Insight into Kumi Taguchi's whirlwind career

In the same week that she received her nomination for UOW’s 2024 Alumni Award in Arts and Culture, Kumi Taguchi was preparing to host the latest episode of Insight.  

The All Media Walkley award-winning SBS current affairs program tackles tough topics by interviewing regular people. That week’s episode: ‘Uni Blues’. 

The program dove into the university experience, with many young people and current students not seeing the value of higher education. That didn’t resonate with Kumi, who reflects on her time at UOW with great fondness. 

“I felt totally supported. There was flexibility to shape my degree how I wanted, our lecturers were invested in us and in their expertise – they were as passionate about their work as we were our studies,” she says. 

A talented violinist, Kumi arrived at UOW on a full scholarship to study music, but soon found a new course in media. 

“The desire to tell stories and understand the world was where my passions lay and in my first year, I was also studying a minor in media arts. From second year on, I turned that into my major. It was a new strand to the degree at the time – filmmaking, computer coding, multimedia authoring – I loved it all.” 

^{Kumi is a renowned presenter on SBS and the ABC. Picture: supplied.}

She hit the ground running out of uni, landing a job as a production assistant at the ABC’s The 7:30 Report, before embarking on a range of production and reporting roles throughout the Asia Pacific and working her way up the ranks of the ABC and SBS as a producer and journalist. 

Since then, she has travelled the world for her career, running marathons in the desert, sailing in the Sydney to Hobart and covering the Invictus and Olympic Games, with her Tokyo 2020 coverage a personal career highlight. 

 “I was (and still am) working at SBS at the time, so it was unusual for a host to cross to another network. After a bit of wrangling and great support from both networks, I found myself working with such an extraordinary, professional team. We were still a bit post-Covid, so I broadcast from a studio in Sydney and the rest of the team was in Melbourne,” she says.  

“I felt for Japan, having to cancel the 2020 Games and hold it a year later, with no spectators. But I felt immense pride – and acceptance. That me, and that side of my culture, was being celebrated. 

“I also liked breaking this mould - that ultimately, as storytellers and broadcasters, it shouldn’t matter who we work for. We can cross paths and dip into each other’s workplaces and that is a good thing - for our industry and for our sense of connection to, and learning from, other journalists.” 

In 2021, the same year she covered the Olympics, Kumi was named as the new host of Insight. The role requires a unique level of empathy and journalistic integrity, leading tough conversations around difficult topics from death to divorce, to estranged families.  

“I think long and hard before a record and what tone I need to take. I find with people who have tough stories – too much gentleness and delicateness can be condescending. There are people in our studio who have gone to hell and back and they prefer to be treated normally without kid gloves. It is my job to stay firm so that they can soften and melt, if they need to,” says Kumi. 

“I always remind myself that all I am doing is asking. You can lean on a word, and it will shift how that question comes across and it can feel biased. So, I just ask in an open-minded way. During a record, which can go for two hours, I might reset my mind in this way a few dozen times. It takes quite a lot of internal focus and discipline. It is vital that every person in our studio feels safe to share and it is not up to me to decide who's right or wrong, so asking questions the right way is imperative.” 

Looking back on her time as a student, Kumi credits UOW with providing her with more than just a degree: a sense of self, a community and the confidence to chase her dreams. 

“UOW gave me a place where I could be me and find myself. I felt totally at home there and, as a result, felt liberated to be who I wanted to be. I learned so much about others there and I had so many friends: friends from all over the world, friends who were the first in their family to go to uni, friends whose upbringings were totally opposite to mine,” she says.  

Despite her success in the media industry, Kumi remains humble and almost hesistant to provide advice to young people looking to pursue education or their dream career.  

“Everyone has different pieces to give and ultimately, we need to listen to our own internal voice and trust ourselves. Often, when I feel lost or somehow out of sync with myself, I remind myself what I really care about and why, and I feel re-centered.” 

“It is easy to be shifted off track and it is important to find ways to find our own way back to ourselves.”