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Warlpiri
Media - A short history
In the early 1980s, before television was accessible to most of
remote Australia, residents of some remote Aboriginal communities
were experimenting with video production. For Aboriginal people
these videos provided alternative and supplementary viewing material
to the tapes they could borrow or rent from non-Aboriginal residents
or video retail outlets in regional centres such as Alice Springs.
One township where such activity was occurring was Yuendumu,
300 kms north-west of Alice Springs, home to a fluctuating population
of some 900 Warlpiri-speaking Aboriginal people and 100 whites.
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At
Yuendumu local video production preceded the establishment of
a ‘pirate’ television station in April 1985. A new organisation,
the Warlpiri Media Association, was incorporated to oversee local
video production as well as live-to-air broadcasting. Established
as the federal government was preparing to launch AUSSAT —
the first Australian-owned satellite, which would bring national
television to much of remote Australia for the first time —
Warlpiri Media also came to promote the articulated concerns and
interests of Aboriginal people in the region regarding the launch
of the satellite.
(From 'New media projects at Yuendumu: towards a greater understanding
of inter-cultural engagemen' by Melinda Hinkson)
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