The ABC’s 2022 Regional Storyteller Scholarship has been awarded to two content makers with disability from regional NSW and Queensland.
They are Jessica Horner from Wagga Wagga, NSW and Raven Cook from Cairns, Queensland.
The scholarship promotes emerging content makers with disability who live outside capital cities, helping them to challenge perceptions they face within the broader community, as well as break down unnecessary barriers. Each year it attracts applicants from across the country, pitching their creative ideas and telling their personal stories of what it is like living with disability in a regional community.
ABC Regional & Local Director, Judith Whelan, congratulated the winners and said she was looking forward to their contributions to the program, now in its fifth year.
“Each year we have seen some exceptional talent emerge and some exceptional storytelling produced, all of which have resonated strongly with our audiences.”
Ms Whelan said the two scholarship winners will work with various ABC teams over three months to develop their skills, produce content and gain valuable employment experience.
Jessica Horner said the scholarship presented a unique opportunity to learn and grow in the media space and to do so in a supported and stimulating environment.
“Receiving the Regional Storyteller Scholarship is an exciting opportunity to help create spaces where Autistic voices can be heard firsthand,” she said.
“All too often Autistic adult narratives are rendered almost invisible in the media. It is my hope that through this scholarship I can contribute to the process of changing the Autistic narrative and contribute to what I hope can become a broader conversation, about the importance of Autistic voices being heard and understood more fully in society and in everyday life.”
Raven Cook said he applied for the scholarship because “I want to make a difference in the community.”
“The Regional Storyteller Scholarship will enable me to create an audio series to give people with disability a chance to tell their story,” he said.
“I remember the first time someone wanted to hear my story, and what an impact that had on me. I want to help people in their journey and make people with disability feel valued and heard.”
Applications for 2023 will open later in the year. Emerging content makers with disability living in regional and rural Australia are encouraged to apply.
