First Nations Media News : IFD Outcomes : RIMF Registrations : Storytelling Workshops : Member news

The First Nations Media Australia Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Catherine Liddle as the new Chief Executive Office of First Nations Media Australia.
Catherine will start in the role on 14th October, with a three month handover from outgoing General Manager Daniel Featherstone.

FNMA Chairperson Dot West said, "We thank outgoing General Manager Daniel Featherstone for his dedication and leadership since 2012, including overseeing the transition of the organisation from IRCA to the national peak body since 2016. We congratulate Catherine on her successful appointment as our new CEO. Catherine brings extensive industry knowledge, strong management experience and the confidence and diplomacy to lead the FNMA team and the sector going forward."

Catherine is an Arrernte/Luritja woman from the Central Australia desert regions who brings a wealth of experience in First Nations media. Catherine is currently the NPY Regional Director of Jawun Indigenous Corporate Partnerships based in Alice Springs where she has helped with placement of three secondees at FNMA this year, so has a good knowledge of the organisation.

Last year Catherine stepped in as the Interim General Manager of ICTV for five months. She has previously worked in a number of roles at NITV including Executive Editor of News and Current Affairs, along with other roles at Imparja Television, the ABC and SBS. Catherine has also worked in the Northern Territory Department of Education in Regional Manager and Manager Family and Community Engagement positions.

Catherine is honoured to be offered the position. "I am very excited about the opportunity and the ability to work with the sector. It is a gift to be able to work within a resilient industry that constantly pushes creative boundaries through cultural frameworks and produces content that is informative, innovative, inspiring, challenging and vitally important to the First Nations communities and contributing enormously to the diversity and health of the Australian media landscape."

He has worked in roles such as a regional coordinator working with Indigenous organisations to improve service delivery, as a lecturer in governance, and a the CEO of a medical service and until recently was working on his PhD looking at improving governance. He has lived in every state and territory in Australia besides Tasmania.

Roy strongly believes that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations have a special responsibility and relationship with their communities. He is looking forward to meeting, working, and learning much from other dedicated people in the sector in his new role.

Over 90 delegates attended the Indigenous Focus Day on Thursday 27th June to discuss digital inclusion needs and challenges at a local level and provide input into policy needs at a state and national level.

The group discussed practical solutions to the key obstacles to digital inclusion, including availability of broadband and mobile services, local access, affordability, awareness (skills, services and cyber-safety) and appropriateness of technology and programs.

The outcome of the day was the development of a Policy Action Plan to take to government. The Policy Action Plan is built upon discussions at previous Indigenous Focus Days, which proposed that Indigenous Digital Inclusion become a Closing the Gap target, outlining a six-part Indigenous Digital Inclusion Strategy.

The key recommendations, principles, challenges and progress to date is outlined in the Communique available below. It includes an overview of presentations, participants and supporters.

Progress
The Project is in the final research phase and has identified three flexible pathways to support First Nations media organisations at different stages of Archive development identify an appropriate platform:

1. Inventory and collection management systems only – desktop and cloud based.
2. Cloud based inventory and collection management systems with capacity for allowing community access to culturally open media.
3. Cloud based inventory and collection management systems with:
a. Capacity for allowing non-login access to culturally open media, and
b. Community controlled login access to deceased and sensitive content.

Background

The Archiving Platform Project is aimed at supporting First Nations media organisations to catalogue and manage their unique and culturally valuable archives of analogue and digital media.
Specifically, the Project is investigating affordable platforms that are capable of:
• aligning with Dublin Core metadata standards, and
• providing collection management functions, and optionally
• providing community access according to cultural protocols for deceased and sensitive media.

The applications and platforms now being considered and refined are customised Excel templates and build/customisation of Appsheet, Collecting Bug and Mukurtu. The Project is also supportive of the Keeping Culture platform that has been taken up by some First Nations media organisations and is looking to ways to complement those implementations.

Next steps are to:
• bring findings to the Project’s sector consultation groups and refine as needed.
• complete customisations for the applications and platforms.
• develop training and user guides.
• conduct pilots in selected First Nations media organisations.

Stay tuned....

Fifteen inDigiMOB Digital Mentors from Groote Eylandt, Ramingining, Gapuwiyak, Yuendumu, Alice Springs Town Camps and Alice Springs Library came together in Alice Springs to be part of a two-day Digital Storytelling Workshop. Most of the Digital Mentors attended also the Indigenous Focus Day 2019 and some presented their digital projects. For a few it was the first time standing up and speaking in front of an audience.

Thank-you to everyone, particularly to our partners PAW Media and Communications, ARDS Aboriginal Corporation, Tangentyere Council Inc, Anindilyakwa Land Council and Indigemoji, Thank you also to our funding partner Telstra for taking the time to attend the Indigenous Focus Day 2019 and continuing to support our program.

Registrations for the 20th Remote Indigenous Media Festival are now open. We’re inviting all remote media workers to come and join us on Kaurareg land on Waiben/Thursday Island for a week of skills workshops, industry forums, networking and celebration from September 22 to 27. Weekend travel to the island is limited, so get in quick!

The week is co-hosted by TSIMA 4MW who have lined up some amazing opportunities to experience local culture, including a closing night concert ’Torres Strait History Through Song’.

Travel details and program details can be found on our website.

Just a reminder that travel subsidies for our events, discounted registration and eligibility to nominate for Awards is only available to current members. If you have received a notification to renew recently, get those payments back quickly to access these member benefits!

If you're not sure, check the list of current members on our website here.

As a reminder, membership costs $275 for ordinary, affiliate and friend organisations, $165 for associate organisations and $22 for individuals. If you're not a member already, now if a very good time to join up. There's a membership type for everyone. check what type of membership suits you here. New members are always welcome!

If you have any questions, contact our Events & Member Services Officer, Jacinta Barbour anytime at jacinta@firstnationsmedia.org.au

PRESERVING ENDANGERED LANGUAGES

Approximately 90 per cent of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and dialects are bordering on extinction. CAAMA Music have just released Therrka Endangered Languages in recognition of 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages. Featured above is Jonathan Doolan and the Areyonga Band, with their new EP in Pitjantjatjara language. The project also includes The Williams Family (Western Aranda), Lemih Thompson (Pintupi-Luritja) and Stuart Nuggett (Jingili).

We have set up a closed Facebook group as a quick way to share information within our sector. Although the group is described as ‘closed’ - this just means it’s not a public page. It’s open to anybody currently working in the First Nations media sector. This is a place to ask questions, share ideas and resources and basically help each other out. Is there something you’re working on that people at other media organisations might already have a solution to? You can join the group here and invite members of your team to join too.

And if you’re not already following the First Nations Media Australia page - like that too! That’s where we promote our sector to the broader public and share upcoming events and info. This page is public, whereas the group is only for industry peers.

AFTRS is throwing open its doors on 10th August for their annual Open Day. This is a great opportunity to get the inside scoop on their Bachelor of Arts Screen: Production, Master of Arts Screen (10 disciplines), Master of Arts Screen Business and Leadership and Graduate Diploma in Radio, and to learn more about their Industry Certificates, Short Courses and School Holiday program.

You are invited to attend the presentations, join the workshops and get acquainted with AFTRS' facilities and staff at their Moore Park campus, Sydney.

Screen Australia has published The Next 25 Years – the Indigenous Department’s new strategy. The release of the plan is the culmination of extensive consultation that occurred throughout the Department’s 25th anniversary year (2018) and into 2019.

The plan details five pillars that address the challenges and opportunities facing the sector. These pillars have been created based on feedback from recipients of Screen Australia funding, Indigenous members of the creative and film community, state and territory agencies, broadcasters, and other key screen sector partners. The pillars will underpin the Department’s future efforts and form the basis for the Department’s strategic decisions, including allocations of funding. Read more here.

A recent NSW Supreme Court decision found that organisations can be liable for comments made on their social media pages, including comments from the public. The court case was a result of Dylan Voller taking action against multiple news organisations against comments made on their social media pages following headline reports in 2016 about his experience in Don Dale Youth Detention Centre. The court determined that the owner of a public Facebook page is the publisher of comments, if the page and comments are publicly available and could therefore potentially be open to defamation claims. As most of our members have public Facebook pages, it’s worth reminding yourself of what defamation is and how to avoid legal disputes. Justice Connect have published a useful defamation fact sheet resource on this topic - it’s a handy reminder.

JESSE COX AUDIO FELLOWSHIP

Jesse Cox was a Walkley Award-winning radio producer with a passion for storytelling, whose work spanned community (FBi), public (ABC) and commercial (Audible) platforms. Sadly, Jesse’s life was cut short in 2017 at the age 31. Some of Jesse’s closest family and friends have created the Jesse Cox Audio Fellowship – an annual $20,000 fellowship for an Australian resident to create an innovative audio work, with support from Audible, ABC, Sonar Sound, Audiocraft, Third Coast International Audio Festival and Hearsay International Audio Arts Festivals. They are looking for proposals for audio stories that are creative, innovative, ambitious, brave and elevates diverse voices. Applications are now open and close 30 July.