrella about the wave of floating-holiday policies that have emerged in the lead-up to January 26
Perhaps one of the reasons why agencies aren’t doing more, is because they are afraid of being called out for being tokenistic or for being racist. If there is no rule book, then each business has to work it out for themselves, and there will inevitably be mistakes made. Being publicly called out on those mistakes and being told it’s not good enough or worse, for being racist, is a pretty big deterrent.