The School of Comm
unication and Arts congratulates Teaching Associate Navin Sam Regi, who has been awarded a 2026 Walkley Grant for Freelance Journalism for his project The Cost of Resilience.
The project is a long-form multimedia investigation into how resilience narratives shape disaster recovery in flood-affected communities across Brisbane, Logan, and Ipswich. Using mobile recording and portrait studios set up in flood-affected suburbs, the project will capture paired conversations between residents about their experiences of repeated flooding and recovery, exploring the gap between public narratives of resilience and the reality on the ground.
Sam was one of 14 journalists selected nationally for the grants, which support ambitious public-interest reporting by freelance journalists across Australia.
The project also forms the basis of Sam's PhD research, with the funding supporting the reporting and production phase over the next 12 months.
This is Sam's second Walkley Foundation grant, following a Meta Newsroom Fund grant in 2022.
Read the official announcement on the Walkley Foundation website.
