Connecting communities: Indigenous radio

Indigenous radio stations keep communities connected, says Sylvia Tabua, Thursday Island’s Radio 4MW senior broadcaster.

With an Australian Government Closing the Gap scholarship, Sylvia recently attended the National Remote Indigenous Media Festival in Ntaria (Hermannsburg) with close to 200 other people from media organisations around the country.

Sylvia hosts the breakfast program on 4MW. The station broadcasts across the Torres Strait in the four primary local languages – Torres Strait Creole, Australian English, Kalaw Legaw Ya and Meriam Mir.

Sylvia says Indigenous radio provides audiences with news and opinion and programs in language as well as giving bands and artists from across Australia a chance to be heard.

It’s also how communities can share their culture, stories and music with the rest of the world.

Sylvia gets to travel with her job and experience what life is like in other communities around Australia but she said she always remains a salt water girl from the Torres Strait.

“The sea, the beautiful blue sea, the sandy beaches, it’s relaxed, it’s laid back. Thursday Island itself has a population of about three and a half thousand people. We are actually on Aboriginal land and that’s the Kaureg Nation that are the traditional owners,” Sylvia said.

“When you talk about the Torres Strait, you have to actually go out to the outer islands, north up to PNG where you have the central, eastern and top western islands of the Torres Strait. Each island is different; you have your muddy islands, your coral cay islands, your mountainous islands.

“When you grow up near the sea, it’s very therapeutic, the climate is nice; it’s like summer all year round.”

Sylvia was a DJ at high school and enjoyed talking about and playing music. After leaving school she hung out with a friend who was working at the radio station on Thursday Island.

After doing some voluntary work, Sylvia fell in love with radio and was offered a traineeship at Radio Torres Strait in 1989.

“I enjoy the media because you not only get to tell the stories, positive stories about our people, but also share the history and create awareness for non-Indigenous people and the wider Australian community about who we really are and the issues that we face up here on the islands,” Sylvia said.

“The younger generation, yes they have got technology at their fingertips but we still have a lot of elders in our community and the information that we give to them, the elders have been very appreciative because, you know, they say ‘we know what’s happening around our community, we know what events are on and who’s visiting’.

“When government has changes in different policies we tend to think that because we live in an isolated region that these changes don’t affect us but it’s been really good because we have been able to keep our people informed and up to date with a lot of issues that affect people in our region.”

Sylvia believes that a priority for the ongoing success of Radio 4MW is getting young kids involved in the media.

“I am looking at ways to get more children involved, like actually going into the schools, both the primary school and the high school,” Sylvia said.

“I think now it’s an area for younger people because of the technology.

“I just have to look at ways of really engaging them and exposing them to media whether it will be radio, television or digital media.”