This facet of the symposium is particularly timely. Over the last six months David Nathan of AIATSIS (1996 pers. comm.) has noted an acceleration in the up-take of electronic media by Aboriginal people in remote communities. Moreover, he points to ways in which Aboriginal people are, in fact, leaders and innovators in the use of information technology. For instance, the World Wide Web site established recently at Maningrida is used to sell Aboriginal art to an international market (http://www.peg.apc.org/~bawinanga, August 1996). Thus, information technology can provide indigenous people with new opportunities to develop viable futures that are based upon their own cultural conceptualisations and needs.
This is part of a general development in which Aboriginal people from remote communities are identifying as an active and potent part of an interconnected world. For example, Figure 6 in Tunstill et al. (1995:46) shows how a senior Pitjantjatjara man, Mungie, depicts 'the widespread impact that the Dreaming can have in all directions, inside and beyond Australia ... it is now important for the whole world'.
The possibilities are extraordinary. The Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Australia (Horton 1994), for instance, demonstrates the tremendous potential of CD-ROM to represent the multi-faceted nature of indigenous society. The broad socio-political implications encompass issues of identity and community; ethics; indigenous-only networks; the democratisation of authorship; differing cultural approaches to use of the same technology; and the creative use of new media to further indigenous interests.
The focus will be not only on indigenous peoples as passive recipients of this technology - or even as active participants - but also on ways in which they are in the vanguard. Information technologies have an ideal potential to create a global, egalitarian community based on an increased understanding and acceptance of cultural differences. However, there are areas of potentially serious conflict that need to be addressed. For example, what are the implications of these new ways of knowing on indigenous systems of knowledge/authority?
In the 'traditional' manner, one waited until knowledge was given. In the information age, one actively 'searches' for knowledge. Other crucial issues relate to access/equity and the effect of differential representation on traditional social relations. A related issue concerns the nexus between indigenous people and various forms of media. As Jennings (1993: 9) points out, the media represent things on the basis of material practices, rather than simply reflecting or mediating reality.
Questions arise regarding the manner in which indigenous people are portrayed in various forms of media, changing approaches to the presentation of indigenous issues in the print and electronic media (see, for example, Waterford 1993) and indigenous concerns with and use of media and multimedia technologies. This is inextricably tied to notions of identity. Langton (1993:81) comments 'that 'Aboriginality' arises from the experience of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people who engage in any sort of inter-cultural dialogue ... 'Aboriginality' [in film] is remade over and over again in a process of dialogue, imagination, representation and interpretation.' This observation is equally applicable to representations in other forms of media.
References
Horton, D. 1994 (general editor) The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Jennings, K. 1993 Sites of Difference. Cinematic Representations of Aboriginality and Gender. Special edition of The Moving Image, No. 1. Melbourne: Australian Film Institute.
Langton, M. 1993 'Well, I Heard it on the Radio and I Saw it on the Television ...' Sydney: Australian Film Commission.
Tunstill, G., C. Ellis and M. Ellis 1995 Field Trip to Iwantja and Mimili, 23 April-1 May 1993. Australian Aboriginal Studies 1, 40-46.
Waterford, C. 1993 The Portrayal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the Media. In Edited Transcript of Proceedings of The Media and Indigenous Australians Conference, 44-51. Held at Parkroyal Hotel, Brisbane 16 and 17 February 1993.
Photos by Claire Smith .