The ABC is proposing a sweeping overhaul of the way it develops and commissions First Nations television content, ending the Indigenous Department in its existing form after the redundancy of long-serving Head of Indigenous Kelrick Martin, while consulting staff on the creation of a new First Nations Content and Strategy team.
The changes represent a significant shift for a specialist operation with roots stretching back to 1987, when the ABC Indigenous Department evolved from the former Indigenous Programs Unit.
For decades, the department provided a dedicated structure for the development and commissioning of television programs telling Indigenous stories.
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Its credits across that period include Blackout, Songlines, Message Stick, Redfern Now, Gods of Wheat Street, 8MMM and Cleverman.
More recently, Martin’s tenure of more than a decade as Head of Indigenous included Total Control, Black Comedy, The Dark Emu Story, Blue Water Empire, End Game, Always Was Tonight and That Blackfella Show.
But the specialist department will now end in its current form as part of the broader restructure taking place under ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks.
Martin’s position has been made redundant, leaving the broadcaster without the previous Head of Indigenous position responsible for overseeing the department.
On Sunday night Deborah Mailman is inducted into Logies Hall of Fame. Two days later the ABC shutters its Indigenous Department after three decades and makes the bloke who oversaw Total Control redundant. What the absolute …. https://t.co/AU35YYd7td
— Colin Vickery (@Colvick) August 18, 2026
The ABC has confirmed a replacement structure is now being considered, although the proposal remains subject to consultation.
Rather than retaining the existing Indigenous television department, the plan would establish a First Nations Content and Strategy team intended to work across the organisation and its platforms.
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The proposed structure would also change how individual First Nations television projects are handled.
Instead of having those programs commissioned and developed under the existing specialist department, First Nations programs would continue through the established commissioning processes of the broader ABC Screen division.
Responsibility for individual projects would then sit with the relevant genre heads across Scripted, Factual, Children’s, Entertainment, Arts, Music and Events.
Some existing ABC Screen employees would move into the proposed new division.
The plan also includes two dedicated First Nations content positions.
A new First Nations Commissioning Editor would be responsible for advocating for and progressing projects through the commissioning processes already operating within ABC Screen.
That position would be supported by a proposed Head of First Nations Content.
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The distinction is significant.
While the broadcaster says dedicated responsibility for advocating for First Nations projects would remain, individual programs would be managed through the same genre-based structure used by the wider Screen division rather than through the long-running specialist Indigenous department.
The ABC says the proposal is intended to consolidate expertise and improve the representation and prominence of First Nations content.
“The proposal to create a First Nations Content and Strategy team is currently under consultation at the ABC.
It is designed to bring together expertise, strengthen First Nations representation and enhance the visibility and impact of First Nations content across the ABC and our platforms.
The proposal would also support greater collaboration, support and alignment across teams.”
The broadcaster has also stressed that the restructure would not end the commissioning of First Nations television programs.
“Under the proposal, some staff from the ABC Screen team would move into the new division and First Nations programs would continue to be commissioned through our existing processes within the Screen division, with individual projects managed by the relevant Genre Heads across Scripted, Factual, Children’s, Entertainment, Arts, Music and Events.”
The proposed First Nations Commissioning Editor would provide a dedicated point of responsibility for projects as they move through that broader system.
“A new First Nations Commissioning Editor, supported by the proposed Head of First Nations Content, will have dedicated responsibility for advocating for and progressing First Nations projects through Screen’s established commissioning processes.”
The restructure follows a particularly high-profile period for the department and its programming.
Among the final programs associated with Martin’s tenure was Always Was Tonight, the satirical news program hosted by Tony Armstrong.
The program attracted considerable attention following its January 21 episode, particularly over material dealing with celebrations of Australia Day.
Criticism included claims the program was “anti-white”, while the Liberal Party’s communications spokesperson described it as an “all-time low” for the ABC and the party called for an investigation of the broadcaster.
The controversy eventually reached both the ABC Ombudsman and Senate Estimates.
An Ombudsman investigation ultimately cleared Always Was Tonight, while Marks was required to defend the program’s approach to satire during questioning at Senate Estimates.
“The point of comedy often, particularly satirical comedy, is to raise serious questions and to be confronting.
So we can all have discussions about the individual jokes that are raised.”
The future of Always Was Tonight has also become part of the broader discussion surrounding the changes.
The ABC’s position is that the program was commissioned as a one-off special.
However, the January 21 episode was widely understood internally to be a pilot, with the prospect of further episodes.
Plans for its future were discussed internally earlier in the year before the program was axed.
Its cancellation came despite Always Was Tonight having featured prominently at the ABC’s previous upfronts.
The changes have consequently raised questions internally about more than the organisational chart.
Staff have been concerned about what dismantling the existing departmental structure could mean for the kinds of First Nations programs developed and commissioned in future, particularly projects designed to challenge audiences or provoke discussion.
One source described the previous department as having a role built around providing First Nations people with a platform to tell their own stories.
“The Indigenous Department was unique and it was different, but it was also built upon a very long legacy of existence within the organisation on the basis that the ABC should provide First Nations people with the platform to be able to tell their own stories…
so, for that to be fundamentally changed without much of a strategy or a plan, or even engagement or consultation or anything to help it steer it in that direction, is a bit disappointing.”
There are also concerns over whether the commissioning approach that follows will continue to support more provocative First Nations programming or favour “warmer” and “historic pieces”.
A source said:
“Unfortunately it’s not the way ABC wants to treat that area at the moment.”
The broadcaster, however, is pointing to its existing and forthcoming programming as evidence that First Nations stories will remain part of its content strategy.
The ABC has recently greenlit scripted drama Pilli Sisters PI, which is written by and stars Tasma Walton.
It also says there is a broader pipeline of First Nations programs being developed across different genres and platforms.
The central issue is therefore not whether the ABC says it will continue commissioning First Nations content, but how that content will move through the organisation once the specialist department no longer operates in its previous form.
Under the proposal, the genre heads responsible for Scripted, Factual, Children’s, Entertainment, Arts, Music and Events would manage individual projects, while the proposed First Nations Commissioning Editor and Head of First Nations Content would provide dedicated advocacy and support.
That model differs from the structure that has operated through the Indigenous television department for decades.
The proposed changes have also arrived quickly for staff affected by the restructure, with the redirection causing upset within the department.
The ABC, for its part, is framing the proposed model as a way of increasing collaboration rather than diminishing its commitment to Indigenous programming.
Its statement makes clear the broadcaster regards dedicated First Nations content as an ongoing part of its offering despite the organisational changes.
“The proposal reflects the ABC’s ongoing commitment to ensuring First Nations stories and voices remain a visible and valued part of the organisation’s content offering.
This commitment is demonstrated through a current and an ambitious pipeline of upcoming First Nations programs across multiple genres and platforms.”
The consultation process means the proposed First Nations Content and Strategy team has not yet been presented as a finalised structure.
What is clear is that the previous model is being substantially reshaped.
The redundancy of Martin’s Head of Indigenous position, the end of the Indigenous Department in its current form and the proposal to place individual commissions with the relevant ABC Screen genre heads collectively amount to a major change in how the broadcaster manages Indigenous television content.
It also brings to a close the existing form of a specialist department whose history reaches back nearly four decades, while replacing it with a proposed structure that the ABC says will retain dedicated First Nations advocacy within a broader commissioning system.
For staff concerned about the future direction of the broadcaster’s Indigenous programming, the eventual operation of that new structure — and the projects that emerge from it — will determine how significant the change proves to be.
SOURCES: Lamestream, IF.com.au, TV Tonight
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