VOICE OVER: Standby

PRESENTER: In February 2011 in remote northern Australia…

HARRY MUNKARA: Tiwi Design Arts and Craft.

PRESENTER: …an innovative mobile journalism program…

RON POANTUMILUI: The catholic nuns have always been a part of our lives.

PRESENTER: …gave a group of Indigenous people living in isolated communities…

GERALD YAWULKPUY: Every Monday to Friday.

PRESENTER: …the technology and the skills to enable them to tell mobile stories from their own perspective.

RON: It’ll be proud for my mum and dad.

PRESENTER: The program was called NT Mojo.

The NT Mojo pilot program was developed because powerful new media technologies may be one way to help Indigenous communities to become less marginalised.  Australian Government support made it all possible. All the project needed was a long-term partner to give it a home in the NT and we found that here an hour’s drive south of Darwin.

IVO BURUM: It’s been a positive response from everybody. Everybody wants to do it. Unfortunately we’ve only got room for six: three remote service delivery communities and three non.

PRESENTER: But for the project to work, the team had to find the right mojos.

IVO: Anybody can operate a camera – we know that – but what we’re going to be teaching them is how to tell stories. It’s not just about the technology but the technology is so strong in this little device, it means everything we know as film makers we can now do on this.

LYNDA MCCAFFERY: We need to purchase some stuff really fast. We have to get the phones. If we don’t have the phones we can’t do the project.

PRESENTER: Fortunately one of the mojos tools, the iPhone 4, was just that: a readily available phone.

HELEN BROWNING: It’s very exciting because it takes away a lot of the technology barriers. It means that storytelling is a lot more accessible and also, in terms of distribution, the fact that you can edit in camera and upload it.

PRESENTER: That’s a real plus in remote communities like Ramingining.

XAVIER ESPAIU: At the same time we can record the voice.

PRESENTER: Satellite communication arrived here and in other isolated NT communities in the late 80s, and was followed closely by remote broadcast centres like this one. This created new job opportunities for local people.

GERALD: Yo, good afternoon Ramingining – ummm – a reminder…

PRESENTER: NT Mojo is a modern and more personal method of creating locally produced media content.

LOUIS KANTILLA: Editing the stuff on this little gadget, you can do it by your hands, you know.

GERALD: Xavier has been here for three years…

LOUIS: Maybe you can go out fishing and just do your editing while you just throw the line. Yeah, it’s great, you know. I wouldn’t mind have those things back home.

PRESENTER: But just getting to Louis home to find the mojos was no easy task in the wet season. Helen and Ivo visited nine remote communities in the Northern Territory – Wurrumiyanga on Bathurst Island in the north, Gapuwiyak and Galiwin’ku in the east, Anurugu on Groote Eyelandt, Numbulwar and Ramingining in Central Arnhem Land and Lajamanu in the south.

The wet season meant that flying was the only way in except for Daly River. The local community had selected four possible mojos: Jonathan, Jasmine, Desmond and Thomas.

In Lajamanu, a day’s drive south into the western desert, JP turned up to hear about becoming a mojo.

IVO: One or two short stories every week.

PRESENTER: In Numbulwar on the Gulf of Carpentaria, the team met Richard, Rudolph and Delvina.

On Bathurst Island, Harry and Ron were interested in the project.

IVO: And so we’ll plan that story out a little bit.

PRESENTER: On Galiwin’ku it seemed like half of Elcho Island wanted to know how to become a mojo.

IVO: I’m here to talk with you about a new project we call NT Mojo. What this project is about is trying to empower communities to make their own stories. We are going to show you how to make stories on the iPhone. And what’s your name?

JONATHAN: Jonathan.

IVO: Jonathan.

DESMOND: Desmond.

IVO: Why do you think this is important for your community?

WILFRED: I think it can give a better view on our community and how other people can see what’s happening in our community.

PRESENTER: And what the world would see is stories edited and published by the mojos, on the World Wide Web.

JP: What’s your name?

HELEN: My name is Helen Browning.

RICHARD RILEY: What was your name again?

IVO: Ivo

GERALD: What’s mojo mean?

IVO: Mobile journalist.

SHARON GAYKAMANGU: What is your name?

GERALD: What’s your job?

SIFORA: Journalist?

GERALD: Is that something like news?

IVO: We teach you to make your own stories, so if some news people want some stories they may come to you and say, “Hey Gerald, can you get us a story? We’ll pay you for it.”

SABRINA NAYARRI: And I was praying for this job. One lady told me we got job, multimedia job. She tell me, that old lady. And I was, “Thank God.”

PRESENTER: While Sabrina was getting guidance from above, Gerald saw mojo as an opportunity to deliver messages at a local level.

GERALD: Smoking gunja, drinking kava – that’s no good. That’s killing myself. So I want to be someone.

BRENDAN YUNUPINGU: It’s the good work to tell stories all over the world.

IVO: I’m thinking the boy that had the black shirt on, because he was a leader out there when they were doing that funny little video together. And one of the two girls. Both girls are great.

MAVIS: I think that’s a great opportunity for young people to be doing something – that there is something there for them that they can learn, and get something out of it, keep them off from the mischief. The sniffing and all that sort of things that’s happening here. And I’m really happy – very, very happy to see these sort of things happening for young people.

PRESENTER: After four weeks of extensive searching the team had finally found their mojos.

MOJO GROUP: Hello, we’re Galiwin’ku mojos.

PRESENTER: Brendan and Sabrina from Galiwin’ku and seven others from across the NT.

JASMINE PATRICK: Hi, my name is JP and I’m the new mojo in Lajamanu.

RUDOLPH WURRAGWAGWA: Hi, my name is Rudolph Wurragwagwa and I’m the new Numbulwar mojo.

RICHARD: And I’m from Numbulwar and my name is Richard and I’m here to show you my community.

HARRY: My name is Harry Munkarra. I’m taking part in the NT Mojo.

RON: Hi, my name is Ron and I’m from Tiwi Island, Wurrumiyanga

SHARON: Hello, my name is Sharon and I’m the new mojo in Ramingining community.

GERALD: My name is Gerald Yawulkpuy and I’m the new mojo in Ramingining, so stay tuned

PRESENTER: Back at Batchelor, Nicole was putting the final touches to the mojo production kits.

NICOLE OSTINI: There’s quite a lot of bits and pieces to put together and equipment to try and sync up to make sure everyone has got what they need.

HELEN: I know this is the third time I’ve rung but we have a problem now.

PRESENTER: NT Mojo was a world first and the clock was definitely ticking.

HELEN: It’s Friday afternoon. The mojos arriving as we speak.

LYNDA: Thank you so much for agreeing to be part of this. It’s so exciting for us. We have got a strong sense that this is going to be the way in the future that Indigenous people make stories. It may well be a complete change in direction for this little unit as well.

IVO: It’s about your stories. It’s about trying to change the balance, in the way that stories are made from remote communities. We want to give you an opportunity to make your own stories from a very different perspective.

HARRY: It’s very important that we understand journalism because it tells us everything. A lot of companionship with the storytelling. Mojo workshop is a new thing for me. It’s all about to tell stories. The stories could be anything. It could be a dreamtime story. It could be a story of football, a story about an art centre.

OLD MAN: The biggest snake we call it…

HARRY: …or it could be a person.

OLD MAN: This one is part of my dreamtime story.

HARRY: Story is very important.

OLD MAN: It’s like my little child.

HARRY: It’s passed on from generations and generations. My grandfather always told me stories and I tell my young ones.

IVO: I hope with each one of you we will have worked out two or three stories and then you will work with your support people like Ella, like Louis to help develop those stories a bit more.

PRESENTER: So with support people offering encouragement, mojos began developing their stories.

HARRY: I can see what you mean. Like who that was, John…

IVO: …Pye. But he’s not around anymore is he? No. So who are you going to get to talk about this story?

HARRY: Sister Anne.

IVO: Sister Anne. Good.

HARRY: I’d love to talk a lot and I could write it down on a piece of paper and use it to show and tell stories again and again

PRESENTER: Like some of the mojos, Sabrina found storyboards worked best for developing her ideas.

SABRINA: Go back to Elcho, ask my friends to acting.

GIRL: Let’s go get some petrol.

GIRL: Okay, I’m coming.

GIRL: Okay, let’s go.

SABRINA: And also ask my grandfather for that stories. My great grandfather said this is happening because many of our young people have lost touch with our traditional way of life.

GRANDFATHER: The olden day life was the natural life. Olden day life was a life of nature. There’s no drugs, no anything.

ELLA: You’ll find the biggest one.

NICOLE: It’s a fusion between arts and football.

IVO: Then get them off the sniffing and the drugs.

NICOLE: Art is on show.

IVO: Where? Numbulwar in the sea?

NICOLE: The sportsmen are on show.

IVO: Why do they do it?

ELLA: His totem is the turtle, but he can’t catch it until Henry says yes he can get it.

PRESENTER: This was two way learning at its best: the mojos received journalism skills and they gave the team a glimpse into an ancient way of life.

OLD LADY: [in language] We teach our children about the bush, our traditional way of life.

SABRINA: They are learning the right way to live at a young age.

OLD LADY: [in language] Come here and learn with us.

GERALD: What’s the culture mean? To tell outsiders in the world, to tell outsiders what is culture. That was Brian Adams. Best [language] of me. So [language] just give me a call. Culture is very special for us. We can teach kids not to do bad things through mojo work.

XAVIER: When you have to think about what you are going to put in your story, the five W’s, they really start to think about what they want to say. That mean that they will have forgotten something but because they have to do the five W’s there is no way out – they have to do all the things and then the story looks good. And he says, “Oh yeah, I forgot about my uncle and that’s the ‘who’,” and so on.

IVO: And you did it all yourself. With you. Well, there’s our first story. Well done mate.

PRESENTER: In fact, during training our nine mojos developed.

IVO: 12, 13, 14…18, and I know that JP’s got another six. Good work. Thanks mate. Thank you for all your help today.

HARRY: Thank Louis for supporting us, Louis.

IVO: Really good day. I just can’t wait for the next couple of days.

PRESENTER: With initial journalism training over it was time to get the mojos working.

To enable the mojos to control every stage of production, Ivo developed a mojo training package that included a production kit.

HARRY: Hi, my name is Harry Munkarra. I’m taking part in NT Mojo.

PRESENTER: The kits are based around the iPhone 4 and developed to make mojos self-sufficient in remote locations.

GERALD: Yo, good, eh. My name Gerald [language].

IVO: The Owle is an important part of the production kit. The iPhone 4 slots into the Owle with this extra-wide lens. It’s much better for filming and it also is a sturdy device that enables smooth pans and tilts. Into the Owle 4 we plug a little mini directional mic that can be swivelled around and helps the audio quality. We have a light – a rechargeable light that screws into the top of the Owle.

SHARON: Hi, my name is Sharon and I’m taking part in a mobile journalist workshop.

PRESENTER: Critical to the process is the 1^st Video editing app. This enables mojos to edit their own stories right on the phone.

Ivo: Down to 35.

PRESENTER: With help from trainers…

IVO: Make the wide shot smaller than the gap.

PRESENTER: …and community support people, the team was quickly walking away, and leaving the editing in their hands.

IVO: You can move it left or right, okay.

LOUIS: Small mojo, portable, digital, you know, that screen is better than camera where you take out a cassette and do it in a mixer, computer. But this little gadget, you can do everything, you know, just like that, just snapping the fingers, bang, you can do it.

PRESENTER: Indigenous stories…

RON: Have you got a story you want to tell?

PRESENTER: …made by Indigenous people for a global audience.

GERALD: So be proud Yolongu.

HARRY: Thanks Ivo. May in the future it will be a good thing for my community.

PRESENTER: And that’s where trainers were headed to complete mojo training, back to communities like Wurrumiyanga, on Bathurst Island in the Arafura Sea.

PRESENTER: Wurrumiyanga is home to Ron and Harry, who are already hard at it, recording their first story.

HARRY: I’m here standing outside one of the oldest art centres in the NT. This is the story I’m going to tell you today. Let’s take a look. Tiwi Arts and Craft started 30 years ago. Today it’s the place where people come to see and buy our arts and craft.

PRESENTER: Like many of the mojos, Harry’s first story focused on culture and specifically the role Tiwi art plays in passing on tradition.

HARRY: For these two sisters it’s all about keeping the culture strong for the young ones.

SISTER: It’s important to teach our younger ones so that when we pass away then their turn to carry on.

PRESENTER: This transfer of knowledge is exactly what’s happening here in Lajamanu, in the centre of Australia, where JP is recording the exchange of an ancient art form.

JP: This is Jerry Jungala and Doi Jungarai, and they are working and helping each other to make that Kurlumpurrungu at the arts centre. Kurlumpurrungu was used in the early days and it was lost in our days. It’s very important that our generation has to learn from our fathers and our grandfathers.

JERRY JUNGALA: [in language] Warnayaka people have made one of these so they can use it in a ceremony called Jalurinjirri.

JP: Kurlumpurrungu has its own songline and Jerry is sharing that knowledge to the kids by singing it.

JERRY: [Singing]

JP: Having that knowledge within you, it helps you know who you are and where you’ve come from.

PRESENTER: Showcasing his pride in where he comes from was Ron’s aim, when he chose to make My Island Home.

RON: Our tourist season starts next week, so I’m your private tour guide and I’ll show you my favourite spots around the island.  The catholic nuns have always been a part of our life. And this museum is one of my favourite places here. Sister Anne has been with us for 50 years. She taught my whole family.

SISTER ANNE: Ronny, you should know this man here, because this is your father and he was a great, great mission worker.

RON: All the old stories, all the old photos of my people makes me feel happy inside me – makes me feel proud of our people.

PRESENTER: In Numbulwar, in east Arnhem Land, the whole community was bending over backwards to help mojos make their stories.

RICHARD: Hi. My name is Richard and I’m from Numbulwar and this is how we spend our time. We started teaching kids to flip and when they got older they start doing their own flips. Really wanted to do something like videoing and stuff and putting our community together and showing people how we live out here and do stuff out here. Numbulwar Night Patrol is a shire program run by hard-working local people.

WOMAN IN CAR: Come on Lolly Girla, let’s go home.

RICHARD: I feel happy and I love it and I had a dream of this mojo, doing this.

PRESENTER: A few hundred clicks north in Ramingining, they also had a dream that became a reality and the focus of Sharon’s first mojo story.

SHARON: Every morning Jessica and Albert are up early. They come to this place and spend the day helping people. It’s very busy here but everyone loves their work.

ALBERT: [in language] We like this job. We look after old people and wash their clothes. And that’s really important.

SHARON: While the kitchen prepares 26 lunches Albert and Brian deliver breakfast and medicine to old people.

PRESENTER: Just east in Galiwin’ku, Sabrina was helping Brendan look for medicine of a different kind.

Brendan’s traditional “stop the rain” dance almost worked long enough for him to record his bush medicine story.

BRENDAN: Today many of our people shop here for food, for medicines off the shelf, and go to the clinic if we are very sick. But back in the old days, when we live in the bush, things were different.

My people have lived off the land for 40,000 years and the bush is our natural pharmacy. My sister Egi learnt all about bush medicine from our parents.

EGI: [in language] When my kids get sick I use our bush medicine.

BRENDAN: My little daughter Marcia has a terrible cough so Egi was looking for this plant.

EGI:  [in language] Cut and boil the leaves and pour them into the bath.

BRENDAN: I couldn’t wait to give little Marcia her first bush medicine bath. Bush medicine’s keeping our community strong. From Galiwin’ku, see you next time. I will do this work: Mojos telling people stories all around the world.

——————————————————————————————————

PRESENTER: But getting the stories finished and uploaded to our web site…

BRENDAN: Our subtitles.

PRESENTER: …meant working long into the night.

SABRINA: To show them our culture

PRESENTER: And that’s what all nine mojos were doing day and night for four weeks, right across the Northern Territory. A modern technology providing a unique perspective of an ancient world.

IVO: It’s more than that, isn’t it?

HARRY: Yeah.

IVO: It’s about teaching.

HARRY: Teaching the young children.

IVO: Ok, who talks about them?

HARRY: The ladies.

IVO: You’ve got control over everything.

HARRY: Yeah.

IVO: Isn’t that good. Going up to the website.

HARRY: And that’s the first story for me.

IVO: And probably the first one for the mojos.

HARRY: Yeah the first one for the mojos.

IVO: It’s a beautiful story.

HARRY: I loved it.

IVO: You did love it didn’t you.

HARRY: It made me proud – not only proud for myself but proud for the whole community of Wurrumiyanga.

IVO: Good on you – I’m sure they’re proud of you too.

PRESENTER: After Harry uploaded his story, many others continued working late into the night to complete their work.

RON: The catholic nuns have always been a part of our life and this museum is one of my favourite place here. All this painting, they have different meanings different stories. That’s my story. Hope you like it. See you next time.

IVO: Good on you mate.

RON: It touches my heart. It’s unbelievable. I wish my dad and mum would be alive. They’d be proud of me. But I’ve got Tanya, see she’s my wife and she’ll be proud of me.

David Jangala: (To camera)I’m David Jangala, I work with the Mt Theo youth program here in Lajamanu. I run the youth programs in the afternoons after school. We open up the rec hall, where the kids play soccer, watch movies, use the computer. We’ve got a new music studio happening as well which the older guys love.All sorts of other things in between I the afternoon from arts and crafts and everything.

We also do cultural activities and bush trips, the kids love to go swimming – especially in the hotter months. And in the evenings we run movie nights and disco which is a big favourite around the community.

(scenes of kids at youth centre)

Shemiah and Velo: Colouring, look video, [in language] we do that everyday.

(Scenes of kids at computers, then at disco evening)

Jasmine Patrick (voice over): Every disco night is really fun because we see a lot of young men and young girls dancing and having fun.

(Jasmine Patrick to camera) That’s the end of my video.

For more information on Australian Government support, go to Media and Indigenous Broadcasting Program.

Gerald Yawulkpuy (News anchor): Welcome to Ramo News – all the news from Ramingining, my name is Gerald Yawulkpuy, good evening.

Tonight, the very successful Youth Week Program.

The Court in town for the first time, and the opening of our wet season swimming pool.

But first of all, an update on the critical situation in Ramingining about the road conditions and the fuel for the power station.

Our special reporter..

Gerald Yawulkpuy (reporting in the field): It has been raining a lot and the roads around Raminginging are really bad. We are now driving to the barge landing to check the situation.

Tony Merkel: Through the amount of rain that we’ve had and really bad drainage on our roads, there’s a lot of sections that have bogged up and through heavy vehicle traffic it’s just created really big wash outs unable to pass at the moment. So bad through trying to get the rock in that’s just over there into the holes that the machines have been through – it’s just chewed it all up now and we really need to let it dry up for a bit. We need let it dry out a bit, we need to get the grader operating and then we can start doing things with the road – but until it starts to dry out a lot, it’s really bad.
Gerald Yawulkpuy: The local boys are helping and doing the best they can.

Joseph Smith: They’ve got the big helicopter coming in now with the drums. It’s dropping the empty drums off then getting the full drums back to the powerhouse because they can’t take the diesel truck on the road.

Gerald Yawulkpuy: The only option is flying the fuel drums to the power station with the helicopter. Richard will tell us more.

Hi Richard, so how many tonnes of diesel are you taking to the power station?

Richard: We’re going to take 60,000 litres there, that’s 100 trips of three drums, with a helicopter.

The road to the barge landing is the lifeline to our community. We all hope it will be fixed soon.

Gerald Yawulkpuy: Thank you. Last week was the national youth week with a lot of sport and education for the youth in our community. Here is the story with Rico.

Rico (Gerald Yawulkpuy character): Hi, my name’s Rico and I’m here with Bruce he’ll be telling some stories about youth sport.

Bruce Thomson: We had a volunteer come out from Darwin, Curtis, and he ran the archery and we had an archery competition with some young kids about as big as this right up to the boys with the hunting bow. So that was good fun.

Right now this is a grand final day, which is a round robin competition of sport. We’ve got soccer, touch and we’ve got basketball.

Rico (Gerald Yawulkpuy character): There’s Bruce, organising the youth sport, thanks Bruce.

All day, kids were enjoying playing basketball, touch rugby, and also soccer. After the games, the best team received their prizes and Bruce is very happy.

Bruce Thomson: We’ve had over 120 participants in the sport. We’ve had people who’ve play sport for seven days, we’ve had a lot of rain, people have been playing when it’s been raining every day. We’re having trouble getting fuel and food into the place but we’re still playing sport, we’re still having fun.

We’ve got the disco coming up and everyone’s really enjoying themselves. So hopefully it’ll be the same for next year. 2012, guys, National Youth Week!Rico (Gerald Yawulkpuy character): The day is ending with the dancing competition and the disco. My name is Rico – back to you, Gerald.

Gerald Yawulkpuy (in studio): It is hard an expensive during the wet season to go to Minimurra for the Court. So our local policeman, Rob, organized the Court to come from Darwin to Ramingining for a full day. This was really successful, and we hope the court will come back more often. A story to follow.We just received pictures of our first swimming pool in Ramingining. It’s around five metres wide and 10 metres long. But it won’t last long, so hurry up kids, and don’t forget: Kids alive, do the five.

Our picture of the week was sent by Joseph. It is called The mud is good for your skin, but not for your truck. Thank you Joseph for the great picture.It is time for the weather forecast with Djaba Da Daaaa Da Da.

Djaba Da Daaaa Da Da (Gerald Yawulkpuy character): (In language – weather forecast) So we need to celebrate dry season. Please, dry season, we’re waiting for you.

Gerald Yawulkpuy (in studio): Thank you, Djaba Da Daaaa Da Da. Well, this is the end of our program for this week. Thank you for watching Ramo News. My name is Gerald Yawulkpuy (language sign off).

For more information on Australian Government support, go to Sport.

Davian Budden: Hi, my name is Davian Budden and I am the acting sports and rec coordinator at Numbulwar community. What I do is one activity for the kids at school during recess and lunch break and after school activity like soccer, basketball or volleyball, Wii games, movies, discos and Auskick.At the moment, our oval is filled up with water, so we can’t run any activity at the oval. 

Man: The oval is filled with water. There is nowhere to train, nowhere to play football.

Davian Budden: Teaching the kids is really good, they make me laugh. It’s really good working with the kids.

Rudolph Wurragwagwa:: The kids love the sports n rec?

Davian Budden: All they do, every after school they come down. People tell us what they want and then we run the activity for them.

Rudolph Wurragwagwa:: What’s happening now?

Davian Budden: Ah, we heading over the school hall now, for basketball and soccer.

Russell Numamurdirdi: I like, I like my job, I like doing sports with the kids and the young people and the adults, plus the adults, and getting involved with the community.

Edmund Nundhirribala: (shouts out to players).

Rudolph Wurragwagwa: Thanks to sport n rec, we play games and do activities to help us keep our skills and stay strong with our future.

Sabrina Nayarri: It’s Greek music, but we’re on Elcho Island and you’re listening to my brother, Chooky Boys. And I tell about story about Chookys.

The Chookys new superstar on You Tube, but every morning they clean them own dance floor.

Dancer (sweeping): Can someone help me…

Margaret Nyungunyungu: You should look straight ahead when you dance…look at the kids.

Sabrina: Margaret call herself Mother Chook and look after them boys.

Margaret Nyungunyungu: We started way back in 2004. The Chooky dancers they were like, 13 year old, 10 year old boys, that they saw the Elders, Lowy Dancers [phonetic spell], Terry Mukrun and Darren Mutun [phonetic spell]. They participated in community festivals, then they performed a group.

Sabrina: The dancing is fun, but it also keeps the young kids off our streets. That was Margaret’s husband’s dream when he started the Chookys’ dancing.

Margaret: He dreamed of all the, all the young kids from this street he wanted them to be, you know, get them off the street.

Sabrina: And that’s what the Chookys are doing today.

Dancer: We stop kids doing bad things. Grog, spraying, drugs everything.

Dancer: Petrol…everything.

Dancer: We are keeping kids off the street and safe.

Sabrina: And that’s what tonight’s concert is about.

Dancer: We are playing for our community tonight.

Sabrina: Hope you enjoy it. See you next time.

For more information on Australian Government support, go to Culture and National Arts and Crafts Industry Support Program.

Gerald Yawulkpuy: Hello, my name’s Gerald Yawulkpuy, today I’m making a story about Bula’bula Arts Centre in Ramingining.

Bula’bula started in the 1990s. Bula’bula is selling locally, nationally and internationally.

It is managed by Kris.

Kris Carlon: My name is Kris Carlon I’m the new manager at Bula’bula Arts in Raminigning. Basically my job at Bula’bula is to keep the whole thing running, managing finances of course, sell work, send off consignments to galleries, apply for funding, government reporting, keep the artists happy, make cups of tea, all that kind of stuff.

Gerald Yawulkpuy:Local artists produce ceremonial poles, mats, hollow logs, baskets and all sort of weavings, didjeridoo, bark paintings, canvas painting, jewelery.

If you want to know more, ask Yaja.

Yaja  Hardys: Hello, my name’s Yaja, I work at Bula’bula as a curator, which means I’m looking after the all the artists here I come up with ideas for different shows, I look after the artists, get in contact with galleries, I get people inspired, I get inspired myself. So it’s very, very diverse work and very exciting and I love it.

Gerald Yawulkpuy:Today, Bobby is coming to present a new painting.

Bobby: This is dancing action. Yam dance. Pigeons, dragonfly. This Bula’bula Arts Centre belongs to Yolngu.  We gotta still stand and help this because it belongs to Yolngu.

Gerald Yawulkpuy:The arts centre is very important to our community because it keeps our culture strong.

Well this is the end of my story. I hope you liked it. See you next time.

For more information on Australian Government support, go to Media and Indigenous Broadcasting Program.

Ron Poantumilui: Hello, I’m Ron. I’m your local BRACS operator here at Nguiu and I’ll show you one of my favourite buildings. I’ll show you inside so yeah, come follow me.

As you can see, this button’s for TEABBA, that’s TEABBA now on live on air. And PC, that’s my when I go on air, stands for program. So yeah, I’ll switch this button on and I’m on air.

Ron Poantumilui (On air): So yeah, good morning to all you listeners out there tuning in at 95.3FM TEABBA radio, the voice from the bush. So yeah, today I’ve got this weather, from the weather bureau.

Every morning, the shop lets me in early, before it’s open, so I can get the newspaper for the news and weather.

Ron Poantumilui (On air): So yeah, that was a request was going out to the guys down working at pottery at Natural Designs, so I hope you enjoy the music of Bob Marley, One Love, so I hope you enjoyed it. You’re listening to TEABBA radio, the voice of the bush, 95.3 FM.

Mario Munkara: It’s good to have local radio, yeah, for the community. And, you know, we can phone call you if want a request or birthday, you know or shout out, yeah.

Ron Poantumilui: No worries mate, we’ll do that.

Mark Puautjimi: Yeah, it’s good having radio here on the island, so people can listen at work, you know? Especially us mob.

Ron Poantumilui: So yeah, my show’s going around Nguiu. I was live right through across Snake Bay and Millingimbi and [inaudible]. Yeah, the transmission’s all coming in from the big tower out there, where we’re getting all the transmissions from the satellite.

(On air): So there you go, this will be the end of the show and yeah, I’ll be back here tomorrow, same time. Stay tuned. Peace. I’m out. See you next time.

Brendan Yunupingu: Today many of our people shop here for food, for medicines off the shelf, and go to the clinic if we are very sick. But back in the old days, when we lived in the bush, things were different. My people have lived off the land for 40,000 years and the bush is our natural pharmacy.

Aggie: Brown Plum – Boil Remedy: You boil the leaves for half an hour. When the leaves are soft you wrap the leaves on the boil.

Brendan: My sister Aggie learned all about bush medicines from our parents.

Aggie: I was 10 when I learned about bush medicine. When my kids get sick I use our bush medicine.

Green Plum – Tooth Ache Remedy: If you don’t like going to the dentist, use this green plum. See this white stuff, scrape it off, and put it on your tooth.

And I’m looking for all the bush medicine to find good bush medicine for our children and make all the children back to normal. Yeah, this is my father’s homeland.

Brendan Yunupingu: My little daughter Marcia has a terrible cough so Aggie was looking for this plant.

Aggie: White Flower – Cough Remedy: Crush and boil the leaves and pour them into the bath. When it’s cooled bath the baby.

Brendan: I couldn’t wait to give my little daughter Marcia a bush medicine bath. Bush medicine’s keeping the community strong. From Galiwin’ku, see you next time.

For more information on Australian Government support, see Economic Participation and Community Development Employment Projects.

Harry: Hi everyone. I’m standing in front of the Tiwi Island Shire Council building, you can see. They call that the Whitehouse. And I’m going to be taking you through the CDEP program.

Finding employment can be hard when you are living on a remote community in the Territory. CDEP helps us to develop skills and give us lots of knowledge.

Sean Phillips: The main role of CDEP is to skill up Indigenous peoples for full time or part time employment anywhere in Australia, or the world for that matter.

CDEP is Community Development Employment Program. A lot of people get an idea and diverse work experience areas to sit in and do work experience. They can do studying in any place. We can send them away to do the studying, the flexibility of how we can use the participants.

Wesley Black: G’day

Harry: How you going old man?

Wesley: I’m good, yourself?

Harry: What’s your main role here, what’d ya do?

Wesley: I’m just picking up customers from Bathurst [Island] to Melville [Island], everyday.

Harry: Everyday? So it’s 24/7 for you, ay?

Wesley: Yep

Sean Phillips: We got 80 to 90 positions in various areas such as the Shire Council which is the biggest employer, women’s centres, Community Development Programs and work experience areas.

Harry Munkara: Arnold Tipiloura is in his second year as an apprentice doing mechanics, fixing cars, outboard marines, lawn mowers, you name it.

Good, ay? It brings pride in the community for you.

Arnold Tipiloura: Yep, help the community, fix anything they want. Basically, the whole town, ‘cos the Shire Council run this place. I always wanted to be a mechanic, and I got the job and I’m just trying to keep it up.

Sean Phillips: The bad points about it is the availability of employment on remote communities and it’s limited to the 3.5 hours and it’s sort of restrictive in that sort of way in the money you can earn and the income, capacity building you can get.

Bruno Pilakui: I’m working at the office, generally cleaning around, I’m working at parks the cars.

Harry Munkara: How long you been with CDEP for?

Bruno: Ah, 20, 30 years back now.

Harry Munkara: You need more, more jobs on the island here at Wurrumiyanga and it brings a lot of aspects for the community itself, and brings pride back in the community.

 

Richard: Hi my name is Richard and I’m from Numbulwar. And this is how we spend our time. We started teaching kids to flip, and when they get older they start doing their own flips.

Leo Murrungun: When we were kids we used to do flips. We taught ourselves.

Richard: At night I like to practice dance. Music and dancing is part of our culture, future and life. And we like it.

Leo: I dance because I like to dance, you know?

Come on, let’s go to the disco…

Richard: Every Friday and Saturday night we get together and go to the disco. And rock it!

This is how Numbulwar stay fit and healthy. Yeah!

For more information on Australian Government support, go to Indigenous Services at Infrastructure Australia.

Lady on phone: … people are going to be very very angry if you don’t allow us to be able to cancel the bookings and…

Rudolph: Hey Tony, what’s going on?

Anthony Tree (Tony): Ah not much Rudolph, just getting organised for next week now. Because it was supposed to be a school holiday but now it’s not.

Rudolph:Why have the flights been canceled?

Tony: The flight was canceled because the airstrip, too much water is creating big holes in the runway and planes can’t land or take off. Not sure when it’s going to be fixed.

Man on couch: …even if I want to change it to next week I can’t get out because they are all sold out.

Rudolph: Hey Lee, what’s going on?

Lee Miller: Well, everybody is stressed out because we are supposed to have a holiday tomorrow and nobody can get out of the community to have their holidays. So we have to change the flight bookings, the airport is closed. It has been raining too much. And we don’t know when the airport is going to open. Maybe next week? Maybe the week after?

Richard Riley: Cyclone season can be difficult for locals and visitors. Flights can be canceled and no-way in or out of the communities.

Charlotte Thompson: But the most important thing that they are concerned about is that they have paid for accommodation and travel overseas. And of course it’s very complicated undoing all of that and they may lose quite a bit of money. But apart from that they are happy to work here for the next couple of weeks.

Rudolph: Isolation is a problem for us local at Numbulwar. Sometimes the only way out is by helicopter. So while the teacher may not be able to get out. Our doctor can not get in to see local patients.

The cross iron here lets the pilot know if the airstrip is closed or open. When it’s covered it is closed, and when it’s uncovered it’s open.

As you people can see, the Numbulwar airstrip is now open for everyone to get in or go out for their holidays.

The airstrip was inspected by the proper people, repaired and reopened within three days.

For more information on Australian Government support, go to Health and Ageing.

Sharon Gaykamangu: Every morning, Jessica and Albert are up early. They come to this place and spend the day helping people.

Sharon Gaykamangu (to camera)…and every day they make lots of lunches for our old people.

It’s very busy here, but everyone loves their work.

Albert: We like this job, me, George and Brian. We look after old people and wash their clothes. And that’s really important.

Sharon Gaykamangu: The kitchen prepares 26 lunches. Albert and Brian deliver them breakfast and medicine to old people.

Christine Smith – Manager: When I started up here there was a couple of aged care clients that were really, really not looked after and their health wasn’t very good, but through myself and the staff working together we’ve been helping, especially these couple of aged care people. They’re doing really well now. They’ve got some of our support.

Sharon Gaykamangu: One of those people is my grandfather, Richard Birrinbirrin, the honey man. He loves coming to the aged care centre.

Richard Birrinbirrin: I come here every morning, it’s good, and it’s great. I enjoy myself.

Sharon: But back in the kitchen, the clock is ticking and the lunches are nearly ready.

Christine Smith: We have a nutritional content.

…(people chat in kitchen while serving lunches into containers)…

Sharon Gaykamangu: When the lunches are ready, it is time for the meals on the wheels to leave.

(Van drives around and meals are delivered to people at home).

Albert: I love this job.

Sharon Gaykamangu: This is my story. See you next time from Ramingining.