Past Programs
Regional Australia - 2008
Up north: Gali Yalkirriwuy Gurruwiwi, Priscilla Collins and Turtle Dreaming
15/11/2008
Gali Yalkirriwuy Gurruwiwi has won the Kate Challis Award for a haunting series of morning star poles, which have deep spiritual meaning within Yolngu culture. Also in this program we hear why many people up north are disillusioned with the new Federal Government. And we present the first in a series of dreaming stories, 'The Turtle Dreaming' from Maningrida on the north coast of Arnhem Land.
- Watch Turtle Dreaming.
Ships Of The Desert
20/09/2008
Nazmeena Cummings grew up in an Afghan cameleer family in Central Australia. Her unique nomadic childhood, traveling with the Muslim cameleers, at the beginning of the twentieth century, is captured in this radio feature.
Her father, Fiad Mulladad, traveled with his extended family, delivering supplies to places beyond the train line. She describes a harsh but exotic lifestyle that revolved around the work, the camels and Muslim worship.
They managed up to 50 camels in one camel train, with the camel breeding season causing some problems. The families lived in what was called Ghantown, which was always on the edge of town. Male members of the community would go to the Mosque in Ghantown where they cooked spicy curries that were then distributed amongst the rest of the families.
She also remembers living and working with Aboriginal families, who were employed by the Afghan cameleers. Nazmeena's mother would assist at their births as the local white settlers would not assist the Aboriginal people with medical problems.
Nazmeena told her story to her grand nephew Adrian Shaw, who wrote:
"Ships of the Desert' is probably the most important radio documentary that I will ever produce because it's about my family history. It was a privilege to be able to tell this wonderful story about how the camels and Afghans helped build this country, delivering fences, wool bails and food to people in the bush"
Postcards from the road: Kintore
17/05/2008
In the first in a series of postcards from the road, we travel to the remote community of Kintore, 530 kilometres west of Alice Springs. The artist Irene Nangala talks about the effect of income management and the abolition of the permit system on the tiny desert community.
Home Sweet Home
22/03/2008
The small town of Fitzroy Crossing sits on the banks of the mighty Fitzroy River in the heart of the Kimberley.
Fitzroy Crossing is a service town to dozens of Aboriginal communities and home to the Gooniyandi, Walmatjarri, Wangkatjungka and Bunuba people.
Language, ceremony, art and Aboriginal law are still very strong in the Fitzroy Valley.
So, too, is music - especially country rock.
The most popular band in the region is Fitzroy Xpress.
This is the story of their third album, 'Home Sweet Home', which won the 2005 Deadly Award for album of the year.
Fear of a Black Planet - part 2
12/01/2008
In part two of 'Fear of a Black Planet', Tony Collins weighs up the economic prospects for a future north Australia.
While demographers predict a sharp increase in the Aboriginal population in the north over the next fifty years, economists point to a distinct lack of jobs and education in the growing black townships.
This program was first broadcast on February 10 2007
