Living Black: June 13 – 27

Karla Grant, host of Australia’s longest running Indigenous current affairs program Living Black, will sit down with three of Australia’s most prominent Indigenous celebrities.

Bachelorette Brooke Blurton, host of The Point and Studio 10 news presenter Narelda Jacobs and athlete Sonny Bill Williams all partake in revealing conversations that delve into the lives behind the bright lights of fame.

Monday June 13: Brooke Blurton
She broke down barriers by becoming the first ever Indigenous lead on The Bachelorette Australia, but life has not always been glitz and glamour for reality star Brooke Blurton. Karla sits down with Brooke to talk about her life growing up in Western Australia, her work with Indigenous youth and life after The Bachelorette.

Brooke Blurton said during the show: “I had to grow up quite quickly… When I was 11 years old I lost two of the most influential women in my life within a month of each other… I think when you’ve experienced so much loss in such a short period of time and not having your family, your brothers, I’d moved to a different city, a different town living with my dad, who I never felt like I was ever really wanted… it was a lot. As an 11 year old, you’re just processing, going with the motions. I actually shut down. I’d describe it as going mute. You can’t prepare anyone for that. My mum and my nan, we were so close. They were the only two women that I ever had consistently in my life… so I was in utter shock and my reaction to that was to shut down… I didn’t feel like I was really understood in that time and that’s all I wanted, to feel understood and valued and validated.”

Monday June 20: Narelda Jacobs
Narelda Jacobs has been the trusted face of the nightly news for Network 10 for two decades, but the search for her own truth has been a lifelong battle. Narelda opens up about her life, why she wanted to become a journalist and how she battled a strong Christian upbringing to finally find her own identity.

Narelda Jacobs said: ”I didn’t want to live a lie. I wanted to live my authentic self and I couldn’t be in the closet anymore with my family. So, I sat my mum down… the next thing she said was ‘I will never be able to accept your sexuality, but I will always love you.’ Knowing who my mum is, that was everything to hear that. And I knew that there would never be that acceptance. She’s come a long way now, but I knew that there would never be that acceptance, so to have that love and always be welcomed home was something that’s not afforded to a lot of queer people when they come out. It probably makes me stronger… I think that’s part of the reason I can talk about it, I’ve come to accept that. I want a relationship with my mum and I fiercely respect her. I respect her as that woman who married a black man when it was shunned and frowned upon.”

Monday 27 June: Sonny Bill Williams
Sonny Bill Williams is the epitome of the talented sportsman. He’s played NRL, changed codes to Rugby Union and represented New Zealand for the All Blacks. Now he’s facing his biggest challenge – taking his talents to the boxing ring. Karla speaks to Williams about his life, overcoming low self-confidence off the field and asks him why he decided to enter the boxing ring once he retired from playing rugby.   

Sonny Bill Williams said: “They say only from the depths of the darkness can you reach the highest of heights… I was living a life that was boundary-less… I was young, some would say good-looking and I had wealth. It was hard to say no to those things. The way I lived my life on the field, I took that into my life off the field as well, where it was train hard, play hard… you can only live that lifestyle for so long until you reach boiling point and the depth of darkness that I reached. At that time, I knew that I was on the path of destruction and I was scared. I still didn’t have confidence in myself. I had confidence once I had a few drinks in me or I had drugs in me… but once that had gone, the next day… knowing that I wasn’t a good person, it takes away at your soul. It’s not empowerment that you feel. I used to feel disgusted in myself, but at the same time I wasn’t confident to say ‘I’m struggling here.’

Mondays on NITV at 8:30pm.