Ray Martin: There's no guarantee the journey will change people's minds

First Contact host Ray Martin tells Living Black Radio there's no guarantee that taking people on a journey like the one in the series will change their opinions.

Ray Martin with one of the Indigenous participants in Season 2 of First Contact Source: SBS

Were the six participants ready for what they were going to see?

The First Contact Series Two shows the attitudes and naivety of six of Australia's celebrities as they embarked on a once and a life time life journey into the corners of Australia's most disadvantaged First Nations communities.

"Most people will change their attitudes if they see something counter to what they believe in," Journalist Ray Martin tells SBS Living Black Radio. 

Yet not all of the six celebrities that made the journey on First Contact Two went home with their attitude completely changed towards Australia's First Peoples.

Martin, who is the series host, says it is absolutely vitally important to embrace what Australia's First Peoples have to offer regarding culture and ceremony and he isn't shy on his response in talking about disadvantage. He says that the issues of trauma, alcoholism, suicide, depression and extreme poverty shows that many First Nations communities aren't winning in remote communities.

Listen to the Podcast of the full interview with Ray Martin on Living Black Radio.

Timmy 'Djawa' Burarrwanga, Bawaka Homeland, East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory - First Contact - Series 2 - Photograph by David Dare Parker Source: David Dare Parker

As the celebrities start their journey from the heart of Uluru, they head out to Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory where they were immersed into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and community. The experiences in the series varied for each participant. Singer Natalie Imbruglia explained before she started the journey, that this would be her first time to speak or meet First Nations people.

Meet the participants here.

Attitudes towards Elders and community also varied among the six celebrities ranging from the stubborn to the kind hearted, where ignorance was a blockage to the level of understanding needed to respect the history of trauma from the policies that led to the Stolen Generations and impacts of systemic colonisation and racism.

Ray Martin believes although the series was filmed in remote Aboriginal communities, there is room to look at another series in urban communities to really grasp a deeper understanding of the spectrum and daily lives of Australia's First Peoples.

Ray Martin, Bawaka Homeland, East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory - First Contact - Series 2 - Photograph by David Dare Parker Source: David Dare Parker

Ray Martin made the point that although some of the issues like alcoholism were higher in Non-Indigenous communities, that it was up to First Nations people to makes changes in their lives and that the only way to do it was if both Indigenous and Non-Indigenous people hold hands and walk together on this.

Don’t forget to follow the conversation on social media #WalkWithUs.

First Contact series 2 airs over three big nights on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week on SBS and NITV at 8:30pm.

Watch the first episode below: 

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