Northern Australian men’s storytelling leadership

Jeremy Donovan

Alliance builder and proposed storytelling lead

Northern Australian Aboriginal Men’s Alliance (NAAMA)Northern Australia · WA, NT and QueenslandGoverned case study

Proud Kuku Yalanji man, cultural mentor, artist and master storyteller.

Why this collaboration matters

A person is not proof for the platform. The relationship around their story is.

Jeremy’s story shows how Culture, Country and relationship can give men and young people an alternative to the deficit stories written about them. NAAMA is the strongest home for that work: it already connects Aboriginal men and organisations across WA, the NT and Queensland through healing, leadership, regional gatherings, shared learning and collective advocacy.

Jeremy should be aligned to the Aboriginal-led alliance he is helping build, not to the technology operator or publishing platform. Kununurra Waringarri Aboriginal Corporation and NAAMA’s delivery partners hold the organisational and place-based work. JusticeHub can amplify approved stories, while Empathy Ledger protects each man’s authority over what travels.

The governed journey

From source to return

The same five stages follow every person, every chapter and every permitted use.

Source

Listen before interpreting

The original recording, transcript or contribution remains the reference point.

Ledger

Hold the record safely

Identity, provenance, permissions and decisions stay attached to the source.

Authority

Name who can decide

Personal consent and applicable community authority remain distinct and visible.

River

Permit one exact use

Only agreed items travel to a named audience, purpose, channel and period.

Reciprocity

Record what returns

The return, responsible party and delivery status belong beside the use.

Built now

The relationship already has infrastructure

A private person record that keeps source material attached to Jeremy rather than to a campaign.
A storyteller home where visibility, correction and withdrawal remain separate decisions.
A governed source-review path that keeps analysis and public storytelling behind permission gates.
A use-and-return view that can show who is using material, for what purpose and what is meant to return.
An approved JusticeHub syndication relationship for the anchor story “The Fire and the Road”, ready to become an amplification example for NAAMA.

What comes next

The case study becomes public one bounded decision at a time

Jeremy and NAAMA accept, change or decline the proposed storytelling leadership role and profile wording.
Any selected chapter receives its own audience, purpose, duration and withdrawal terms.
The agreed return is recorded beside the permitted use before that use becomes active.
Invite a small founding circle through NAAMA’s existing men’s groups and delivery partners before expanding the public story program.

Leadership alignment

Storytelling Lead, NAAMA

Proposed for Jeremy and NAAMA review

He combines lived experience, cultural practice, youth mentoring and the ability to carry a story from a campfire to a national audience. That makes him a strong convenor and mentor for a storytelling stream, while story authority stays with each man and cultural authority stays local.

The role in practice

Invite men through trusted relationships and local Aboriginal organisations.
Host the first yarn and help each man find the story he wants to tell.
Model clear consent, correction, withdrawal and return from his own anchor story.
Mentor emerging storytellers and identify men who may become local hosts.
Embed story capture and storyteller review into NAAMA’s regional gatherings, including KWAC’s Men’s Forum (2026 theme: Big Fire – Big Dream).

Anchor story

The Fire and the Road

Jeremy’s first chapter: a story of Culture, Country, young people and a road away from punishment. It becomes the invitation into the wider men’s storytelling stream, not a template other men must copy.

Shared on JusticeHub for community review; governed use recorded in Empathy Ledger

Read on JusticeHub

Initiative concept

Big Fire – Big Dream: Stories of Strong Men

Add a governed storytelling stream to NAAMA’s existing songline of connection, so men across Northern Australia can move from private yarns to chosen public forms without separating story from Country, consent, healing or community benefit.

From one story to many

Listen · a private yarn with no promise of publication.
Choose · the man decides the story, audience and parts that stay out.
Shape · work with Jeremy and a local story steward on the exact telling.
Return · review the complete story and record what support or value comes back.
Gather · bring approved stories into a live event, film, listening circle or JusticeHub collection.
Grow · support participating men to invite and mentor the next circle.

First gathering

Pilot the story format inside KWAC’s 2026 Men’s Forum, themed Big Fire – Big Dream: Jeremy as story host, three to five men, local cultural authority, live tellings or reviewed short films, music and a carefully bounded supporter conversation. After the men review what worked, selected stories can form a NAAMA collection on JusticeHub and future gatherings can support new regional hosts.

What remains theirs

Participation never transfers ownership

The words and chapters that form the public story.
Whether his portrait, voice, location or personal context appears.
Which audiences and partners may use each selected item.
The ability to narrow, pause or withdraw permission later.

What a supporter can learn

Trust comes from the chain, not the size of the claim

Consent is an operating relationship, not a form signed once.
A private source can create public value without becoming public itself.
Evidence is stronger when it stays traceable to a person who can correct it.
A use is not complete until its return to the storyteller is visible.

The invitation

Support the infrastructure around the story, not the extraction of it.

See the platform overview Talk about support