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For some years, a major lobby group within the Indigenous media sector has been proposing a National Indigenous Television service, NITV, which would sit alongside the ABC and SBS as a government-funded broadcaster, available to all Australian viewers.

In response Senator Coonan, Minister for Communication, IT and the Arts, allocated $48.5 million over four years for Indigenous television programming, but no national channel. While the rest of the country debates the merits of two new commercial services on digital TV, some argue the Indigenous sector has been denied the autonomy it needs and which can only be achieved through a stand-alone, free to air television channel.

Rachel Perkins has been a member of the National Indigenous Television committee since its inception and is widely seen as a driving force behind it today. In late 2005, when the funding was first announced, she said ‘Of course our preferred option would have been to set up a fully funded, stand alone Indigenous broadcaster but we are very excited and enthusiastic about this opportunity.’

Professor Larissa Behrendt, who was appointed Chair of the NITV Board in December (she’s also Professor of Law and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney), says, ‘Our vision is to develop a service that is accessible to Aboriginal people around Australia that celebrates the diversity of Aboriginal cultures and looks at issues from an Indigenous perspective.’

Diverse it is. There were 250 to 300 languages spoken before European settlement, effectively making the continent of Australia home to 250 to 300 ‘nations’.

Today there are about 250 languages spoken by approximately 460,000 Indigenous Australians. According to the Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages only 50 are expected to survive to the year 2040 – unless NITV succeeds in its goal of preserving these languages through a range of broadcast programs that will be produced in Language including programs designed to teach language.

‘We also see that it’s a core part of our role to show that diversity and those perspectives to all Australians. We see that it plays a really important role in celebrating our contemporary Aboriginal cultures but also is about educating non-Aboriginal people about Aboriginal Australia.’

However, because of this diversity, when the funding was first announced in 2005, the money triggered a difficult debate within the Indigenous media sector over how funds should be administered and what type of service would best serve Indigenous audiences.

On the one hand, the interim committee (formed out of the National Indigenous Television campaign) wanted funds for high quality content, including a news service, for a national audience, with a central office. Indigenous media groups operating in remote areas hoped the money would allow them to build on their existing activities which are largely community-based and locally sourced. This is more than a city versus bush situation. There are three deeper issues: how best to ensure an ongoing, dynamic Indigenous media presence; whether that content should be targeted at the largest possible audience; and the development of a sustainable Indigenous screen industry.

Indigenous television currently operates in a somewhat disparate fashion across the commercial, government and community broadcasting sectors. The first autonomous Indigenous television services were pirate stations established in the 1980s in Yuendumu (Tanami desert) and Pukatja (formerly Ernabella, SA).

Recognising that Indigenous communities were determined to run their own television services, the government developed the Broadcasting for Remote Aboriginal Communities Scheme, BRACS, in 1987, providing around 100 communities with an all-in-one radio and television kit, which gave them the means to retransmit content from the satellite and to create and insert programming for local broadcast.

Although important in the development of Indigenous broadcasting, BRACS was basically a technical solution and the stations received no administrative support, training or facilities to house the units, leaving many idle or in disrepair. In 2005 the government allocated $2 million towards a TV transmitter rollout project for Remote Indigenous Broadcasting Services (which included upgrades for former BRACS services, now known as RIBS).

There are also industry-based groups. Goolarri Media in Broome produces content and transmits terrestrially to the Broome area via an open narrowcasting licence. The ABC and SBS commission and screen some Indigenous content, but this is limited by schedule-constraints and programming standards. A fully Aboriginal-owned commercial satellite service, Imparja, began transmission in 1988 and is available across one third of the country. Alongside its main channel, which retransmits content from 9, 10, ABC and SBS, Imparja also has an Indigenous programming channel known as ICTV (Channel 31), which is run out of PY Media in Alice Springs. ICTV started out modestly as a means to broadcast documentaries and Aboriginal football matches to BRACS stations.

By late 2006, it broadcast 20 hours a day of content, up to 80 per cent of which was in Indigenous languages. The government provided Imparja with a subsidy of $2 million per annum, the bulk of which went towards satellite uplink costs for radio and television services, including ICTV. RIBS stations can access the content and retransmit ICTV on the ground using their terrestrial transmitter. Content is provided by a number of organisations in the Pilbara, Kimberly, Warlpiri, Ngaanyatjarra and Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara areas.

PY Media believe that ICTV is regarded as ‘real’ television by Indigenous communities in remote areas and that it provides essential programming which addresses the social and political needs of its audience. Late last year, they expressed concern that the interim NITV committee did not adequately represent remote communities and that the $48.5 million will be spent on slick programming instead of the audience-producer engagement model of ICTV. In other words, the money would end up in the cities, in the hands of a few professionals, instead of being used to develop Indigenous screen culture at the grassroots level. As professional content is expensive and requires months of planning, there would not be enough to fill a full schedule, which would mean that ICTV would be exploited as ‘filler’ programming.

Behrendt acknowledges that some Indigenous media organisations have concerns.

‘There are a lot of Aboriginal media organisations that will obviously be affected by NITV taking over that second satellite channel but the thing is that a lot of those groups were involved with supporting the idea of NITV. The Board has sought to have representatives from different media organisations with a mix of people from Central Australia, Western Australia and Sydney. We will have a relationship with people, through commissioning, around the country so that we can be better able to get closer contact with Indigenous people.’

NITV intends to publish the commissioning guidelines so people are aware of what they need to do to have their material shown on NITV and get work commissioned.

NITV is also about to publish a newsletter and info sheet to let people in Aboriginal communities know what they hope to achieve.

‘I think there has been a lot of misinformation about what we’re doing and what we hope to achieve and certainly it’s our aim to be as inclusive as we can be and to really be a place where the very dynamic work that’s being done in Indigenous communities around the country can be showcased to a wider audience,’ says Behrendt.

‘There’s a lot of ways in which we’re mindful of the politics that we’ve got to navigate and we’re doing the best we can to meet those challenges.

‘It’s important to show the diversity of Aboriginal cultures around the country, from Belgo to Mt Druitt, and also I think, not unrelated to that, there are broad perspectives that Indigenous people have about issues and they don’t often get an airing in the mainstream media and this is a really good chance to show that.

Another stereotype we hope to counter, by showing the vibrancy of Indigenous cultures, is that there is a perception that Aboriginal culture is dying out and that simply isn’t the case. I think being able to show that to other Australians will be a really rewarding thing and an important role we can play.’

Who is NITV?

The former deputy chief executive of Centrelink and former ATSIC chief executive, Pat Turner (an Arrernte woman from Alice Springs), has been appointed CEO of NITV.

NITV will employ about 18 staff and will be based in Alice Springs, with a satellite office in Sydney.

Gold Coast-based Indigenous documentary and television producer Llewellyn Cleaver questions the wisdom of centralising NITV, saying ‘This will no doubt come at a cost to the other states’.

Behrendt says, ‘To be honest the decision to be based in Alice Springs was one that pre-dates my time on the Board but it had to do with the fact that we have a strong relationship with Imparja. People also thought it was a good cultural choice.’

Paul Remati, a non-Indigenous Australian, has joined NITV as head of television from the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS). His appointment is controversial, says Cleaver, because there are Indigenous Australians capable of this role.

In early April, Krystal Perkins came on board as publicist. Another recent key appointment is Ursula Raymond, who is now NITV’s ‘people and culture liasion’ officer.

‘To meet the challenge of better connecting with Indigenous communities, we’ve created a position within the organisation, titled “people and culture”, which is specifically designed to liaise with Indigenous groups around the country and to feed that communication back to NITV to make sure we’re doing the best we can,’ said Behrendt.

Raymond was born and bred in Darwin and has both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage. From 1993 to last year, she produced ABC Radio National’s Awaye! Program, the only Indigenous arts and music program. She has previously worked with Perkins’ company Blackfella Films.

NITV is still actively recruiting and looking for programming managers, commissioning editors and writers.

Queenslanders are represented on the board by Ken Rays, chair of the Australian Indigenous Communications Association (AICA).

‘There is a good diverse group of people who have a broad range of experience,’ says Behrendt. ‘There is a good cultural and geographical mix. Nothing’s perfect but we’ve been thoughtful to ensure there is a good spread.’

Tom Hearn from Rockhampton-based BUSH TV, which hopes to be involved in the online version of NITV, says ‘It’s really exciting and hopefully will create a lot of opportunities.’

However, Cleaver says, ‘Rachel Perkins has campaigned hard for the network to be Alice Springs based. While she must be commended for her work in getting the new Indigenous network funded I find it difficult to feel we of the other states, especially Queensland Indigenous media practitioners, are included in the grand scheme.

‘It seems that the money given to the venture will go to support Imparja television and basically pay for its upkeep. I would have thought a partnership with the ABC or SBS would have given the NITV a head start with programming resources such as the wealth of programs held in their vaults. You can imagine the amount of money this would have saved.’

Where will you see it?

The Federal Government has earmarked the $48.5 million over four years to build on the Indigenous Community Television (ICTV) narrowcasting service already transmitted by Imparja Television.

From 6 June, Alice Springs-based Aboriginal-owned television network Imparja will narrowcast NITV on its second satellite channel (Channel 31), which currently reaches about 220,000 living in Indigenous communities in remote, rural, central and North West Australia.

‘Within our budget we have resources to look at other possible ways to re-transmit the service. That might be through cable (Foxtel and Optus), through other stations and online,’ said Behrendt.

Other stations include ‘Channel A’, the as yet unallocated digital spectrum that it is expected to sell this year.

‘We’re looking for the right mix, the best formula for us,’ said Behrendt. ‘There will be a big audience with subscription television in some ways but it will miss a large number of Indigenous people so the Board’s conversations have been about finding the balance where we get to the broadest audience but also remember the specific geographical and economic make-up of the Aboriginal community and make some choices that mean we’re not excluding our key audience.

‘We’ve been actively pursuing every option so that we can get to the widest number of people. We’ve made a commitment to never lose sight of the fact that what we’d eventually like to see is a free to air Indigenous station that every Australian can access.’

What will you see?

While it aims to one day be a fully-fledged 24/7 station, Behrendt confirmed NITV is currently funded only to be a content aggregator.

‘Where we’ve got the most direction in the funding agreement is about what we need to do [regarding] content. There is an expectation that we’ll do a certain amount of children’s programming, an alternative news service and a sports show. It’s also clear that we need to have a mix of material from urban areas, rural areas and remote areas.’

Remati told delegates at the Australian International Documentary Conference in February, ‘We have a small budget, and we have lots of hours to fill.’

‘At the moment, as you can probably understand, we’ve got a launch date of 6 June so we’ve got a very limited amount of time in which we can commission material but of course we’re working on getting the processes in place to do that,’ says Behrendt.

‘We currently have people looking through back catalogues to find material... that will make entertaining and interesting television. One of the things that’s a key goal of NITV is giving people opportunities within the industry, so clearly commissioning new material and providing training opportunities etcetera for Indigenous people within the industry. I am sorry if I am a bit vague about that at the moment but we’re still auditing what’s available and we’re still establishing the guidelines for commissioning new material. It’s a bit of a work in progress. We have a lot of challenges we’re trying to meet in a very short period of time. We’re also confident that we can do that.’

There will, at least, be one new commissioned piece when NITV goes live on 6 June. Julie Nimmo, in conjunction with CAAMA, is producing a one hour documentary about the establishment of NITV – where it’s come from and what it hopes to achieve. Filming had commenced in early April.

When asked to tell THE HARD COPY more about the alternative news program, Behrendt says ‘We don’t want it to look like a normal news service, but with our funding we won’t be able to do as good a job [as we’d hoped]. So we need to look at the best way we can produce a product that provides news to Aboriginal people around the country on Indigenous issues but fits within the very tight budget we have. So we won’t be able to have a news bureau in every city and the sort of resources ABC, SBS or Sky News would have. The intention of saying it’s an alternative news service is a clear indication to us that, with the money we’ve got, we need to be innovative about how that works. Obviously we still need to develop the guidelines for how we’re going to do that. There’s no capacity to do that in-house; it will have to be outsourced. Paul Remati has been appointed very recently and he’s got a whole list of things he has to take the lead on, and the news service is one of them.’

By Dr Ellie Rennie, author of Community Media: A Global Introduction (published recently by Rowman & Littlefield) and Research Fellow at ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative ndustries and Innovation, with additional reporting by Kerry Sunderland.