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Explore powerful stories at the intersection of history, culture, and music—from Aboriginal cricket pioneers and war heroes to legendary albums by Hendrix, Miles Davis, and Gurrumul. This blog dives deep into First Nations resilience, iconic protest music, and untold truths that shaped Australia and the world. Engaging, thoughtful, and unapologetically real—where powerful voices from the past meet today's social conversation.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this page contains images and names of deceased persons.
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Backstory
Across continents and centuries, stories weave the fabric of who we are. From the unbroken spirit of First Nations people and Australia’s untold truths, to revolutions, leaders, and turning points that echoed across the globe — these are the voices and moments that shaped our shared story.
Alexis Wright: Writing from an unshakeable Waanyi worldview.
Alexis Wright is a member of the Waanyi nation, from the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Born in Cloncurry in 1950, she grew up to become not just one of Australia's finest writers, but arguably one of the most important literary voices this continent has ever produced. And that's not us being generous. Before the novels, there was the activism. Wright worked for decades across Aboriginal organisations and campaigns...on land rights, on mining, on community. Th
Groote Broadcasting
7 days ago2 min read
Little J & Big Cuz.
What do you get when you mix two cheeky cousins, a wise Nanna, a mischievous dog and plenty of imagination? Little J & Big Cuz! The much-loved Australian animated series follows Little J and his older cousin Big Cuz as they navigate school, family, friendship and life in their Aboriginal community. Along the way, they learn about culture, Country, language, history and the importance of listening to their Elders—but the clever part is that it never feels like a lesson. It's f
Groote Broadcasting
Aug 281 min read
Terra nullius. Land belonging to no one.
They were told the land belonged to no one. From the moment they arrived, they knew that was a lie. Picture the scene. January 1788. Eleven ships of the First Fleet sail into a harbour on the other side of the world. On board — convicts, marines, officers, a whole colony's worth of strangers about to step onto a land they've been told is empty. Terra nullius. Land belonging to no one. Except it wasn't. Not even close. It's estimated that over 750,000 Aboriginal people were li
Groote Broadcasting
Aug 262 min read
On This Day 24 August 1968:
France joins the thermonuclear club, and the Pacific pays the price. On this day in 1968, in a remote corner of the South Pacific, France detonated its first hydrogen bomb. The test was codenamed Canopus. It made France the fifth country in the world to develop a thermonuclear weapon — after the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and China. The numbers are staggering. The device was suspended from a balloon and detonated with a yield of 2.6 megatons — around
Groote Broadcasting
Aug 242 min read
Tony Armstrong: From Footballer to One of Australia's Favourite Broadcasters.
There was a time when Tony Armstrong was best known for what he could do with a football. Today, he's just as likely to be recognised for what he can do with a microphone. A Gamilaroi man, Armstrong has carved out an unlikely and hugely entertaining path through Australian media. His journey from professional footballer to one of the country's most recognisable broadcasters is a story of reinvention, persistence and finding your own voice. Armstrong played professional footba
Groote Broadcasting
Aug 202 min read
DID YOU KNOW? Groote Eylandt Is Home to a World-Class Manganese Mine.
Amongst the forests of Groote Eylandt is a resource that has made this remote island an important part of the global mining industry: manganese. The Groote Eylandt Mining Company, better known as GEMCO, began mining manganese on the island in 1965. Today, the operation is one of the world's significant sources of high-grade manganese ore—a mineral that most of us rarely think about, but which plays an important role in making steel. Manganese helps make steel stronger and mor
Groote Broadcasting
Aug 182 min read
The media has enormous power to shape what people know.
What happens when the stories we hear about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are overwhelmingly stories about crime, disadvantage and conflict? We start to believe that those stories are the whole story. That was one of the concerns raised during the Australian Parliament's current inquiry into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The inquiry is examining not only racism itself, but also the influence of social media
Groote Broadcasting
Aug 132 min read
Which Monoculture, Exactly? Australia's Most Revealing Debate in Years.
A single word spoken at the National Press Club on June 17 has cracked open something much bigger than a political argument. When Pauline Hanson stood at the National Press Club podium, the room knew to expect fireworks. What nobody quite anticipated was that a single word — monoculture — would ignite the most wide-ranging, heated and genuinely revealing national conversation Australia has had about its identity in years. "We cannot be a multicultural society," Hanson told jo
Groote Broadcasting
Aug 74 min read
Australia's Incredible Edible Plants—Hidden in Plain Sight.
Australia is home to some of the world's most remarkable edible plants—and chances are you've walked past a few without even realising it. For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have gathered these native foods, drawing on an extraordinary knowledge of Country that continues to inspire chefs and food lovers today. Here are some of Australia's delicious native treasures: Finger Lime. Known as "citrus caviar," finger limes are packed with
Groote Broadcasting
Aug 52 min read
On This Day | 3 August 1936.
On this day, Jesse Owens won the first of what would become four gold medals at the Berlin Olympic Games, taking out the 100-metre sprint with a time of 10.3 seconds in front of a crowd that included Adolf Hitler. Over the following week, Owens would also claim gold in the long jump, 200 metres and 4 × 100-metre relay, becoming the standout athlete of the Games. The 1936 Olympics were intended to showcase Nazi Germany and promote Hitler's racist ideology of so-called Aryan su
Groote Broadcasting
Aug 31 min read
NAIDOC Week is almost here — and this year is a big one. The 50th.
Most people know NAIDOC Week as a time of celebration. Flags flying, art, dancing, community events, kids learning culture at school. And it absolutely is all of that. But the story of how it began? That's something every Australian should know. Because NAIDOC didn't start as a party. It started as a protest. Back in 1938, on the 150th anniversary of British colonisation, Aboriginal leaders organised what they called the Day of Mourning. While the rest of the country celebrat
Groote Broadcasting
Jun 262 min read
Did you know?
Just off the coast of Groote Eylandt lives one of the ocean’s quiet achievers — the Dugong. They’re often called “sea cows” because they graze slowly on seagrass meadows, shaping the health of the ocean floor as they feed. No rush. No drama. Just steady work that keeps ecosystems in balance. Here’s the part most people miss: if the dugong disappears, the seagrass suffers. And when seagrass declines, so does everything that depends on it. For thousands of years, dugongs have b
Groote Broadcasting
Jun 241 min read
Do you know the story behind the Aboriginal flag?
You've seen it thousands of times. But do you know the story behind the Aboriginal flag? Black, red and yellow. A flag so powerful and so instantly recognised that it's hard to imagine a time before it existed. But it does have a beginning — and a remarkable one. It started with a man named Harold Thomas. Harold Thomas is a Luritja man, born in Alice Springs — and a member of the Stolen Generations. Taken from his family at the age of seven. Despite that brutal start, he went
Groote Broadcasting
Jun 223 min read
Refugee Week and the FIFA World Cup.
Refugee Week and the World Cup, all at once. And honestly? You couldn't write a better story. Take a proper look at the Socceroos squad lining up in America right now. The 26 players come from at least 15 different cultural and ethnic backgrounds...a reflection of a modern Australia where nearly one in three people were born overseas. Italian, Burundian, Liberian, Turkish-Cypriot, Dutch, Zimbabwean, Scottish, South Sudanese, Serbian and Sri Lankan. At least three of those pla
Groote Broadcasting
Jun 172 min read
Refugee Week: A Million Stories.
It's not just a nice phrase. There's a real number behind it. Since 1947, when Australia first agreed to take in 4,000 refugees from Central Europe, this country has issued one million permanent humanitarian visas. A million people who turned up here with nothing but what they could carry, and built a life anyway. Think about who those people became. They opened the corner shops and the restaurants we love. They became doctors and nurses and teachers. They drove the trucks, b
Groote Broadcasting
Jun 152 min read
World Day Against Child Labour.
138 million children around the world, right now, are not in a classroom. Not playing. Not being kids. Working. Since 2000, child labour has almost halved — from 246 million children down to 138 million. That's real progress. Hard-won, decade-by-decade progress that has changed the lives of millions of children. But here's where it gets uncomfortable. The world set a target to eliminate child labour by 2025. We missed it. And to end it within the next five years, current rate
Groote Broadcasting
Jun 122 min read
Barunga Festival: What It Is, Why It Matters, and Why You Should Know About It
If you've never heard of Barunga Festival, you're not alone — but you probably should have. Every King's Birthday long weekend in June, something quietly extraordinary happens in a small Aboriginal community 80 kilometres southeast of Katherine in the Northern Territory. Thousands of people roll in from across Australia — and beyond — set up tents in the red dust, and spend three days immersed in one of the most authentic Indigenous cultural experiences this country has to of
Groote Broadcasting
Jun 84 min read
3 June, marks one of the most significant days in Australian history.
It begins with a man called Eddie Koiki Mabo. Eddie was born in 1936 on Mer — Murray Island — a small jewel of land in the eastern Torres Strait, homeland of the Meriam people. He grew up knowing exactly who he was, where he came from and where he belonged. His family's connection to that land wasn't something that needed to be proven. It was simply true. It had always been true. Then one day in 1974, while working at James Cook University in Townsville, Eddie sat down with l
Groote Broadcasting
Jun 33 min read
Garma Festival.
Every August, something happens in the Top End that most Australians never get to see — and it's honestly one of the most extraordinary things this country has to offer. It's called Garma Festival...and our radio team will be heading there this year. The word "Garma" itself is a Yolŋu Matha term for "two-way learning process" — a place where freshwater and saltwater meet, where old and young, Yolŋu and balanda (non-Indigenous people) come together as one. That philosophy isn'
Groote Broadcasting
May 292 min read
National Reconciliation Week.
National Reconciliation Week starts today. And this year, the message is simple: All In. Not some of us. Not when it's convenient. Not just during the one week a year when it appears on the calendar and organisations put up a poster in the lunchroom. All of us. Every day. All in. National Reconciliation Week runs from 27 May to 3 June every year — and those two dates aren't chosen randomly. They mark two of the most significant moments in this country's history. On 27 May 196
Groote Broadcasting
May 272 min read
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