Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association
The Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association is an organisation founded in 1980 to expose Aboriginal music and culture to the rest of Australia. It started with 8KIN-FM, the first Aboriginal radio station in the country. Based in Alice Springs, the organisation is particularly focused on the involvement of the local Indigenous community in its production. CAAMA is involved in radio, television and recorded music.
History
Radio
In 1980, CAAMA originally established itself as a public radio station by two Aboriginal people and one "whitefella": Freda Glynn, Phillip Batty, and John Macumba. 8KIN-FM was the first Aboriginal radio station.The success of the station quickly grew, leading its content to extend into music, call-ins, discussion, and news and current affairs. Broadcasts were made in six different languages, alongside English, and operated about 15 hours every day. Later expansions saw the station move into AM and short-wave broadcasts with educational programmes, live recordings of Aboriginal bands, and commercials for local Aboriginal products and services. One of its popular programs was Green Bush, which played music on request from prisoners, and broadcast to remote communities, also acting as a kind of bulletin board or open telephone line among listeners. Filmmaker Warwick Thornton worked as a DJ on the programme as a teenager.
Video unit
In 1983, CAAMA established a mobile video unit, which travelled to remote communities, "documenting vanishing worlds in real time". Thorton worked with the unit as a camera trainee, working alongside sound recordist David Tranter and filmmaker Rachel Perkins.Imparja Television
CAAMA obtained its Regional Commercial Television Services licence in 1986 after concern was raised that Australia's first satellite, which was set to bring commercial television to regional and remote sections of Australia, would have a detrimental impact on Aboriginal languages and cultures in Central Australia. CAAMA made a bid to obtain the licence being offered in 1985 via the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal Central Zone RCTS licence hearings process. CAAMA's bid was a symbolic act that was then taken seriously, as “the tribunal provided the arena for the articulation of national media policies at least nominally in support of the concerns of remote-living Aboriginal people”. In January 1988, the private commercial television station owned by CAAMA, Imparja, began broadcasting, servicing at least 100,000 viewers in Central Australia.Imparja had contributed to a visible increase of Aboriginal identity in the Australian media landscape. The station was crucial in developing content which attempted to maintain and sustain Aboriginal culture. One example included Nganampa-Anwernekenbe, the first entirely Indigenous language television programme, sub-titled in English and produced in Australia, which reflected Aboriginal culture through storytelling and unique performing and visual arts content. There were also cleanliness and anti-alcohol community service advertisements which aimed to promote a healthier lifestyle in a culturally appropriate and effective manner. A series of films independently created films about, or created by, Aboriginal people were created in 1991.
During the first few years of Imparja, CAAMA faced growing concerns from media activists that commercial programming would consume local content. Other concerns were raised of the lack of Aboriginal presence in Imparja's programming that, although Imparja was the largest television enterprise owned by Aboriginal people in Australia, only 10% its staff were Aboriginal ; that some broadcasts reflected a lack of sufficient Aboriginal programming content; and others raised issues of broadcast quality. American anthropologist Faye Ginsburg suggested in 1993 that the establishment of CAAMA and the spread of communications technology could threaten the relationship between generations and the respect for traditional knowledge.
However, the importance of CAAMA's multimedia-based approach has ensured that Aboriginal media is an important part of the Australian media landscape, and to the social, cultural, and economic development of Aboriginal people in remote parts of Australia, as seen by CAAMA's recent employment policies. Faye Ginsburg wrote in 1994:
21st century
In 2005 CAAMA submitted a report to the Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs’ inquiry into Indigenous employment. The report outlined several ways government leaders could access future policy in regards to Indigenous employment, using CAAMA as a case study. Some key issues CAAMA raised included: skills training; funding; recruitment; increase in Indigenous population; youth employment; strengthening links between education and training; establish and sustain networks between the private and public sectors, alongside the community; and collaborate with pre-existing organisations in training Aboriginal people.The second section of the report outlined how CAAMA had contributed to the training and employment of Aboriginal people in Central Australia. In their 25 years of operations up until then, CAAMA had had an active "Aboriginalisation policy", which meaning that 65% of employees were Aboriginal. CAAMA had also assisted in the education of over 100 Indigenous people, of whom a majority of their trainees were part of the Major Indigenous Employment Strategy. CAAMA suggested that their success has been afforded by the commitment of government; implementation of the Major Indigenous Employment Strategy; an understanding of social, cultural, and economic issues impacting Aboriginal people; and their flexible learning environment.
In 2009 CAAMA developed a business plan to identity ways to enhance their viability and sustainability with less reliance on government funding, and to increase new opportunities in New Media products and other related services and products.
In March 2020 CAAMA was put under special administration, after its debt level reached $2.7 million. In August 2021 the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations expected the organisation to be released from this administration and a new board appointed soon, after its stations, now operating seven communities, were up and running and making a profit again. CAAMA did, however, still owe $60,000 to the Australian Taxation Office and $850,000 to its major source of funding, the National Indigenous Australians Agency.
, CAAMA continues to operate.
Services
CAAMA Radio
Established as 8KIN-FM in 1980–81, this was the first Aboriginal radio station in the country.CAAMA Radio provides twenty-four hours Indigenous radio programming to over 600,000 people in Australia. It is the largest Aboriginal media organisation in the country since 1981, with the second largest audience reach in Australia. CAAMA broadcast through 12 Remote Aboriginal Communities Services and a mobile outside broadcasting truck, providing radio to several remote Aboriginal communities in over 30 different languages, including Papunya, Ntaria, Ltyentye Apurte, and Areyonga.