Aboriginal Media Project

The Aboriginal Media Project is based on a strategy that involves using face-to-face dialogue to find cultural bridges, which are then shared through media such as printed materials, radio, television, and a website.

Specifically, accompanied by PPP's Programme Officer, 3 journalists working in Canada's Aboriginal media traveled first to Fiji and then to Vanuatu for a 2-week exposure tour. Here are 2 examples of their experiences:

• In Suva, Fiji, the team met with a number of civil society organisations, local activists, and young people to discuss common issues and concerns. For instance, the journalists visited a sanctuary and shelter for homeless boys, most of whom have migrated to Suva from the outlying rural areas of Fiji with the hope of earning money for their families. As depicted in the television documentary created later by one of the participating journalists, the hostel offers these young people employment skills, emotional support, and solidarity - in much the same way as do youth organisations such as the Urban Native Youth Association (Vancouver).
• At Vanuatu's Wan Smolbag Theatre, actors met with the journalists to discuss the importance of different types of media (including theatre) as a means of public education and advocacy.

The PPP website is one means of sharing the journalists' stories and creations with a global audience. A diary of the trip is included there, as are downloadable materials such as a series of story illustrations called "Red Flags Red Skin" that one of the journalists created after speaking with 50 Fijian gold miners who have been on strike since 1991. Though published in Canada's Independent Labour Magazine, the PPP website enables peoples of the South Pacific, Canadians, and all others to access these and other materials created to reflect on the tour.

Upon returning to Canada, 2 of the trip's participants reflected on their experiences in 2 public forums in Cowichan territory (Duncan) and Victoria, BC. These forums were designed to provide an opportunity for the Canadian public to ask questions, share their own insights, and create deeper links between their own communities and those of the Pacific. Another participant visited high schools to speak with students about the trip and to share the film he had created.

Cultural Understanding, Youth, Women, Gender, Agriculture, Environment, Poverty, Globalisation, Rights.

PPP is an international development organisation working since 1975 to develop national educational and policy advocacy programmes that enhance Canadians' capacity to support the aspirations of peoples of the South Pacific for peace, security, justice, and environmental sustainability.