The 10th remote media festival held last week in Yuendumu was a great chance for Indigenous media workers from across the country to get together to showcase the work being done in their communities and to discuss the common issues for the sector- a great week for all who attended. It was also a celebration of 25 years of remote media, starting with the pioneering work of Warlpiri Media and Ernabella Video and TV in the early 80s. This early work led to the BRACS program and contributed to the development of the national Indigenous media sector.

However, with the funding for the sector under IBP (Indigenous Broadcasting Program) virtually unchanged since the mid 1990s and the Industry substantially grown in that time, the Review of IBP in 2006 chose to reduce the scope of the activities included in the program rather than increase the funding amount to continue to support the development of the Industry. The remote media sector, which began with video production of cultural activities and community events and meetings, is now only being funded for radio production- not video, not music, not IT, archiving or technical services. Rather than recognise the essential role of the RIMOs and the broad range of activities they provide to their member communities, the government has instead chosen to rationalise the remote sector to fit into the narrow scope of community radio broadcasters in urban and regional centres. RIMOs and RIBS simply don’t fit this mould.

It’s time to re-review the IBP and create a separate funding program for the remote sector to recognise the unique scope of bush media & communications.