COMMUNICATIONS: Aboriginal Radio Goes Beyond Dreamtime

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Kalinga Seneviratne

ALICE SPRINGS, Feb 27 1996 (IPS) - Radio and television services for the aborigines of Australia have come a long way in just 10 years.

What started as an ambitious dream with three volunteers, a second-hand car, a typewriter and donated communications equipment in a rent-free office has grown into the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA). Today CAAMA incorporates a modern state-of-the-art radio and music recording studio, a multi- channel radio service, a modern television production unit and 52 percent of Northern Australia’s only commercial TV channel – Imparja Television.

The mainly aboriginal staff of CAAMA are justifiably proud of their achievemnts – as are the handful of whites employed in the operation. One of these is CAAMA’s station manager Graham Archer, who is presently training an Aboriginal woman to over his job.

“Our charter is to serve indigenous people. We ensure that we give emphasis to Aboriginal music, Aboriginal news, Aboriginal affairs,” he explained. “Our target audience is purely Aboriginal.”

CAAMA is governed by a 12-member Aboriginal committee appointed every three years. The organisation is also well supported by the Federal and Northern territory Governments through financial grants for their social awareness, health and cultural roles.

CAAMA Radio broadcasts on tall wavebands and piggy-backs on the Imparja satellite signal into communities in Central and Northern Australia. Archer said that they have even been picked up by a listener in Japan recently on the shortwave, who contacted them for more information on Aboriginal music.

“In Alice Springs, we know that we are picked up by non- Aboriginal audiences (but) our main charter is to broadcast in Aboriginal languages. There’s seven major languages in this area and on a given time, we broadcast in at least five,” says Archer.

Under a scheme known as BRACS – Broadcasting into Remote Aboriginal Communities Scheme – some 16 remote indigenous communities in Central and Northern Australia have been provided with a low-cost compact broadcast unit. Usually in one small room, they have a video editing unit and cameras, and a mini radio station with a low powered transmitter. Thus they pick up the CAAMA transmission from the satellite and broadcast it into the community. When they want to broadcast their own programmes to the community, they switch off the satellite dish and broadcast themselves. (MORE)

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