‘Bringing His Spirit Home: Private Arthur Thomas Walker, Ngarrindjeri Anzac’, has been nominated in two categories at the 2025 MEAA SA Media Awards!
Produced by Megan Spencer for the Virtual War Memorial Australia, the podcast is nominated for:
- ‘Best Radio/Audio Journalism – Feature’, and
- ‘Best Freelance Journalist’.
This is the second nomination for the seven-part immersive audio podcast which was also shortlisted for the 2024 Australian Podcast Awards last October.
Bringing His Spirit Home tells the story of Private Arthur Thomas Walker, a Ramndjeri man of the Ngarrindjeri nation in South Australia, who volunteered for the AIF during WWI.
Private Walker served as an ANZAC in Gallipoli and later in France where he was KIA with ‘no known grave’.
The audio series was made with the participation and permission of Private Walker’s family, including his great-grandson and Elder, Uncle John Lochowiak.
Private Walker’s story is one of First Nations truth-telling, reconciliation and spirituality. It expands and diversifies the legend of ANZAC, the much-revered ‘foundation myth’ of Australian history after colonisation.
The nominations publicly recognise this as well as Private Walker’s service, sacrifice and his family’s continuing dedication to keeping his spirit alive across generations, continents and cultures.
It’s also great acknowledgement for the Virtual War Memorial Australia which commissioned the podcast for its innovative Schools program. VWMA is not a media organisation, masthead, channel or network but a cultural organisation and Australia’s largest online memorial.
This is the fourth time Megan has been nominated for her freelance commemorative podcast work at the SA Media Awards.
In 2020 she won ‘Best Radio, News, Current Affairs or Feature Report’ for her six-part series From A Whisper To A Bang! commissioned by the Australian War Memorial, and in 2023 ‘Best Radio/Audio Feature based on a Single Story’ for her five-part series Defending With Pride: Voices commissioned by the Shrine of Remembrance.
The 2025 SA Media Awards will be held in Adelaide on 3 July 2025 – more about them here.
Listen to Bringing His Spirit Home: Private Arthur Thomas Walker, Ngarrindjeri Anzac here.
At the podcast launch: (L-R) Private Walker’s great great grandsons Mihail and Jacob Lochowiak; great grandson, Elder Uncle John Lochowiak; the Hon Kyam Maher MLC, SA Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, and great great grandsons Anzac and Jackson Lochowiak. Pic: Megan Spencer.