CAAMA & Indigenous Broadcasting

Radio Redfern is an excerpt from the film 88.9 Radio Redfern produced in 1988 by the Film Australia National Interest Program. 88.9 Radio Redfern is a portrait of Sydney’s Aboriginal radio station. This video clip is on the From Wireless to Web website, produced in 2005.

The interview with Christina Spurgeon was recorded for the website.

Christina Spurgeon is a lecturer in Media & Communication in the Creative Industries faculty of the Queensland Universtiy of Technology. You can view her full biography at From Wireless to Web

The website is a selective history of broadcast media in Australia. Decade by decade, from radio and newsreels to TV and the internet, this history shows how the Australian broadcast media developed and shaped the way Australians see themselves.

From Wireless to Web is a Film Australia production in association with Roar Film.

In 1972 the first Indigenous-produced community radio program went to air on 5UV in Adelaide. Two years later ABC Radio started broadcasting in several Indigenous languages to Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders in Far North Queensland.

At the same time in Alice Springs, two Aboriginal people and their non-Aboriginal associate – John Macumba, Freda Glynn and Phillip Batty- helped to establish the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA). Their goal was that Aboriginal voices be heard throughout the world and for Aboriginal people to take ownership and control of their own future through a strong, vibrant media centre. That goal became a reality in 1980 when the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) was established.

The CAAMA website states:
'The Aboriginal people of Central Australia own CAAMA, and its objectives focus on the social, cultural and economic advancement of Aboriginal peoples. It has a clear mandate to promote Aboriginal culture, language, dance and music while generating economic benefits in the form of training, employment and income generation. CAAMA produces media products that engender pride in Aboriginal culture, and informs and educates the wider community about the richness and diversity of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia.’

Today CAAMA’s radio network broadcasts on 8KIN FM.

Making and Producing

1. Using either Powerpoint or video, produce a visual account based on the students’ investigation into the cultural contributions of Indigenous Australians. Students must select one of the following themes:
   1. Aboriginal Music
   2. Aboriginal Dance
   3. Rural Aboriginal Art
   4. Urban Aboriginal Art
   5. The Relationship of the Land and Aboriginal Culture
   6. The Dreaming
      Use a number of sources for this project and the Imparja website (www.imparja.com.au). If possible, see if someone from the local Australian Aboriginal community could come and discuss the project with the students.

Critical and Historical study

1. The concept of post-colonisation is the process of reviewing the past and critically scrutinising history in terms of ‘who’ it is written for and ‘how’ it favours the more powerful. Within Australia, post-colonial theories are prompting filmmakers to review and re-present the past and value the input and significance of Aboriginal culture. Discuss how the CAAMA contributes to the valuing of Australian Aboriginal culture.

Go to From Wireless to Web for more about the history of broadcast media in Australia.

Australian Government, Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Indigenous Broadcasting

Go to Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association

Go to Imparja Television