Working on Country Rangers Forum

Ngarrindjeri Media - 2012 May - Calperum SA

The Change Media team spent five days at the end of April at the inaugural southern Working on Country Forum at Calperum Station just outside of Renmark, SA. The Forum was a national meeting of minds for Indigenous rangers to improve their skills and to make (or maintain) national relationships. Over 120 rangers from SA, NSW, TAS and VIC, gathered to learn about the unique challenges faced by their counterparts, with significance to traditional culture and maintaining our lands and waters.

Change Media was there to document every step of the way, from canoeing, quad bike safety, water quality monitoring, to basket weaving and digital media workshops, and you couldn’t turn a corner at Calperum Station, without seeing the roving media teams gathering pixels.
During the 5-day production the Ngarrindjeri media team trainees learned how to document a major event and take supporting roles in two hands-on training workshops.
They learned advanced skills in film narrative, interview, camera and event coverage techniques.

Change Media founders Jennifer Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell ran two 3-hour workshops during the five-day event, to demonstrate hands-on how the rangers and their organizations can use digital media and set-up small media initiatives in their communities. It became clear to the participants they can share important stories and knowledge for future generations, with some excited rangers even rallying for funding to start their own productions!

Meanwhile, the Change Media trainers and Ngarrindjeri media trainees managed the pressure of covering an event, (dozens of parallel activities you can only shoot once, noisy generators, and sand in your camera’s focus wheel, to name a few!). To increase the challenge, the team also agreed to shoot and collate footage for the Department of Sustainability media team, (including interviews, overlay and photos) to be delivered midway through the forum.

Partners

Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative

Australian Landscape Trust

Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

Indigenous Coordination Centre SA

Indigenous Cultural Support, Office for the Arts, Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport

Ngarrindjeri Land and Progress Association

Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority

Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting

Ngopamuldi Aboriginal Corporation

Working on Country Forum edit workshop

Ngarrindjeri Media 2012 May - Camp Coorong SA

Advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website and videos links contains images and voices of people who have died.

The Change Media Team ran a 4-day workshop with 6 Ngarrindjeri Working on Country and Heritage Rangers to edit the documentation of the inaugural Indigenous rangers Working on Country Forum, held in April 16-20 2012.
During the 4-day post-production workshop, the Ngarrindjeri rangers trained in how to media manage footage, create a relevant and engaging story line from multiple events and edit them into a 10-minute video. The workshop also covered basics in post production workflow.

The team also created s new peer-produced training video, that will form part of our Indigenous Media Training online resource and will be uploaded by end of May 2012 on our online training tool kit.

The edit workshop enabled the Ngarrindjeri team to use latest technology in digital video production, working with SD card HD cameras and record instant training videos about their newly learned skills.

As a result of the successful edit – the Department of Sustainability was thrilled with the documentary and wants to show it to the Minister!!! – the team is now discussing to take part in Uncle Moogy’s trip to Sydney end of May, to launch the Yuki [the bark canoe] on the Darling Harbour as part of an Indigenous water craft forum held at the Australian Maritime Museum May 30-June 1.
We are also negotiating with the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority to invest into professional equipment for the three teams in Murray Bridge, Meningie and Raukkan, to fast track the Ngarrindjeri trainees and enable them to access high-end gear on a weekly basis.

Partners

Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative

Indigenous Coordination Centre SA

Indigenous Cultural Support, Office for the Arts, Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport

Ngarrindjeri Land and Progress Association

Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority

Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting

Ngopamuldi Aboriginal Corporation

Ngopamuldi Working on Country

Ngarrindjeri Media - 2012 February - Raukkan SA

Advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website and videos links contains images and voices of people who have died.

The Change Media Team conducted a 4-day workshop with 10 Ngarrindjeri Working on Country and Heritage Rangers at Camp Coorong and in Raukkan at the Ngopamuldi Aboriginal Corporation Raukkan Depot.
During the production in Raukkan and Camp Coorong near Meningie participants learned intermediate to advanced skills in film narrative, interview, camera and editing techniques.

The project covered storytelling and camera techniques, shooting on traditional heritage locations, interview and event coverage techniques and editing. The resulting short film is a follow up on last years’ Ngarrindjeri Ruwe – Working On Country, and is available online and will be used by NRC staff to present at the inaugural Indigenous rangers conference in Renmark, April 2012, and for training, recruiting and PR. This project built on the success of the workshops in the last two years.

We have retained several young members from our first groups at Camp Coorong, Meningie, and Moogy’s Yuki in Millicent/Murray Bridge, while gaining new participants from Raukkan, Tailem Bend and Murray Bridge. All of the team have recorded their own training videos and had hands-on task during the production, including production skills ranging from organizing the shoots, securing interviews with elders and representatives, storytelling, creating digital storyboards, presenting on screen, camera and sound work, uploading and file management, to editing and music production.

Partners

Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative

Indigenous Coordination Centre SA

Indigenous Cultural Support, Office for the Arts, Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport

Ngarrindjeri Heritage Committee

Ngarrindjeri Land and Progress Association

Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority

Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting

Ngopamuldi Aboriginal Corporation

Ngarrindjeri - Working on Country

Ngarrindjeri Media 2011 June - Murray Bridge - Raukkan - Coorong SA

Advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website and videos links contains images and voices of people who have died.

The Change Media Team conducted 4x 1-day workshops with Ngarrindjeri Caring For Country and Heritage Rangers at the Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting Depot.
During the production in Murray Bridge, Raukkan and Meningie members of the Ngarrindjeri Ruwe and the Raukkan Caring for Country organizations learned skills in film narrative, interview and editing techniques.

Find the training videos the Ngarrindjeri team produced here.

The project covered storytelling and camera techniques, shooting on traditional heritage locations, interview and event coverage techniques and editing. The resulting 10min film, Ngarrindjeri Ruwe – Working On Country, is available online and will be used by NRC staff for training, recruiting and PR. This project built on the success of the workshops in the last two years.

The NRC and its Heritage Rangers employed on a long-term contract have agreed to setting up a micro business and utilizing digital media as part of their everyday work. Already their rangers and Caring For Country workers are using GPS-enabled ‘Cyber-Trackers’ to map and track sites, re-vegetation efforts and link it with traditional knowledge. Recording knowledge by interviewing their elders will form part of the essential training over the next year.

Partners

Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities

Australia Council for the Arts

Indigenous Cultural Support, Office for the Arts, Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport

Ngarrindjeri Heritage Committee

Ngarrindjeri Land and Progress Association

Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority

Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting

Ngopamuldi Aboriginal Corporation