2024 All Media: Coverage of Indigenous Affairs

This investigation unearthed a $214 million annual funding gap in Northern Territory schools that left some classrooms without power, water or full-time qualified teachers. It comprised 35,000+ words published as a 10-day series: more than 20 news and feature stories and more than 100 photos, plus videos and follow-up reporting.

Over a year, Caroline Graham, Kylie Stevenson and Tilda Colling conducted more than 100 interviews, scraped and analysed funding data, submitted freedom of information requests, and travelled to remote areas. They had summaries of the stories translated into Kunwinjku and read in English to ensure remote communities had access to the reporting.

Following the reporting, the Central Land Council and Northern Land Council called for federal intervention in NT education. The federal and Territory governments announced a $1 billion funding increase for schools. The series pressured the NT government to commit to removing attendance-based funding from 2025, and generated on-the-ground change, including a $3.3 million budget increase for Maningrida College, allowing it to reinstate music and art programs and hire more teachers.

Freelance journalist Kylie Stevenson and UQ digital journalism lecturer Caroline Graham co-wrote the podcast Lost in Larrimah and Australian bestselling book Larrimah. Tilda Colling is a Charles Darwin University student journalist. The ‘NT schools in crisis’ series was written for The Australian, supported by a Meta Australian News Fund Public Interest Journalism grant.

Freelance journalist Kylie Stevenson and UQ digital journalism lecturer Caroline Graham co-wrote the podcast Lost in Larrimah and Australian bestselling book Larrimah. Tilda Colling is a Charles Darwin University student journalist. The “NT schools in crisis” series was written for The Australian, supported by a Meta Australian News Fund Public Interest Journalism grant.