19 December 2009: The Ngarrindjeri Media Centre – A Cultural Community Development Success Story
PROCESS: The Ngarrindjeri community at Camp Coorong are keen to set up a media group to promote intergenerational transmission of knowledge and skills, record their Elders stories, create powerful films & get important messages out to the public. During a 4-day training Hero Project workshop they brainstormed ideas, scripted, storyboarded, shot and edited their first film about the water crisis.
This project was supported through the Indigenous Cultural Support Grant, DEWHA, the Australia Council for the Arts Community Partnerships, Arts SA Partnership for Healthy Communities and Apple Australia.
OUTCOME: NUKKAN KUNGUN YUNNAN – Ngarrindjeri’s Being Heard is a powerful 22-minute documentary presenting the real impact the water crisis is having on the Coorong and its Indigenous people. Driven by Ngarrindjeri youth it examines the effects on Ngarrindjeri culture as well as the damage for all Australians. The question is, what will we do to change it?
AWARDS: On Nov 16th, Ngarrindjeri elder and community leader Tom Trevorrow was awarded the Special MyHero Award at the International MyHero Film Festival in Los Angeles, USA. The film he appears in was produced during a 4-day Hero Project workshop with the newly formed Ngarrindjeri Youth Media Team. Nukkan.Kungun.Yunnan, won 2nd place in the International MyHero Film Festival’s community film category, selected from hundreds of entries from around the world.
IMPACT: The Ngarrindjeri team has already presented the film at dozens of conferences and screenings, including the International Women’s Peace Conference in Sydney [Sep 09]. It will screen during Diane Bell’s keynote address to the Community Broadcasters Association Australia conference [Nov 09]. OXFAM Australia is using the film for their national climate change campaign. National Indigenous TV has expressed interest to broadcast the film in 2010. Radio ABC ‘Away’ will produce a 50min show about the film, the team and the issues.
LONG TERM AIM: Over the next three years the Hero Project will work with the Ngarrindjeri community to create a Media Team of producers and trainers using the Hero Project training model. They will make a series of high quality, high impact films for broadcast, while learning all the skills needed to produce their own media AND produce tips and tricks for other communities to set up their own media centre.