Broadcasting

The Indigenous broadcasting sector is unique, dynamic and creative. It provides a diverse range of culturally appropriate and authentic content to Indigenous as well as non-Indigenous audiences across the country. It is a key mechanism for retaining traditional culture and language in Indigenous communities and for conveying important health, education, emergency service and other information. Report on the review of the Indigenous Broadcasting Program (May 2007). Australian Government: Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.

Indigenous community broadcasting enables Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have access to culturally appropriate and regionally relevant broadcasting services in the same way the broader Australian public does. The broadcasters are able to produce and broadcast programs in Indigenous languages, thus improving Indigenous Australians knowledge of, and access to, essential services such as housing, health, education and legal services.

These services also take Indigenous voices, stories, music, viewpoints and information into communities throughout Australia, including to non-Indigenous audiences.

Our Indigenous broadcasters and media organisations play a big role in Language mantainence and revival projects around the country. Our radio stations and the new National Indigenous Television Service have the role of getting information out to people. They work together with Language workers and media production services to produce the materials for broadcast.

In the film Satelitte Dreaming (1991), Freda Glynn (director of CAAMA) talks about broadcasting in Aboriginal languages in areas where Aboriginal languages are the first language spoken.

You can watch a clip from the film here: http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/satellite-dreaming/clip2/