December 2011 - Issue #14
Cultural divide finds digital bridge
Story by Melissa Marino
View articles in related topics: Computing, Social Inclusion, Industry Collaboration
Key points
- A massive digital divide exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous homes in Australia.
- A Swinburne-partnered project that involves a rollout of internet-enabled computers to remote Indigenous communities seeks to bridge this gap.
- Training and appropriate access schemes are keys to increasing internet uptake in remote Indigenous communities.
The internet is credited with bringing the world closer together, which means those without access are left on the other side of a widening social, technical and knowledge divide. Nowhere is this more evident than in Australia’s remote Indigenous communities.
This was illustrated starkly in the 2006 census. In communities in central Australia outside Alice Springs, just 2.2 per cent of Indigenous homes had an internet connection, compared with 57 per cent of non-Indigenous homes.
It was a statistic that resonated with Swinburne Associate Professor Ellie Rennie and provided a catalyst for a research project to find an effective way to address this gap.
“Remote Indigenous communities need the internet more than anybody in terms of their lack of access to services, banks, shops and even just being able to talk to a family member in the next community,” says The Swinburne Institute for Social Research deputy director.
“It’s very difficult when you’ve got one public phone that often doesn’t work and rely on word of mouth or driving long distances for information.”
Associate Professor Rennie embarked on the Home Internet for Remote Indigenous Communities project with the Central Land Council (CLC) and the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT) when CAT’s Andrew Crouch came looking for partners in 2009.
Working as an engineer with the Alice Springs-based CAT, where he provides a range of technical services to Indigenous communities, Mr Crouch has seen plenty of evidence of the digital gulf between Indigenous and non-Indigenous homes.
He says the joint project provides the opportunity to bridge the digital divide, and a solid research platform from which to launch future studies and policy.
Setting the scene
The team’s first step was to gather baseline data to determine the basic barriers and needs relevant to home internet use.
Funded by peak consumer communications group the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), the researchers interviewed 48 residents from Kwale Kwale, Imangara and Mungalawurru – outstations of fewer than 100 people, typical of many communities throughout central Australia.
While internet connection is available in remote regions via a subsidised satellite scheme, these Indigenous communities had not accessed the scheme.
One of the key reasons for the low uptake was lack of knowledge about the internet. “Affordability was a significant factor, but I think the bigger reason is that 60 per cent of people had never even used the internet,” Associate Professor Rennie says. “They had no idea how to get it and even if they did know, organising a connection is difficult with just one public phone that works some of the time.”
While the communities lack basic infrastructure, the fact that internet uptake rates among non-Indigenous households in the same region are at least 25 times higher indicates there are other barriers to home usage.
Associate Professor Rennie says those barriers are a complex set of interrelated issues, exacerbated by isolation: affordability, English literacy, lack of support, training and maintenance, and concerns over security and billing stemming from cultural issues such as transient households and demand-sharing (when a person is obliged to share their belongings).
Therefore, she says, better infrastructure alone will not improve the situation – a conclusion reflected in the project’s recently published phase one report, which recommends a new broadband assistance program providing training and maintenance support. To overcome billing and cost concerns, it recommends wi-fi networks be established and billed to the community, rather than at individual household level.
Roll up for rollout
The team’s findings were used to set the parameters of the next phase of the project: delivery of internet-enabled computers to the communities, funded by the Aboriginals Benefit Account (ABA). Households opted in for this process. Wi-fi connections to central satellites and a community-based account are now in place, along with desktop computers equipped with a lockable case for security and to protect against dust.
Mr Crouch is overseeing the rollout and provides maintenance and training; for example, in the use of email and Skype. These modes of communicating with contacts – including providers of essential services and family members in hospital or boarding school – are far superior to, and cheaper than, what many residents have ever experienced.
It is satisfying, Mr Crouch says, to see the research have an impact on the ground and on people’s lives. “If phase two didn’t exist and people didn’t have the opportunity to be exposed to home internet, the study would be fairly hollow,” he says. “It gives us the opportunity to learn while at the same time giving people some real benefits.”
Going online: the impact
With internet-enabled computers rolled out and baseline data reported, the Home Internet for Remote Indigenous Communities project’s third phase has begun.
Funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant, and partnered by The Swinburne Institute for Social Research, CAT, CLC and ACCAN, the longitudinal study will measure the impact of the home internet rollout and surrounding issues. This includes whether broadband can help resolve critical social needs through access to services and social connectivity.
It will not only help develop a rigorous framework of research data on the issue, but also provide a blueprint for the best practical broadband implementation strategy for remote Indigenous communities.
Associate Professor Rennie says the project has a good chance of its recommendations finding their way into policy.
This is largely because representatives from the Federal Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and from the Indigenous Remote Communications Association are on the reference committee. “What I like about this project more than anything is that it has real potential to make change,” she says.
Already, the 2011 rollout is having an impact, Mr Crouch says. Women have taken up the technology with the most enthusiasm. Google Earth, iTunes and YouTube are among the most popular sites. People are asking how they can conduct their business activity around art and cattle enterprises by computer, a car has been bought online and family members contacted.
Training includes familiarising residents with the benefits of regularly checking online for day-to-day information such as weather or – importantly – road conditions.
While they are not habits yet, Associate Professor Rennie says these sources of information will become more valuable. “I would imagine life could be quite different out there by the time the project concludes late in 2014,” she says.
