Naomi Moran still remembers the first time she walked into the Koori Mail headquarters in Lismore. She was 14 and had left just high school to take on a 12-month traineeship with the iconic newspaper. “I did  anything you can think of, licking stamps, replacing toilet rolls, admin, you name it,” she said. “I told myself it was up to me to make it work and made it my mission to learn the ins and outs of every aspect of the business.”

Naomi spent another 10 years working for the paper before moving to NITV and other media organisations. Then, in 2015 she got a call from her former manager at the newspaper asking if she was ready to take over. “I was hesitant at first, I have so much respect for the business, its product and its people, there had been many of my Old People that had worked here before me and I felt I was still learning.” But through the support of her mentors and her passion to see the paper succeed, she quickly found her feet

Today Naomi has successfully created opportunities for the Koori Mail to steer into the digital age, and has made employment pathways, school-based traineeships and meaningful work experience for the Aboriginal community a key focus of the business. “When the paper first started, it was staffed almost entirely by non-indigenous people, because our people simply didn’t have the skills in that sector, because the opportunities were never there for them in mainstream media,” she said. “Today I’m proud that for the first time in our almost 30-year history the majority of our team are Indigenous.”

The team are now working to further embrace the digital age, with a fully equipped podcast studio newly installed and a digital marketing strategy in the works. “All our numbers indicate our mob are still picking up our newspaper, we want our digital storytelling to complement that and hopefully speak to the younger generation while also saving and preserving our history, our stories into the archives of history,” she said. As the only printed 100 percent Aboriginal-owned newspaper in Australia, the Koori Mail prides itself on giving Indigenous Australians a voice missing in the mainstream media. For Naomi, that voice is just as, if not more important today than ever before.

“When I look across my office, there is the framed first edition of the Koori Mail from the 23 May 1991, the headline reads “Racist violence and the hidden facts,” and it makes me think, what are our people still fighting for?” she said. “First Nations media outlets matter because it makes our voices heard. That headline was 30 years ago and we’re still writing the same headlines in our paper today. “Our media is crucial for educating, sharing knowledge and fostering relationships between our people and non-Indigenous Australians. “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media means our people are protected and our people are heard.  It helps us create our own path.”