First Nations Media News ::

First Nations Media Australia is joining with other peak bodies from around Australia as part of a Coalition of Peaks to push for greater involvement of First Nations organisations in addressing Closing the Gap targets. FNMA Chairperson Dot West joined other Indigenous leaders at Parliament House for 14th February's release of the 2019 Closing the Gap report. The Prime Minister’s statement in the Closing the Gap report referred to the emerging partnership with the Coalition of Peaks. One of the peak bodies, NACCHO, has written an op-ed piece about the partnership arrangement and the upcoming conversations about refreshing the Closing the Gap targets, attached here.

We are pleased to welcome two new members to our Board of Directors, Vince Coulthard and Naomi Moran.

Vince Coulthard is a proud Adnyamathanha man who grew up in the Flinders Ranges and is the Director at Umeewarra Media. With decades of experience in broadcasting Vince leads the team to ensure that community voices are heard, community issues are raised and community projects and initiative supported. Vince is passionate about Aboriginal culture, land and people. He has made a life-long commitment to protecting and preserving our cultures our languages and striving for better outcomes for Aboriginal people. Vince is the recipient of three NAIDOC awards including the National Lifetime achievement award. He received the Premiers NAIDOC awards, the Federation medal and the Slim Dusty Mateship award. Vince’s leadership ensures that Umeewarra Media is involved in the community at all levels. Vince is a loyal Crows supporter.

Naomi Moran is a Nyangbal, Arakwal and Dunghutti woman from New South Wales, and is the General Manager of Australia’s only independent Indigenous newspaper, the Koori Mail. Her career in Indigenous media spans over 20 years, and includes experience in print, television and radio. At just fourteen years old, in April 1998, Naomi joined the Koori Mail as a trainee office worker, which resulted in a ten-year journey working for the paper in various roles and departments throughout the business including advertising, sales, marketing and editorial. In 2008 she pursued her career goals in Indigenous Media, joining the communications team at NITV, Australia’s only Indigenous TV station, and then went on to explore working in radio with a joint position with both the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association and the National Indigenous Radio Service, in Brisbane. In April 2016, Naomi returned to the Koori Mail, with the Koori Mail Board of Directors appointing her as General Manager. Naomi has a passion for supporting Indigenous youth with employment and career pathways, by developing and delivering in-school programs and mentoring for students throughout the northern NSW region.

inDigiMOB partners, Tangentyere Council, PAW Media, and ARDS have already been busy this year running digital activities in NT communities. Take a look at our Facebook page to see some photos of what's been happening. The inDigiMOB team is excited to welcome Anindilyakwa Land Council as a partner. Engagement and digital activities will commence in two Groote Eylandt communities, Angurugu and Umbakuma, very soon and five new Digital Mentors have already been identified to work with inDigiMOB, improve their own digital skills, and help support the digital literacy of members of their communities. New staff have also joined the inDigiMOB team.
Steve Tranter is a sound engineer bringing lots of experience to our inDigiMOB activities. He worked for CAAMA Music for many years and was involved in recording, mixing and producing the music of some iconic Aboriginal bands and musicians.
Milly Hooper has experience working for a number of Aboriginal organisations in a variety of roles. She has great digital photography and computing skills so is well equipped to work with inDigiMOB's Digital Mentors to help build our library of digital literacy resources. Veronica Lynch will also start in the team soon supporting the creation of resources and Aboriginal participation in inDigiMOB digital activities. Veronica has a background in community engagement, most recently as a remote community money management worker.

First Nations Media Australia received Indigenous Languages and Arts Program funding in late 2018 for development of an archive collection management system. The project will be consulting more widely with First Nations media organisations over the coming months. Read more here.

Susan Locke, Simon Japangardi Fisher and Elizabeth Napaljarri Katakarinja recently presented on cultural issues associated with custodianship of First Nations media archives at the International Digital Curation Conference, held at the University of Melbourne. The Conference provided an opportunity to meet with attending First Nations archive managers.

WELCOME ABOARD VIVIENNE DE ROOY
Vivienne is joining First Nations Media Australia on a Jawun secondment for the next five weeks.
Established in 2001, Jawun (which means ‘friend’ in the Kuku Yalanji language of Mossman Gorge) is a not-for-profit organisation which partners with corporate and government agencies to support and build capacity within indigenous organisations and communities around Australia.
Normally a Program Director for IAG in Sydney, Vivienne has come to FNMA through the NPY branch of Jawun and will be working with the Board, members and staff to refresh our strategy and develop a business plan that will help ensure we are able to deliver on the most important priorities.

HEALING, KNOWING, BEING, DOING

Watch the GAMARADA story on indigiTUBE. First Nations people across Australia are reconnecting to place and purpose in community. This is reducing the risk of harm and producing some incredible outcomes across the healing and community empowerment spaces. An innovative leadership group of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal men, women and youth have met weekly in Redfern since 2007 to collaboratively work toward solutions for challenges including anger, addiction, suicide, family violence, mental health and cultural dispossession. The program empowers community members of all ages to find their spirit, their voice and to revive connection to Aboriginal identity and culture. This important story shares the restoration of values, and roles in community.

NG MEDIA HAS WELCOMED THEIR NEW GENERAL MANAGER

Stephen Hall has extensive experience in managing and leading community organisations. Most recently Stephen worked at Shelter WA where he had a leading role in the call for a continued national commitment to fund housing in remote Australia. In a voluntary capacity Stephen has presented specialist programs on community radio for more than a decade. For many years Stephen has also volunteered on a number of committees and boards, such as the National Sorry Day Committee, Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) and the WA Deaths in Custody Watch Committee. He blogs about human rights, history, popular culture along with other bits and pieces. Stephen starts on site from the beginning of March.

Entries are now open to submit videos for the 2019 ICTV Video Awards, closing on 28 February. Nominations are open to any videos that have been been submitted to ICTV since the last video awards, held in Yirrkala in 2017 (two years). The Video Awards will be presented as part of the inaugural ICTV Festival of Remote Indigenous Australian Moving Image (previous known as the ICTV Screen Summit) which is taking place in Alice Springs from 13 to 16 May as the final night of the festival. The event will also be broadcast live on ICTV for people who can’t be here in person. Read more here.

NITV CELEBRATES THE LGBTIQ+ COMMUNITY WITH STELLAR MARDI GRAS PROGRAMMING SLATE

Kicking off NITV’s Mardi Gras programming with a bang is Shade: Queens of NYC, an 11-part, half hour TV docu-series following eight rising drag stars from New York City as they try to make it big in the industry. The series goes beyond the makeup, lip-synching and glamour to show the queens juggling love, commitment, community, heartbreak, family and faith while on the brink of fame.

The Slate premiering on NITV on Sunday 24 February at 7.30pm.

BLACK STAR SWITCHES ON COEN
Local radio service in Cape Yorke town of Coen has turned into Black Star Radio. Queensland remote communities are being in touch with the outside world and other communities pulling out the old radios now listening to Coen which receives 24/7 on the hour news and weather services, their own local information and own program daily. Log, new music updates on a regular basis. For all purposes they are their own local station and have 24 hour network support from Cairns Hub.

Koori Radio is on the lookout for more presenters to join their team as new time slots become available. If you’re keen, you can learn all the skills to create your own radio show with their FREE training course. You’ll get experience in presenting on air, producing a radio show and interviewing, plus you have the opportunity to complete a qualification through their partnership with the Community Media Training Organisation (CMTO). If you’re interested, call the Program Manager on 02 9384 4000 or email info@gadigal.org.au

DIVERSITY, DEBATE AND DISRUPTION

Media Diversity Australia, in partnership with cohealth is hosting two workshops on Tuesday 26 & Wednesday 27 February at Melbourne’s Multicultural Hub to get media professionals together for an informal discussion about news, diversity and disruption in the rapidly changing media environment. They want to hear from cultural and linguistically diverse journalists about your personal experiences and how Media Diversity Australia can better support diversity in newsrooms. Complimentary pizza, beer, wine and soft drinks. Register free here.