This month we have continued our work to support First Nations media organisations around the country in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are hugely proud of the messaging being produced across the sector to keep our communities safe and healthy and we recognise all the extra hours of work that have gone into creating some really important content, often under stressful conditions. Thank-you. We’ve loved hearing some of the excellent feedback members have been receiving from communities, which has resonated right through to Parliament House. While the pandemic has been a difficult time in many ways, there has also been some really positive moments of connection through our media networks.

As restrictions start to ease around the country and we move into the next phase of messaging, we continue to put new resources on our COVID-19 website for broadcasters and reporters to draw from. There are new scripts, social media tiles, audio grabs and short videos being added all the time to support your news stories and content pieces. If you haven’t checked into the site for a little while, it’s worth having another look here.

We have been pleased to distribute a small amount of emergency funding to help the sector with immediate responses to the pandemic in the first few weeks. Funding provided by Minister Wyatt through the National Indigenous Australians Agency has contributed to some of the small equipment purchases our members needed to make to ensure the continuation of essential broadcasting services through social distancing requirements, allowing members to protect their staff while staying on air. This funding also provided support for some of the extra messaging work First Nations media organisations have been delivering in recent weeks, along with support from the Northern Territory Government for messaging in the Territory. Now we are working to address the next phase of messaging and the loss of income many members are facing due to cancelled events, fundraising activities and sponsorship campaigns.

Amongst all of this, we have continued to move forward with some exciting developments across our areas of work. We have been contributing to the Public Interest Reference Group, working alongside the Land Councils, health organisations and Northern Territory Government to coordinate the communications response to COVID-19 in the Territory. Our work with the Coalition of Peaks continues, contributing to working groups and drafting processes for the Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap in preparation for COAG meetings coming up. The Archiving Project is well underway with resources and training in place to help members get started with archiving significant historic recordings, more information on that below. indigiTUBE has received a huge surge in traffic during the lockdown and we’re really excited about some of the new content being added to the site at the moment. And our inDigiMOB team has found a whole new way to work with remote communities, delivering our first online digital mentoring and engaging in technology in new ways.

We have also started a First Nations Media History archive on Mukurtu and are starting to upload photos from the FNMA collection. If you have photos of key sector activities, events or people taken during the 1980s to 2000s, which you would be happy to have included in the archive, please contact Daniel at daniel@firstnationsmedia.org.au. We will credit the contributors or put your name to the collection.

We are compiling the archive learning resources on our website into a manual, as well as an interactive online toolkit, based on the 9 Stages of Development of First Nations Media Archives. There will be a front page for Archive Managers, Archive Workers or Mukurtu Users to help find the relevant information and resources. This is due for completion by late June.

We are working with Charles Darwin University to develop a 3-unit accredited archiving skill set to teach archive workers how to digitise and catalogue audio, video and photographic records.

The evaluation will include a small number of case study examples, with researchers working in partnership with First Nations media organisations.

If you’re interested in being one of the case study organisations, please drop an email to Claire via claire@firstnationsmedia.org.au.

indigiTUBE has some exciting new music! Former First Sounds featured artist Loui has released a brand new independently produced song For The Girls, premiering on indigiTUBE today. The track aims to support and empower women experiencing domestic violence, and highlights specific traits of these unacceptable behaviours.

Justice Connect has a couple of webinars coming up that may be timely for some of our members. Upcoming training sessions include:

• Employee or independent contractor? When to employ and when to contract - Tuesday 9 June, 12:45pm AEST
• Drafting a great Memorandum of Understanding - Tuesday 23 June, 12:45pm AEST

They also have recordings of previous free webinars on key legal issues for managers of volunteers, holding AGMs online, employment and contract issues for not-for-profits on their website. Read more.

Photographers under the age of 24 are invited to apply for the Ian Parry Scholarship to help undertake a chosen project and raise your international profile. The winner of the contest will receive $3,500 (USD) and Canon photo equipment. There are two awards available, for Achievement and for Potential. Applications are open now and close on 5 July. Read more.

The CBAA has created a podcast collaboration with community radio stations sharing stories from the bushfire crisis only a few months ago. The nine-part series tells the stories of survival and heroism in the face of great dance. The first episode of the series, “Radio Saves the Day” tells the stories of how families responded when their last link to news services through radio were cut. Read and hear more.

PwC staff can spend up to 15 hours per year using their professional services in a voluntary capacity for not-for-profit organisations. Across their staff team they have expertise in finance, Human Resources, IT, tax, legal services, strategy development, marketing and project consultation. If your organisation could use a hand from a volunteer with skills in any of these areas, you can sign up via their website to be matched with a volunteer. Read more.

This year the Australian Progress conference will be held online, bringing together leading advocates, change-makers, storytellers, philanthropists and activists to build a shared understanding of where we’re going and how we can work together to build a fairer future. Some of the speakers already confirmed include Dr Anne Poelina (Chair, Maruwarra Fitzroy River Council), Larissa Baldwin (First Nations Justice Campaigner, GetUp), Marshall Ganz (US based community organising expert), Benjamin Law (Author), Anat Shenker-Osorio (global messaging and communications expert) and many more.

Virtual Progress has offered First Nations Media Australia members sponsorship for up to 20 registrations. This means free registration for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates and partial scholarships for non-Indigenous staff working in First Nations media organisations. To take up this offer, register via their website using this code: fnm-vp2020. Read more.