First Nations Media News :: PAKAM turns 20 :: Job Opportunities : Funding, Funding, Funding : Conference coming up

First Nations Media Australia has started the year strong! Our Board (pictured above with Catherine and Daniel) met in Melbourne last week for a refresher on governance training and a two-day planning meeting for the year ahead. Our staff team also gathered in Alice Springs recently to plan out key dates ahead for the year and ensure our projects are best serving our members.

Dot West, Catherine Liddle and Claire Stuchbery travelled to Canberra last week to attend the Prime Minister's Closing the Gap statement with the Coalition of Peaks and took the opportunity to meet with Senator Dodson, Minister Fletcher and Minister Wyatt, as well as the National Indigenous Australians Agency. Dot and Catherine attended the SBS Parliamentary Showcase which was a great opportunity to network with both media and political representatives in Parliament House.

This week we welcome a new secondee from Jawun for the coming five weeks. Reggie will turn her marketing expertise to our sector's awareness campaigning and we look forward to sharing her recommendations with you in due course. This week also sees the final handover to managerial responsibilities from Daniel to Catherine. Daniel will be staying with our team as our Archive Project Manager, working three days per week to continue the fantastic work Susan Locke has done on that project from his new base in Castlemaine, Victoria. We also welcome Devris Hasan to the inDigiMOB team this month. Dev is well known to many of our members having delivered training at several Remote Indigenous Media Festival's previously. We're thrilled to have Devris in our Alice Springs office sharing his knowledge of digital technologies.

The Indigenous Digital Leadership Forum, formerly known as the Indigenous Focus Day, is returning back to Mparntwe (Alice Springs) 4 June 2020. Save the date!

First Nations Media Australia is inviting Expressions of Interest for Indigenous remote digital inclusion projects to be a part of the program. We will issue industry invitations to attend the forum soon. In the meantime, please contact our Events and Member Services Officer, Jacinta Barbour with any questions via
jacinta@firstnationsmedia.org.au or (08) 8952 6465

New music video for J MILLA's Unlock The System responds to the 'alleged' murder of
Kumanjayi Walker last November. "After hearing about brother boy Walker, I felt devastated for him, the community of Yuendumu and most importantly the Family. I've got a connection to Yuendumu and the whole thing makes my gut wrench. This song is for them and all proceeds from the streaming of it will go to them to help with their legal costs to bring justice for Walker." says J-MILLA

Samara Fernandez-Brown, who is representing the Yuendumu community, shared a few words, "I want to extend my warmest thanks to J-Milla. For not just creating a track, that is raw and full of emotions, but for using his art to spread awareness and love. He is a very talented young brother and I am so proud of his passion to speak up and out about the reality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. It was not easy to listen to the track, or to watch the film clip. It most certainly brought up some very strong emotions and pain, but I am very thankful."

Pilbara and Kimberley Aboriginal Media (PAKAM) will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary on 22 March 2020. PAKAM was established in 2000 and provides a VAST satellite-delivered regional service (Channel 917) from the network hub in Broome. This service enables the sharing of news, information special broadcast events, music and stories by all the indigenous radio stations in the region and is retransmitted to 18 remote communities across a million square kilometers. The PAKAM team do a fantastic job across radio and screen productions and they have some deadly projects in the pipeline to roll out this year. Congratulations PAKAM!

Umeewarra Media secured a grant to launch and develop a short-form television show. They are creating six documentary episodes, produced by four young Aboriginal people. They started work on the project on the 13th of January, the episodes are short documentaries that focus on exploring different topics in and around their community and town of Port Augusta. They will produce programs designed for IndigiTube, social media and YouTube. They now have two more episodes in post-production. This shows the amazing abilities and determination of young Aboriginal people, check out their video here.

Noongar Radio interviewed many local acts, giving another platform to Perth artists to promote and allow their music and stories to be heard throughout Australia. Broadcasting live gave Australia a taste of what Perth has to offer and what they stand for within the community.

The performances were amazing, and the crowd was loving it, the kids enjoyed the many activities that were happening and the numerous food vans to choose from. Overall the Birak Concert hit off the year with a bang and for Noongar Radio to be in attendance and broadcast the event from across the nation was the cherry on top.

A couple of upcoming events worth noting for your calendar:

Technorama will be held in Toowoomba, Queensland on 29-31 May. This is a great conference for both radio technicians and media personnel who engage with technology and technologists.
The 2020 National Native Title Conference (convened by AIATSIS and NTSCORP) will be hosted by the Minjungbal Bundjalung people on their country in Tweed Heads, NSW on 25-27 May. This year's theme is Bumalehn Balang - Fight Strong! The deadline for submissions was Friday 28 February 2020; however, decisions to accept abstracts will be made on a rolling basis. Read more.

Are you passionate about screen, radio, online and visual content created by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?

First Nations Media Australia is inviting Expressions of Interest from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have industry experience, as volunteer judges for the 2020 First Nations Media Awards.

This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in the celebration of the First Nations Media industry. Contact Assistant Manager Jennifer Nixon to get involved via asstmgr@firstnationsmedia.org.au

Ngaarda Media is seeking an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander news reporter to join their team in Roebourne, WA. This part time role will include preparing and presenting engaging news for local Pilbara/Kimberley audiences, gathering news for social media platforms, sharing content with other First Nations media outlets and creating content in the field as a 'Roving Reporter'. All up you would be providing two morning bulletins per day to a total of 10 bulletins per week. If you’re passionate, they can develop your skills.

Read more about this position here.

If you're interested in working for Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, they currently have multiple job opportunities available. The institute provides work opportunities at our main campuses at Batchelor & Alice Springs as well as at 13 other locations across the Northern Territory. There are many ways you can contribute to the learning, teaching and research that takes place on campuses & learning centres around the Northern Territory. Batchelor offers positions ranging from executive, administrative and professional opportunities to building trades and crafts, Batchelor staff shares a wide array of talents while working in a collaborative atmosphere. Visit their recruitment page here.

Running across three years, one Fellow will be selected annually for this opportunity. Centralised aims to boost Indigenous filmmakers and screen creatives in South Australia and Northern Territory with specialised funding, support and development opportunities.

As part of the Centralised initiative, Documentary Australia Foundation (DAF)’s new Indigenous Fellowship program will support Indigenous documentary film makers resident in Northern Territory or South Australia in their professional development.

Launched under the centralised banner, the DAF Centralised Indigenous Fellowship is a partnership between:

The Documentary Australia Foundation (DAF)
The South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC)
Screen Territory
National Indigenous Television (NITV)
Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS Indigenous).

The successful applicant will receive a grant of up to $30,000 towards professional and documentary project development and up to $10,000 of in-kind support to attend training opportunities at AFTRS.

An extension has just been announced and applicants now have until 15 March 2020 to apply. Read more about this opportunity here.

Promoting the work and advancing the role of women in the news media across the globe is critical to transparency and a diversity of voices.The Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, the first funding initiative of its kind, enables the IWMF to dramatically expand its support of women journalists. Established with a $4 million gift from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Fund supports projects including educational opportunities, investigative reporting and media development initiatives.

Starting from January 2020, the Fund for Women Journalists will accept applications on a rolling basis. Applications take approximately 3 weeks to process.

The Australian Government is inviting organisations via a closed non-competitive process to apply for a Volunteer Grant under the Families and Communities Program – Volunteer Grants Activity in 2019-2020.

The Families and Communities Program aims to strengthen relationships, support families, improve well being of children and young people, reduce the cost of family breakdown and strengthen family and community functioning. Volunteer Grants aim to support the efforts of Australia’s volunteers as well as to encourage and increase participation in volunteering. The grants provide small amounts of money that organisations and community groups can use to help their volunteers. Applications close on 06 April 2020.