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Apart from providing film and video production services, Mango-A-GoGo Productions, an independent film production company based in Queensland, produces feature films with period Australia, colonial and indigenous themes. For Mango-A-GoGo’s director, Scot McPhie, the chance to share knowledge with Dauan Island’s indigenous community was a dream come true.

McPhie was recommended to e-Campus but had to submit a résumé in and participate in a phone interview.

‘It was between me and someone in Cairns and luckily I got it. I’ve done a bit of work with indigenous people before and also I’m studying anthropology externally at uni so I think that all went in my favour as well.’

Braving the late monsoon rains, McPhie helped the locals to film a re-enactment of one of the Dauan islanders’ traditional stories, as well as music film clips for three of the islands musicians, and a number of interviews with elders.

‘The history of the Dauan Island people is fascinating and working with them was both enjoyable and an enlightening experience,’ he said.

‘They value their own traditional culture but are also quite religious. I was lucky enough to be there to film their Easter Sunday Service which was filled with lots of singing in that beautiful slow rich languid style of island singing and art.’

Dauan Island is situated in Torres Strait’s north, and is around 10km from the southern coast of Papua New Guinea. The island is composed of huge granite boulders, has one main road, and one major settlement area.

With Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population estimated at over 500,000, e-Campus Australia’s training program particularly targets the 27 per cent who live in remote areas.

With a population of 150 people, and very little industry to speak of, Dauan Island in the Torres Strait there are few employment opportunities for residents.

By offering the training program on Dauan Island, e-Campus Australia hopes to improve employment prospects for locals.

McPhie delivered some of the face-to-face component of the training.

He made a couple of two-week trips during the three key stages: pre-production, production and post-production.

‘Kerry Boweden went up ahead of me for the pre-production, and met the people and talked about stories to film. And then I went up for the second two trips. Unfortunately this coincided with the late arrival of the monsoon rains which made filming quite hard. In out of almost four weeks up there, we had wet or squally weather for about two and half weeks.

‘Some things I just had to film because time was an issue, but other things I put off in the hope that it would get sunny - and eventually it did, but this threw the time planning out. But you can imagine being on a beautiful tropical island I didn’t want it all to look horrible and uninviting.’

Some of the interviews McPhie shot were in language (which were later translated and subtitled) and others were in English.

McPhie says the Islanders were very keen on music and that a number of the men have their own keyboards and mix it with traditional drumming.

‘They sing in a beautiful melodic style in their own language Kalau Kawau Ya. The songs are all about friends and family - which was reflected in the clips - and let me tell you it made a quite a nice change to the angst ridden pretentious stuff you film here!’

‘The Islanders enjoyed the act of filmmaking, and I was surprised particularly with the kids, how much they knew, and how enthusiastic they were about their traditional stories.’

‘Everything that’s been filmed remains with the islanders so they have complete control over it and are driving the way in which it’s used,’ said McPhie.

Through e-Campus Australia’s program, participants are provided with a unique combination of on-line and face-to-face training that imparts the technology, knowledge and skills to document and store their own cultural knowledge.

e-Campus Australia’s Kelly Harvie devised the training program while working with a number of indigenous organisations.

‘I developed the training program and refined it over the years drawing from my experiences working with a number of organisations such as the Gimuy Corporation, Yidinji People (traditional owners of the Cairns region), and the Cape York communities Napranum and Wujal Wujal.’

‘While I lived in the Torres Strait on Prince of Wales Island there was no industry and the only access to education was via a dingy to Thursday Island TAFE,’ she said.

According to Harvie, by expanding their skills and knowledge, indigenous people interested in wanting to realise their own multimedia or online initiatives will benefit from the program because it will give them the essential means to do so. For some it may mean setting up their own business venture online.

e-Campus Australia’s program has already touched the lives of members of a number of indigenous communities through its contact with students from Yorke Island, Thursday Island, and in the Cape York communities of Napranum and Wujal Wujal.