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With National Close The Gap Day being held Thursday, March 16, First Nations Media Australia (FNMA) is continuing to play a major role in closing the gap, especially in working to close the digital gap between First Nations people and other Australians by 2026.

In 2020, the Australian Digital Inclusion Index score for Indigenous Australians is 55.1, a total 7.9 points below the national average with affordability being a key barrier. More than 2.5 million Australians remain offline. This includes 24.7% of Indigenous Australian households who do not access the internet from home, compared with the national average of 14.7%. Levels of home internet access for Indigenous Australian households diminish further with remoteness, with up to 45.2% of households in remote and very remote locations unable to access the internet.

In this context, First Nations media is the primary information source for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences in many remote communities. But First Nations Media Australia CEO Professor Shane Hearn says the digital divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians remains significant.

“According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, only 57% of Indigenous Australians had access to the internet at home in 2016, compared to 83% of non-Indigenous Australians,” Professor Hearn said. “This digital divide has significant impacts on Indigenous Australians' ability to access education, healthcare, employment, and other essential services."

FNMA supports Outcome 17 of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap: “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have access to information and services enabling participation in informed decision-making regarding their own lives.”

‘In partnership with indigiMob, FNMA are striving to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have equal levels of digital inclusion with the rest of Australia,’ Professor Hearn said. ‘We are holding governments to reaching Target 17 of Closing the Gap by 2026.’ Digital inclusion refers to the ability of individuals and communities to access and effectively use digital technologies, such as computers, the internet and digital devices. Digital inclusion is becoming crucial to social and economic participation, as many essential services and opportunities are now only available online.

Professor Hearn says indigiMOB does this by forming partnerships with communities and local organisations and by providing a suite resources that communities can take advantage of according to their needs. "These resources include technical, training and infrastructure support around digital technology and the online world." As well as seeking to close the digital gap between First Nations and other Australians, First Nation Media Australia and its member organisations assist in Closing the Gap in many other areas.

The 2022-23 First Nations Media Australia News Initiative has successfully wrapped. It supported 13 reporters from across the continent to hone and develop their journalism toolkit, to source and share unique stories from their communities within our sector and beyond.

The program continues to grow from strength to strength; from partnering with major media organisations such as Nine Entertainment newspapers, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, for their coverage of the Voice to Parliament; to training in mobile journalism, digital tools and foundational journalism skills.

Each year participants from the previous group of reporters are invited to stay connected with the program by attending news gathering meetings and additional training with the current cohort. This has ensured we are nurturing a growing network of First Nations journalists who support one another both professionally and personally.

We look forward to seeing, hearing and reading the stories that matter from our community reporters, and welcoming the next group in a few months time.

Testimonials from our News Initiative graduates:
“My favourite part was connecting on a national scale with our passionate journalists and building a stronger support system whilst learning and improving our skills to deliver news in our communities.” Vida Sumner, Nunga Wangga Aboriginal Corporation, Kaurna country, Adelaide, SA.

In partnership with Tranby Aboriginal Co-operative and Blackbooks Sydney, indigiTUBE live streamed the launch of Nangamay (Dream) Mana (Gather) Djurali (Grow) an anthology of First Nations Poetry on the 20th of February at the State Library of NSW. Outloud's producer/host Gavin Ivey MC'd the event, Alison Whittaker and Steven Lindsay Ross (editors) spoke about the coming together of the First Nations LGBTQI+SB Community and there were readings on the night from, Samuel Barsah, Domenic Guerrera, Jacyn De Santis and Ellen O'Brien. Make sure to keep an eye out for the launch livestream on the indigiTUBE website!

inDigiMOB staff, Sonja, Chantal and Wayne travelled to Port Lincoln and Ceduna recently to engage with organisations and plan local solutions to social media and online safety issues. One project we discussed with young students and some senior women, was to record some stories from the community using iPads. This promises to be a really successful and important collaboration amongst families, and across generations. The stories can be told by the senior people and the young people can be engaged with them, using technology to record them so they can be kept forever.

inDigiMOB has organised for the community to have a channel on the indigiTUBE platform to promote these recordings and make them available to a wider audience. There currently seems to be a lack of avenues for these communities to get local First Nations media published.

The inDigiMOB team’s hope is that the young people will gain skills in recording and editing video and audio. They can then be regular contributors to the indigiTUBE channel (and hopefully other media outlets), as there are many stories that can be told from this region.

During the visit, the inDigiMOB team also briefed organisations about Online Safety and common scams to avoid. The team’s Online Safety project, which is a partnership with eSafety Commissioner, is drawing near to an end. We are collating the information we have been providing, and the ideas that communities have suggested to combat these issues, and will put these into a final project report over the next couple of months.

Rita says 15 years ago, the ICTV board invited her to a board meeting and asked her to help them get ICTV back as a television service broadcasting into remote communities.

But Rita says it was not until December 2012 that ICTV started broadcasting as an independent full-time television service on the VAST platform, going out to remote communities around Australia.

“ICTV is in good hands, with a new Indigenous General Manager, an annual budget of over $3 million, it’s own unique news service in language, a solid staff base of 16 staff with over 50% Indigenous employment and an OB truck that’s about to turn up any day,” Rita says.

Indigenous Beats Press Release he award winning show "Indigenous beats" is back with Deadly Singer-songwriter, Noongar Marmun (man) who needs no introduction, Phil Walley-Stack. Performing since he was a child he is now an accomplished performing artist, musician, dancer and author. In 2023 Phil hopes to continue the support for Australian and in particular first nations musicians and creatives. Tune into Noongar Radio frequency 100.9FM or stream digitally via Noongar Radio website, every Saturday night for Indigenous Beats and in the wise words of Phil "TURN IT UP"!!

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