CELEBRATING 30 YEARS

1982 Commonwealth Games
When it was announced that the 1982 Commonwealth Games were to be hosted by Brisbane, Aboriginal people became very concerned and organised a protest committee to co-ordinate activities to do with highlighting our situation in Queensland and Australia to the rest of the world.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Acts
At that time the racist and degrading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Acts were still in force in Queensland and Aboriginal people understood how Jewish people must have felt when Hitler hosted the 36 Munich Olympics.

Mainstream media – Racist Reactions
The mainstream media of the day reflected the hysterical and racist reactions of the Queensland Government to Aboriginal indignation and intentions of peaceful protest.

Indigenous Radio
The 20 month time gap between the last two editions of Black Nation was filled with the development of another form of Indigenous media – radio broadcasting.

This was influenced by activities of Tiga Bayles who followed his mother’s lead in beginning Koori broadcasting in inner Sydney and the persistent encouragement of a non-Indigenous broadcaster at radio 4ZZZ, the first public broadcasters in Queensland who were then based at the University of Queensland.

The realisation that mainstream media has different priorities and (mainly private) ownership forced us to look at our own media needs. Discussions were begun with 4ZZZ and training in radio production occurred during the first half of 1984.In July 1984, the Brisbane Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agency undertook to sponsor and develop the 4ZZZ radio project. They appointed a Community Development Officer and two trainees. Thus Murri hour began. Murri Hour was initiated by Gungalu and Birri Gubba frontline activist and coordinator of the Black Protest Committee, Ross Watson. Murri Hour aired on 4ZZZ from 1984–1993. For the initial 12 months, all programs were pre-recorded and had a maximum duration of 1 hour.
After the first month of Murri Hour (a total time of less than 3 hours because the group were not practiced enough to record the full hour for the initial few months) a total of over 30 different Murri voices were heard on the program.

For the first time, Brisbane blacks were able to hear Murri voices, Murri perspectives on issues affecting us and Murri music on the airwaves. Many people in the community used to record Murri Hour (broadcast on Saturday mornings) on their radio/cassette players, so that each program was played over and over all round our community.

Requests, birthday calls and other community announcements flooded in to the program from Murris all around Brisbane and from prisons where our people were suddenly able to exchange cheerio messages with families and loved ones.
The instantaneous effect of the spoken word on radio as opposed to the longer preparation and feedback time for printed media put Murris in tune with our oral traditions thus the long delay before the final Black Nation was printed.
After 12 months of Murri Hour, the hours were increased to a total 8 hours per week, broadcast live.

The Backbone of Murri Radio
Glenice Croft (nee Barney) and her daughters, Michelle, Erin and Janine and sons Shane and Matthew were part of Murri Hour, (and the Black Women’s Film Group) from 1984 until 1991, by which time the Triple A licence had been achieved, and they must be acknowledged as the back bone of Murri Radio throughout those years.

Late in 1986 an Expression of Interest form for the acquisition of a Special Interest broadcast licence was prepared and submitted to the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal (ABT). The completion of this form required the Murri Hour group to become an incorporated body. This process was assisted by the Caxton St Legal Centre and was eventually achieved in early 1988. There was no response to our “Expression of Interest” form. It merely registered our interest to the ABT.

Murriimage
The Black Women’s film group did not achieve funding and it eventually re-formed as Murriimage and initially was incorporated with Murri Hour group as the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association (BIMA).

Incorporation
However, because of separate submissions and DAA funding restrictions, it soon became necessary for Murriimage to incorporate under their own banner. Murri Hour group shared offices and activities with Murriimage for years.

Murri News
Murri Hour group produced about a dozen copies of Murri News, a weekly black newsletter that was distributed around the Murri community during 1986/7.