Stan Grant

Significance: Stan Grant, a Wiradjuri Indigenous Australian, is a journalist, writer, and presenter on television and radio, as well as an advocate for Indigenous rights.

Background

Stan Grant was born on September 20, 1963, in Griffith, New South Wales, Australia. He is the son of a Wiradjuri elder, Stan Grant Sr. The Wiradjuri people are an Australian Aboriginal group of central New South Wales. His mother is Betty Cameron Grant, the daughter of a Kamilaroi Aboriginal father from New South Wales and a white mother who grew up in Gunnedah Hill, an Aboriginal camp on the edge of Coonabarabran. His parents raised him to have respect and an awareness of his roots, which later became an important part of his professional identity.

The Grant family moved frequently, and for much of Grant’s life, he grew up in the neighboring state of Victoria, where the Wiradjuri people also have ancestral roots. His father worked as a traveling produce vendor during his childhood. By the time he was twelve years old, Grant had attended about twelve different primary schools in New South Wales and Victoria, where he was often bullied for his Indigenous heritage.

He went to Ginninderra High in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. In the early 1980s, he attended college at the Australian National University, also located in Canberra, where he studied communications. Grant found in Canberra a broader understanding of the issues behind Australian race relations and gained inspiration in education.

Life’s Work

After graduating from college, Grant began a cadetship at Macquarie Radio Network, where he gained valuable journalism experience over several years. After that, he became a political correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) network for four years. Then, he joined the Australian network Channel Seven.

During the 1990s, he became a public figure and role model for Indigenous people. However, he often felt uncomfortable in this role due to being economically and socially better off than people in most Indigenous communities. Still, he felt that in some way, he could pass on a positive message to others about the concerns facing Indigenous people.

Grant also traveled frequently for his work to cover important news events. In the mid-1990s, he worked at the Channel Seven bureau in London, and in 1997, he was sent to Belfast, Ireland, to cover the tensions there between Protestants and Catholics. During a report, he was hit in the head with a brick and suffered minor injuries and harassment. In 1999, he returned to his home country of Australia to host Today Tonight for Channel Seven and, later, the program Real Life, both of which dealt with contemporary affairs.

In 2002, he wrote his first book, The Tears of Strangers, in which he addressed Indigenous history in Australia that had, at that time, been long overlooked. In 2007, he became a co-presenter of the SBS World News Australia news bulletin program with the network Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), but by December of the same year, he resigned from his post. In 2009, he was appointed a correspondent for CNN covering the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he was based in Abu Dhabi. He hosted the news program Prism and covered current events in the UAE and the surrounding region.

In 2015, he took part in a public debate with immigration lawyer Pallavi Sinha, columnist Rita Panahi, and actor Jack Thompson at the Ethics Center in Sydney, Australia, on the topic “Racism is destroying the Australian Dream.” Previously, he had avoided publicly addressing Indigenous issues. During the debate, though, he chronicled his professional journey and stated that he had faced significant racism and injustice. In 2016, he published his second book, Talking to My Country.

In 2017, he once again joined ABC, but this time as the editor of Indigenous Affairs, as well as the host of the Friday night current-events program, The Link. In 2018, he became the host of Matter of Fact on ABC television and news radio, and he was appointed the chief Asia correspondent. After ten months, the show was canceled, and he took on the role of Indigenous and International Affairs Analyst and became a professor at Griffith University.

In 2019, he took a job with Al Jazeera English and moved to Doha, Qatar. That same year, he published three more books: Australia Day, On Identity, and Tell it to the World: An Indigenous Memoir. Then, in 2020, he replaced several other journalists who were working as International Affairs Analysts with ABC in China due to security concerns. Later that year, he hosted a series for ABC’s interview program, One Plus One. In 2021, he started ABC’s China Tonight, which focused on Chinese culture and politics. In 2022, he became the host of Q+A, but he was criticized for his Indigenous perspective during coverage of the coronation of King Charles III. He later resigned from the show, claiming he had experienced extensive racial abuse and unfairness. In 2024, Grant joined The Saturday Paper as a columnist and received his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from Charles Sturt University, with both activities reflecting his ongoing Indigenous activism. He has also been active in public speaking, including serving as a keynote speaker at national conferences on social issues. In 2025, Grant increasingly focused on academic and intellectual work, including theology, philosophy, and Indigenous identity, and delivered the Simone Weil Lecture at Australian Catholic University. In 2026, he is scheduled to publish a new book, When Words Fail Us: Truth beyond Time.

Impact

As a prominent journalist with Indigenous heritage and advocate for Indigenous rights, Grant became an ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation in 2017 and serves as the vice-chancellor’s chair of Australian Indigenous Belonging at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales.

Personal Life

In 1984, Grant married Karla Grant, a fellow journalist and producer. They have three children together: Lowanna, John, and Dylan. In 2000, they divorced after his affair with another journalist, Tracey Holmes, became publicly known. Grant married Holmes that same year. They have one child, Jesse.

Bibliography

Brennan, Aisling. “Stan Grant Leaves Monash University Role to Take Up Columnist Job after Quitting ABC Role.” News.com.au, 11 Mar. 2024, www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/stan-grant-leaves-monash-university-role-to-take-up-columnist-job-after-quitting-abc-role/news-story/a1b5ce31fee819191cd9c96aa4f9d6ce. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.

Butler, Dan. “Stan Grant Says We Are ‘Infected’ by the 24/7 News Cycle as ABC Cops More Heat for his Departure.” NITV, 24 May 2023, www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/stan-grant-says-we-are-infected-by-24-hour-news-cycle/tqz5hkr5d. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.

Grant, Stan. “For Years I’ve Been a Media Target for Racism and Paid a Heavy Price. For now, I Want no Part of It – I’m Stepping Away.” ABC, 18 May 2023, www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.

“Grant, Stan (1963– ).” Indigenous Australia, ia.anu.edu.au/biography/grant-stan-17827. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.

“NewSouth Publishing Acquires World Rights to Stan Grant’s New Book When Words Fail Us: Truth beyond Time.” UNSW Press, Nov. 2025, unsw.press/news/newsouth-acquires-stan-grant-new-book/. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.

“16 Days Global Push – End Gender Violence Now.” Tasmanian Times, 26 Nov. 2025, tasmaniantimes.com/2025/11/16-days-global-push-end-gender-violence-now/. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.

“Stan Grant Asks the ‘Holy Question’ at the Heart of Compassion.” Melbourne Catholic, Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, 1 Sept. 2025, melbournecatholic.org/news/stan-grant-asks-the-holy-question-at-the-heart-of-affliction-and-compassion. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.

Turnbull, Tiffanie. “Stan Grant: Aboriginal TV Host’s Exit Renews Criticism of Australian Media.” BBC, 23 May 2023, www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-63699881. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.

Zhuang, Yan. “Australia Reckons with TV Host’s Exit Over Racist Abuse.” The New York Times, 23 May 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/05/23/world/asia/australia-stan-grant.html. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.