Radio in many rural aboriginal areas has the capacity to simultaneously create communities whilst also reflecting them. It is because of its interactive qualities, the ability to both inform and connect, that radio may facilitate the creation of a unified sense of community and self-empowerment. This media form is reflexive, constantly evolving and changing in terms of the unstable cultural identities of the communities it is embedded within. Indigenous communities, I would argue, are unique that they are constantly working to affirm a sense of identity due to their turbulent colonial past, while also dealing with current social and economic issues. This is indeed evident in the indigenous communities of Northern Australia, as well as in Fort McPherson in Northern Canada, each community has its own cultural nuances and struggles, however they express a common interest in wanting to instill a sense of cohesion and identity despite the obstacles they face. Radio for them has becomes a means to connect, reflect and create.
In Northern Australia radio acts to celebrate kinship connections, facilitating dialogue and interactions among communities in disparate areas of Northern Australia. Here members of the aboriginal community actively engage with the media type by calling in, requesting songs for family and sending messages to loved ones, many of whom are incarcerated. Here media acts as a means to cope with the complexities of modern post colonial Australia, and negate the fissure points that have arisen in families due to their vast geographical distances. Radio in northern Australia is as much about spinning records as “linking up” and looking after kin (Fisher 2009:288). Here radio reflects the community’s desire to emphasize the importance of kinship connections something that has deep historical cultural relevance, it is used in a modern way to address the disjuncture and isolation that many aborigines may feel. However it also creates a community of listeners a community of individuals concerned about their kin who want to reach them in a meaningful and sentimental way. It is unique in the way that country music, and aborigines music is mixed with the radio dialogue itself. Further, on certain programs the radio has more of a representational aims, and works to foreground the folly racist discourse and to counter “mainstream” representation of Indigenous communities (Fisher 2009: 289). Here radio is both celebrating the deep seated cultural importance of kinship connections, while kinship itself comes to typify the kinds of immediacy, intimacy and connection that radio enables (Fisher 2009: 282). It emphasizes kinship and becomes a cultural resource for the normative evaluation of Aboriginal personhood and identity.
In Northern Canada in Fort McPherson, a small hamlet with population of approximately 900, more than 80 per cent of the population is of Gwich'in aboriginal descent. In Dennis Allens documentary of the CBQM radio station he too reveals that this community deals with their own unique issues, such as being a relatively isolated community with little sun, having very cold winters, and they are also struggling to keep aspects of their culture alive. Here radio allows for the perpetuation of historical cultural ideals such as traditional language, reverence for the elderly, and story telling session. For instance DJ Neil Collins provides weather reports and stories to elders in their native tongue. Further, the radio also acts as a means to create a community of listeners, concerned about their community as reflected through the police news reports and call ins. There are also new activities facilitated through the media form such as bingo and religious readings.
On one hand both of the radio stations in these northern communities acts to relfects ideals and values back to the people themselves such as respecting elders, and using their own unique ingenious dialects. However, this media form is also novel in the sense that it creates a new sense of a community, one that works reflexively to deal with complexities of establishing identity, maintaining cohesion and advocacy.
On one hand both of the radio stations in these northern communities acts to relfects ideals and values back to the people themselves such as respecting elders, and using their own unique ingenious dialects. However, this media form is also novel in the sense that it creates a new sense of a community, one that works reflexively to deal with complexities of establishing identity, maintaining cohesion and advocacy.
2010 CBQM National Film Board of Canada
Fisher, Daniel
2009 Mediating Kinship: Country, Family, and Radio in Northern Australia.
Cultural Anthropology 24(2): 280-312.
No comments:
Post a Comment