Welcome to this edition of the North Australian Indigenous Land
and Sea Management Alliance, Dugong and Marine Turtle Project
Newsletter. The Newsletter is about sharing information on dugong
and marine turtle and sea country management. If you belong to an
Indigenous ranger group and have a story idea for the next edition,
email Joshua
Kitchens at NAILSMA.
Running initially as a trial, we hope to bring you stories and
information from NAILSMA and partners participating in the Dugong
and Marine Turtle Project every two weeks or so.
The format and content of the newsletter are open for discussion
and we welcome your feedback. Your input will help us develop a
newsletter that is interesting and meaningful to you.
The current format begins with stories generated by NAILSMA and
DMTP partners, followed by lead-paragraphs from news media outlets
that relate to turtle, dugong and Indigenous Rangers. Stories from
media outlets are automatically collected by Google and based on
keyword searches. NAILSMA DMTP offers these links as an information
service but dose not necessarily endorse them.
I hope you enjoy the first edition.
Joshua Kitchens
NAILSMA DMTP Communication and Project Support Officer.
Over 750 copies of Message Disk 2 were
distributed mid-January to Indigenous Rangers, Indigenous
orginisations, state and federal government departments,
libraries, schools and interested individuals. The pie graph
shows the distribution to each group as a percentage.
Positive comments have been received from Indigenous ranger
groups outside of the project who are very interested to see the
work of DMTP partners. Some have shown interest in contributing to
future editions.
Both government and non-government organisations have shown
great interest and requests for additional copies are not uncommon.
Fisheries NT were so impressed, they dropped by our Darwin office
to collect more copies for their staff.
The disks have had an impact internationally too. Disks have
been sent to Malaysia, USA, India, Mexico and New Zealand.
Steve Johnson reports that supplies of Message Disk at the
li-Anthawirriyarra Sea Ranger office have been quickly disappearing
and additional disks may be required soon.
Consultation with all of our DMTP groups indicates everybody in
interested in contributing to Message Disk 3. Based on your
feedback, it is likely Message Disk 3 will be produced and ready
for distribution mid-year, with content from partners required
around mid-April. Official time-lines for Message Disk 3 will be
distributed by email very soon.
A limited number of Message Disk 2 is still available. If you
would like to receive more copies, call or email Josh at NAILSMA. Your comments about message disk are
very welcome too!
Contacting the li-Anthawirriyarra Sea Rangers
over the next few days may prove difficult with the rangers
busily taking their new boat out for a test-drive... or
two!
A delegation came to Darwin earlier this month to take
possession of the boat. After many bumpy hours travelling by road
from Darwin to Borroloola, the boat finally arrived at its new
home.
A Yanyuwa community launch will take place today from 10am to
1pm in Borroloola. After a quick bite to eat, the rangers will take
li-wirdiwalangu (senior Yanyuwa people) and some younger people for
a quick spin up the river to experience their new boat.
It's an exciting time for the li-Anthawirriyarra Sea Rangers and
we wish them luck as their program continues to grow in leaps and
bounds.
We look forward to hearing stories and receiving pictures from
the rangers as they take to the water to patrol their spectacular
country.
Representatives from Torres Strait and Dhimurru
have returned from their trip to Mexico, and by all accounts
the trip was a huge success.
Kenny, Stephen and Frank from Torres Strait and Djawa from
Dhimurru returned last week with enough photos to run a slide show
for a week!
Keep an eye-out for pictures as I am sure some will end up on
our website, in Kantri Laif and in emails as the guys share their
experiences with the DMTP partners.
The Mexico trip was picked-up by a number of media outlets as a
news story and as a topic for radio programs.
ABC Darwin included an interview with delegation members in
their daily news radio bulletins on January 23. They also posted
the story on their website: "Indigenous
turtle conservationists arrive in Mexico".
The story was then picked-up by 4K1G Murri Voices host Lloyd
Wiles on the same day. Murri Voices is broadcast from 4K1G to the
Cape, Gulf Country and Torres Strait. It is broadcast nationally
through the National Indigenous Radio Service. [
Listen]
The following day, Yolngu Radio ran with the story as part of
their news bulletin. Yolngu Radio is broadcast in Yolngu language
in NHULUNBUY on FM 87.6, YILPARA on FM 88.0 and DARWIN on AM
1530.
At the conclusion of the symposium, the Torres Strait Regional
Authority in conjunction with NAILSMA prepared a press release. [
View]
The release sparked more media interest and resulted in an
interview with NAILSMA Executive Officer by 4K1G Murri Voices host
Lloyd Wiles. [
Listen]
Excerpts from the interview were used by the National Indigenous
News Service as part of their news bulletins.
ABC Cairns interviewed Rod for their 6.30, 7.30 and 8.30 am news
bulletins on February 7 (Kenny reported hearing one of them).
Island Voices radio program, ABC Cairns and Radio 4MW Torres
Strait have expressed interest in the story with a focus on the
delegates from Torres Strait and have contacted TSRA to further
develop the story.
Dhimurru are preparing a press release for their local media and
will feature pictures and stories from Djawa.
Of course the most important media event is yet to come... when
the guys' stories are published in the June edition of Kantri
Laif!
The delegation from Australia was sent to Mexico through a
partnership between the North Australian Land and Sea Management
Alliance (NAILSMA); the Torres Strait Regional Authority and
Dhimurru Land Management Aboriginal Corporation-(as part of their
Dugong and Marine Turtle Project); James Cook University and the
United States organisation, Ocean Revolution. The delegate's
attendance was made possible through funding provided by James Cook
University and The Christensen Fund.
Photo by
Kenny Bedford.
The deadline for sorties for the next edition
of Kantri Laif is April 14
2008.
Kantri Laif is a newsletter that communicates and shares
community stories, aspirations, research activities and results of
Indigenous land and sea management initiatives across northern
Australia, from Broome to Townsville and inclusive of the Torres
Strait Islands.
Stories come from Indigenous people reporting on land and sea
management activities on their own country across northern
Australia.
If you would like to share your story with Kantri Laif readers,
please submit a copy via email, fax (08 8946 6388) or post (NAILSMA, CDU, DARWIN
NT 0909).
The story must contain the following information:
- Title: A brief descriptive title which outlines the topic of
the story;
- Author: Name of author(s);
- Font: Standard (Times New Roman) font in 12pt with no
formatting;
- Length: 250-400 words;
- Photo: Please send your photo in the highest resolution
available as a JPEG. Please download a copy of the NAILSMA photo
consent form from our website or request a copy to be sent to you
and send it with any photos you wish to be included with your
story; and
- Contact Details: Please list your contact details including
organisation, phone, fax and email address.
If you would like assistance to produce a story for Kantri Life,
contact Josh or the Magazine coordinator, Samara Erlandson.
The NAILSMA Turtle and Dugong Project is funded by the Natural Heritage Trust.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
To make a comment, email Joshua
Kitchens.
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