[New-imc] ARAFURA IMC (initial form)

[Jay]

Hi newimc,

The below came in for the Arafura IMC in Australia.  I haven't seen it on 
this list -- gary may have been posting it when the docs server was down a 
couple weeks ago.  Anyway, here it is, take a look.  We're working to find 
folks in the Sydney collective to co-sponsor and I'll communicate with them 
about the next steps in the new-imc process.

For those of you following along, this is an IMC in the area where the 
Darwin IMC existed, and has since had lots of problems (detailed 
extensively in posts to this list).  We're going to make an effort to have 
this new-imc application come with the support of other IMCs in Australia 
and the ocenia network in general so we can all be sure it has broad support.

thanks,

Jay

***
Proposed IMC name: Arafura IMC

Proposed indymedia url: http://arafura.indymedia.org

Current url: nil at this stage

City: Darwin and environs

State/Province: Northern Territory

Country: Australia

Contact name: Robert Fyffe

Email: fyffe_robert at yahoo.com.au

Phone: +61406198704

Technical Contact Name: Gary Meyerhoff

Email: garywmeyerhoff at gmail.com

Phone: +61434393008

Issue Focus: Yes

Supporting groups:

Network Against Prohibition NT (NAPNT)
Darwin Anarchists
Individual human rights activists
Sydney Indymedia

Please write an introductory statement about why you want to
participate in the Indymedia Network.

Darwin and our region needs its own real indymedia website just like
anywhere else.
We can't expect the corporate and government media to give us a fair
go.  We need a grass roots, independent activist medium to tell OUR
side of the story.

Darwin is known as the capital of Australia's Northern Territory, the
gateway to south east Asia and the gateway to northern Australia
(depending on which way you're going!)  The reality is that it's still
a big country town on the remote north coast.  Even today we feel
isolated from southern Australia and the rest of the world.

Racism is a major issue in Darwin, with 29% of the Northern
Territory's population being indigenous.  Race relations have gone
backward in the last 10 years under the Howard regime.  For instance,
indigenous Territorians make up 80 or 90% of the NT prison population.
  These are the people who've been copping it worst under the present
system.

Now more than ever we are under assault from capitalism, racism,
militarism and the War on Drugs, while the climate is changing and
ecosystems are dying off around us.  In the face of all this most
people are unable or unwilling to do anything to tackle the problems.
Apathy and cynicism reign.  Just moaning and grumbling won't change
things.  Neither will merely hoping for the best.  We need to take
action and work out solutions.

An independent media website is a useful tool to help people find out
what's really going on, so that we can get more organised and fight
for a better world, while linking up with people elsewhere.

The Arafura Sea is a shallow arm of the Pacific Ocean overlying the
continental shelf between Australia and New Guinea. It is bordered by
the Coral Sea to the east, the Timor Sea to the west and the Gulf of
Carpentaria to the south.

Stuart Highway

What kind of resources can you contribute, in terms of
server/bandwidth/technical and organizing skills?

At this stage we have no site but we do have a commitment from someone
who has agreed to offer us server space. We are talking to a techie
who is familiar with Drupal. Some of our collective members have
extensive experience in the community sector.

What kind of outreach have you done to bring together a diverse group of 
people?

Once the site is up and running we intend to promote Arafura Indymedia
using a variety of means including stickers and fliers and we also
intend to make contact with various remote indigenous communities and
introduce them to the concept of indymedia and hopefully see more
indymedias set up across Australia but particularly in our remote
Indigenous communities.

How does the makeup of your collective reflect the diversity of the
local community (e.g. in realtion to gender-, sexual-, spiritual-,
and/or cultural-identity)?

We have a small but diverse collective including men and women, people
with disabilities (including HIV and Hepatitis C), heterosexual and
non-identifying people. Half of the collective are students at the
local university. The collective also includes ex-prisoners. At this
stage we have no indigenous members in the collective however this is
a major priority for the collective and we believe this will be easier
when we have the site online and we can promote it as a resource.

If your group currently does not represent the diversity of the local
community, particularly in relation to groups who are underrepresented
in mainstream society and denied access to vehicles of expression,
what steps will be taken to address this on an ongoing basis?

Some of our collective members have extensive networks with people
from diverse backgrounds including indigenous people. The collective
intend to promote indymedia through these networks to ensure
diversity. At least one of our collective members is bi-lingual and
fluent in Tetun, Bahasa Indonesia and other languages.

What steps will be taken to involve individuals in workfields new to
them? What measures will be taken to overcome a gendered work
division?

It is hoped that those collective members with skills and expertise
will share that with others, maybe through workshops that follow our
monthly collective meetings.

Most of our collective members have anarchist leanings, however, we
recognise that this may change. We will use email lists and collective
meetings for discussion and we will endeavour to monitor our working
relationships to make sure a gendered work division doesn't work its
way into our way of working.