Namila Benson

Namila Benson is an Australian radio broadcaster, podcaster, and television presenter, known for her work for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, on Radio National and ABC Television. From 2021 to 2023, she hosted a weekly arts show on ABC TV called Art Works, and is the host and co-creator of the ABC TV show The Art Of... that began airing in June 2024.

Namila Benson was born in Australia of Papua New Guinean parents. She is a Tolai woman from Rabaul in the East New Britain Province in Papua New Guinea, and was born in Melbourne, Australia.

Her father, Warium Benson, worked as a broadcaster for 36 years with Radio Australia, between 1975 and 2011.

Since starting in radio at Melbourne community broadcaster 3CR in the mid-nineties, Benson spent two and a half decades working across a number of media platforms, including as a field reporter on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television arts show, Art Nation, as a producer and presenter on Radio Australia's Pacific Service and presenter on 3RRR FM radio.

Between 2017 and 2019, she worked as a producer on the Radio National mornings program, Life Matters. In 2019, she moved across to presenting and co-producing the national visual arts program, The Art Show, on ABC Radio National.

Between 2021 and 2023, she hosted a weekly arts show on ABC TV named Art Works. Benson hosted 100 episodes of the ABC Television show Art Works across three seasons (2021, 2022 & 2023). Art Works aired on ABC TV and ABC TV Plus, and continues to be viewable on ABC iView.

In November 2023, the ABC announced that Benson would host a new TV arts show, named The Art of... which began airing in June 2024. Benson is the host and co-creator of the ABC TV show The Art Of... that began airing in June 2024.

Benson uses her platform to challenge cultural norms and encourage meaningful discussions. She has been vocal about the need for Australians to engage in "difficult, open, and honest conversations".

Benson has acted as a mentor to help young people get into media in Australia and abroad. She has run workshops at radio stations 3CR, SYN, PBS 106.7FM, and 3RRR.

In 2015, she worked in Papua New Guinea, running media training with producers, presenters and journalists from the National Broadcasting Corporation of Papua New Guinea.

In 2019, Benson hosted talks with Jack Charles and various special guests at the Melba Spiegeltent in Melbourne.

She hosted conversations with singer Archie Roach, and renowned First Nations elder, actor, and activist Uncle Jack Charles, at the Stories of Song and Resilience Event in December 2017 at the Sydney Opera House.

In 2019, Wil Anderson featured Benson on episode 151 of his podcast, Wilosophy.

For the 22nd Biennale of Sydney in 2020, titled NIRIN: Art From the Edge, focusing on international contemporary art by First Nations artists, she hosted a six-part podcast series called "Behind the Biennale".

In 2023, Benson hosted the annual Semi-Permanent and Never Permanent design festivals, interviewing speakers including: Sinéad Burke, Mona Chalabi, Mikaela Jade, Liam Young, and others.

In March 2024, she hosted the Australian International Documentary Conference Awards at ACMI, Melbourne.

Benson collaborated with Jack Charles on writing his memoir Jack Charles: Born-Again Blakfella, published on 18 August 2020 by Penguin Books. The memoir was shortlisted by the Australian Book Industry Awards as the 2020 Biography Book of the Year.

Benson hosted 33 episodes of the first season of ABC Television show Art Works in 2021, which began airing on ABC TV on 5 March 2021.

Benson hosted 37 episodes of the second season of ABC Television show Art Works in 2022 which began airing on ABC TV on 16 March 2022.

Benson hosted and/or appeared on the following episodes of the third season of ABC Television show Art Works in 2023:

Benson is the host and co-creator of the ABC TV show The Art Of...

• Media related to Namila Benson at Wikimedia Commons