A report by Bruce Walker, Douglas Porter and Ian Marsh for Desert Knowledge Australia (Sept 2012)
2011
The Ngaanyatjarra Lands Telecommunications project: A quest for broadband in the Western Desert. (2.26 MB)
Daniel Featherstone, Telecommunications Journal of Australia. 61 (1): pp. 4.1 to 4.25. http://tja.org.au.
Vast regions in Australia still have limited access to adequate telecommunications. With the rollout of the National Broadband Network underway, remote Indigenous Australia risks being left out, increasing its isolation and widening the ‘digital divide’. In the past, the vast Ngaanyatjarra Lands of south-eastern Western Australia have had one of the poorest levels of telecommunications service in Australia. However, the regional shire, land council and the community media organisation have worked together with the WA Government to address this problem. This effective collaboration led to the Ngaanyatjarra Lands Telecommunications Project (NLTP): a fibre optic network connecting six remote desert communities, a broadband satellite solution to connect the remaining six outer communities and community-wide WiFi in all twelve sites. This article describes the process of creating the NLTP and some of the flow-on benefits for the region and Yarnangu (Ngaanyatjarra people). [Extract]
APY Lands: accessing government services
Remote Indigenous Media Association (RIMA) Oral History Project (4.05 MB)
Christine Guster
Cultural Policies in Australia (912 KB)
Margaret Seares and John Gardiner-Garden
2009
Community Business: the internet in remote Australian Indigenous communities
Kerry McCallum, Frankco Papandrea (Uni of Canberra)
Reports on findings of a research project tha mapped the patterns of internet access and use in remote Indigenous communities in Australia.
Media in Australia: Industries, Texts, Audiences (extract) (1007 KB)
Stewart Cunningham and Graeme Turner
2008
Jan Ferguson, Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre
Broadband Solutions for Remote Areas: Response to the call for submissions (164 KB)
Rita Cattoni, Indigenous Remote Communications Association
1999
The report, Digital Dreaming: A National Review of Indigenous Media and Communications, is the result of a year long study undertaken by Indigenous Management Australia (IMA). The review was initiated by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission to assess the current status of indigenous media and communications and identify further developments. The last review of Indigenous media, Out of the Silent Land, was completed in 1984.
The original report is a detailed empirical study of 500 pages. An Executive Summary has been produced for distribution purposes; to provide a summary of the issues addressed in some 130 recommendations. All of the recommendations are listed at Appendix 2 of the Executive Summary.
1998
National Report on the Broadcasting for Remote Aboriginal Communities Scheme (1.53 MB)
Prepared for the National Indigenous Media Association of Australia by Neil Turner