First Nations Media News May 2021

At its recent AGM, First Nations Media Australia welcomed Karen Paterson (NIRS) and Dre Ngatokorua (Umeewarra Media) to the Board, alongside the re-appointment of Jen Enosa (TSIMA), John 'Tadam' Lockyer (PAKAM) and Naomi Moran (Koori Mail). The new and re-appointed Directors will take their place alongside Nelson Conboy (ICTV) and Tanya Orman (NITV) on the Board.

Members thanked Dot West for her leadership as Chair for the past four years, acknowledging her continued contribution to the sector into extra-time due to COVID-related delays in holding the AGM. Dot had reached her maximum continuous term on the Board. We also farewelled Vince Coulthard as a Director with warm thanks for his contribution. Vince decided to step down from the Board as he moves toward retirement so that Umeewarra Media could put forward a younger representative for the next term.

The Board is pleased to announce that Naomi Moran has been appointed Chairperson. Naomi has been working closely with Dot for the past year and a half as Deputy Chair and now steps into the Chair role with Tadam Lockyer in support as Deputy Chair moving forward.

From 4-7 May we gathered more than 200 delegates representing more than 50 organisations on beautiful Bundjalung country for CONVERGE Lismore. It was an epic few days of plenaries, workshops, intense discussions, planning and networking - mixed in with a bit of fun too! We celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Koori Mail, we danced along with First Sounds artists and we kicked back under the stars for Blak Cinema in the evening.

Our team is still catching up on all of our notes from the various sessions. We hope you have travelled home brimming with as many ideas and as much energy as we have!

While it's fresh in your mind, we would love to hear your feedback on the event. This is the first time we've had people join remotely online too, so we would love to know how that experience was for you. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey below (literally a few minutes). We've linked some of the photos here to jog your memory too.

The Government released its 2021-22 Budget last week. While the announcement did not include the support First Nations Media Australia has been seeking for the First Nations media sector, it did include some measures adjacent to the media sector. These include:

$84.8 million for improved connectivity in the regions through the Regional Connectivity Program for telecommunications infrastructure projects;
$68.5 million for a dedicated stream of funding for Northern Australia under the Regional Connectivity Program and Mobile Black Spot Program for digital technology solutions;
$8 million for community broadcasting primarily for news, training, digital radio and multiplatform capacity building;
$4.2 million to implement the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code through the ACMA;
$11.9 million over four years to boost quality children’s television content;
CDP providers across Australia will be supported with an additional $84.9 million in 2021-22 to meet increased demand arising from the COVID-19 pandemic; and
the Government is also committing from the IAS $42.8 million per annum for a new Indigenous skills and employment program. The program will build on the most successful elements of the current Indigenous-specific employment programs, which will be phased out over 2022, and focus on upskilling Indigenous Australians for in-demand jobs and supporting them to gain employment.

View Minister Fletcher's media release here. View Minister Wyatt's media release here.

The CONVERGE Lismore program included the launch of a sports broadcasting mentor program delivered in partnership with the Community Media Training Organisation (CMTO) and the ABC. Over the next 12 weeks, First Nations sports reporters will receive mentoring support from ABC broadcasters to 'level up' their sports reporting, OBs and carnival events - making them sound even better on air.

In the first round of the program, mentor/mentee pairs will include:

Leon Khan (6DBY) and Chris Kimball (Reporting Quality Advisor)
Brandon Cook (Ngaarda Media) and Ned Hall (ABC Grandstand)
Kimberly Barret (Cherbourg Radio) and Tanisha Stanton (ABC News Digital)
Steven Noel Newman (Wilcannia River Radio) and Tracey Holmes (ABC News Radio)
Matthew Francis (Goolarri Media) and Patrick Stack (ABC Grandstand)
Neville Johnston (TSIMA) and Brett Sprigg (ABC Radio sports commentator)
George Abednego (TSIMA) and Brittney Kleyn (ABC News Brisbane)
Elsie Seriat (TSIMA) and Georgie Tunny (ABC Sports Presenter)

Over the weeks ahead participants will join fortnightly webinar sessions and hold one-to-one discussions with the mentors, building skills and networks and new ideas for their sports broadcasting.

Speaking of mentoring, First Nations Media Australia has also partnered with the CMTO to develop a leadership mentoring program designed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people thinking about stepping up to leadership or management roles in the media sector.

Mentors will be paired up with participants at First Nations media organisations across the country to guide them through leadership topics to aid in the management of their station or organisation.

Over an 8-week period, participants will have access to an Online Learning Portal via Moodle as well as project meetings at the beginning, middle and end of the project to connect and network with the other participating stations and organisations.

We're looking for expressions of interest from both mentors (paid) and participants at the moment. So if you have something to offer, or you're thinking about your next career move, hit the buttons below!

At Converge Lismore, Migueal D’Souza introduced us to a Google Sheetload of new online apps that are part of the Google News Initiative. One of those is Pinpoint, which is part of Journalist Studio. You start by creating Collections then uploading content that is organised with people and place names extracted. For example, if you were to upload some PDF documents you will be presented with the number of times someone has been mentioned. Clicking on that person’s name will bring up a clickable list of all the pages on which they are mentioned. It can also find organisations and places. Of course you can always do a custom search of the content using google search operators.

Of particular interest to radio broadcasters is that if you upload audio content it will be transcribed (reasonably™) well in one minute paragraphs and is searchable in the same way documents are. At least for now, if you want it to transcribe video you will have to convert it to audio first. You can upload a wide variety of file types, including Word, Excel, PPT, emails, images, HTML and common audio formats. It can also have a crack at recognising handwritten notes.

Pinpoint is just one of the apps available on the Journalist Studio platform. Some other ones worth exploring include Flourish to create visuals from datasets, Fact Check Explorer and Dataset Search.

Organisation Google accounts aren’t currently supported, so you will need to sign up with a private Google account at https://journaliststudio.google.com

TAEG aims to increase Indigenous employment and retention by funding tailored activities that respond flexibly to local employment conditions. The two TAEG grant opportunity activity streams are Employment, which aims to support Indigenous job seekers into sustainable employment, and Schools Based Traineeships which aims to support Indigenous secondary school students to gain work experience and prepare for post-school transition into further study or employment. Applications close on 11 June. Read more.

The overarching outcome of the ILA Program is to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to express, preserve and maintain their cultures through Indigenous languages and arts activities. Grant funding allocated through the ILA Program supports three key outcomes:

• the empowerment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to preserve and teach their culture through languages and arts

• a strong sense of cultural identity and wellbeing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, which contributes to sustainable and strong communities

• celebration and increased recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and arts in the wider Australian community.

Applications close on 21 June. Read more.